Balanced Social Values Plus Fund (BSVPF)
Type of Fund: Diversified multiple-asset-class fund with significant attention to social issues
Objective: To attain current income and capital appreciation by investing in a broad mix of different types of investments with added emphasis on the socially responsible investing objectives of The United Methodist Church.
Who Should Invest:
- Investors with a relatively long time horizon who seek long-term investment growth and income from exposure to a diversified portfolio comprised of stocks, bonds, and cash instruments.
- Investors who are willing to experience fluctuations in the value of the fund, though not as much as from holding a fund comprised exclusively of common stocks.
- Investors who do not want any exposure to military contractors or direct obligations of the U.S. government or who would like to more actively support socially responsible investing through the investment in affordable housing mortgages.
Investments: The investment portfolio consists of U.S. stocks, U.S. agency bonds, corporate bonds, mortgage-backed securities, asset-backed securities, cash equivalents and bonds used to fund affordable housing mortgages.
Management: Northern Trust Global Investments (NTGI) manages the equity portion of the fund in an index fund based on the Domini 400 Social Index (SM). The Domini 400 is composed of 400 U.S. corporations that pass multiple, broad-based social screens, including both exclusionary screens and positive screens. The exclusionary screens align with the social screens of The United Methodist Church. The positive screens seek to identify companies with positive records in environment, diversity, employee relations, human rights, product quality, and safety. The General Board manages the fixed-income portion of the portfolio through its investments in affordable housing.
Strategy: The Balanced Social Values Plus Fund is a balanced fund whose investment objective is to maximize long-term investment returns while reducing short-term risk through the use of diversification. The Fund, which has an actively managed fixed income component and an indexed equity component, is designed to outperform a mix of commonly recognized indices which represent the performance of the U.S. stock and bond markets.
The fund also takes an active social position by investing in bonds backed by affordable housing developments. These investments seek to attain a market rate of return commensurate with risk while helping to provide shelter to low- and moderate-income individuals and families.
There are restrictions on direct obligations of the U.S. Government and investment in the top 100 military weapons contractors is prohibited.
Performance Benchmark, effective 10/1/2007:
60% Domini 400 Social Index (SM)
30% Barclays Capital Mortgaged Backed Securities Index
10% Merrill Lynch 90-day Treasury Bill Index.
Performance Benchmark through 9/30/07:
60% Russell 3000 Index
30% Barclays Capital Mortgaged Backed Securities Index
10% Merrill Lynch 90-day Treasury Bill Index
Performance Objective: To produce a return that, on average, exceeds that of the performance benchmark by 1% on average per year over a market cycle (three to five years).
For more detailed information regarding the Balanced Social Values Plus Fund, please see the Investment Funds Description.
Fund Performance
Fund Market Value (as of 9/30/09): $37,022,609.
Annual Performance at Year End, Net of Fees
|
Balanced Social
Values Plus |
Blended
Benchmark |
| 2008 |
-20.3% |
-20.1% |
| 2007 |
7.3% |
5.9% |
| 2006 |
6.4% |
11.4% |
| 2005 |
4.8% |
4.8% |
| 2004 |
4.6% |
8.7% |
| 2003 |
25.9% |
17.8% |
| 2002 |
-16.8% |
-10.4% |
| 2001 |
-6.7% |
-4.1% |
| 2000 |
-2.9% |
-1.4% |
| 1999 |
8.6% |
12.2% |
| 1998 |
23.2% |
20.9% |
Compounded Annual Performance, Net of Fees (periods ending 9/30/09):
|
Balanced Social
Values Plus |
Blended
Benchmark |
| QTR |
10.2% |
10.2% |
| YTD |
15.6% |
15.3% |
| 1 Yr. |
1.4% |
1.5% |
| 2 Yrs. |
-4.4% |
-4.4% |
| 3 Yrs. |
0.9% |
0.8% |
| 5 Yrs. |
3.1% |
3.9% |
| 7 Yrs. |
6.1% |
6.4% |
| 10 Yrs. |
1.5% |
2.9% |
| Inception |
3.3% |
4.4% |
All returns for the Balanced Social Values Plus Fund are net of all fees and expenses which include all investment management fees, operating expenses and bank custodial fees. The fund inception was January 1, 1998.
Fund Characteristics
| |
BSVP Fund |
Domini 400 |
| Wgt Mkt Cap ($MM) |
64,711 |
64,715 |
| P/E |
18.1 |
18.1 |
| P/B |
2.5 |
2.5 |
| Dividend Yield |
1.8 |
1.8 |
| ROE |
16.7 |
16.7 |
| # of Stocks |
400 |
400 |
Fund Holdings
Top Ten Stock Holdings
| Company |
Fund % |
| Microsoft |
4.8% |
| Proctor & Gamble |
3.6% |
| Johnson & Johnson |
3.5% |
| International Business Machine |
3.3% |
| Cisco Systems |
2.9% |
| Wells Fargo |
2.8% |
| Google |
2.5% |
| Hewlett Packard |
2.4% |
| Intel |
2.3% |
| Pepsico |
1.9% |
Fund Holdings (As of 9/30/09): Download/view fund holdings in PDF format.
Expense Ratio: The General Board will charge participants in the BSVP fund annual expenses equal to approximately 0.37% of total fund assets. This cost includes investment management fees, operating expenses, and bank custodial fees.
Lending of Portfolio Securities: The fund seeks to earn additional income by making loans of its portfolio securities to brokers, dealers and other financial institutions. The loans will be secured at all times by cash and liquid high grade debt obligations. As with any extension of credit, there are risks of delay in recovery and in some cases even loss of rights in the collateral should the borrower fail financially. Additionally, losses could result from the reinvestment of the cash collateral received on loaned securities.
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