02/27/2011

We have already examined the Morningstar 401K plan. We explained why it is a model of plan creation - providing a manageable number of funds with broad asset class exposure that enables portfolios that can deliver solid returns. We also provided an ETF clone which enabled portfolios that underperformed the original.

Performance chart (as of Feb 25, 2011)

Performance table (as of Feb 25, 2011)

The chart is a little misleading as the ETF Clone has fewer choices until recently because of the newness of the ETF funds. If we look at the table and consider just the five year return figures we can see that the strategic asset allocation returns are similar but there is an additional 3% garnered from the original.

This has prompted further analysis of the funds which we present here.

We tracked returns for all of the funds used in each portfolio over 5, 3 and 1 years. Some of the ETFs are sufficiently new that there wasn't five year data. We then created a score which was the summation of the five year number multiplied by three, the three year number multiplied by 1.5 and the one year number.

Instead of looking at each fund individually, we added the scores in each of the major asset classes together:

This gives us some insight on the different portfolios.

• US equity returns are running neck and neck - indicating that to improve the returns of the ETF portfolio, looking at the US equities should only be undertaken when the other asset classes have been examined
• There is a significant gap in the international equities. The Vanguard Europe Pacific ETF looks like it will help but this is an area for shoring up the ETF portfolio
• The Emerging Market ETF outperforms the original so, while it may be better to improve performance, that is a secondary task
• Real estate runs neck and neck so look at that later
• Commodities, the ETFs are running ahead so, again, we can look at that later
• Fixed income is probably the biggest area where the difference is explained. It is the largest single asset category in terms of funds invested (in most cases) and there is a significant difference between the two. The original plan has two of the leading managed fixed income funds which shows consistently higher performance.

The takeaway is that to look to improve returns from the Clone ETF, focus needs to be applied on international and fixed income asset classes.

As we go through this exercise, this will bring to the fore a elephant in the ETF space - are there times when managed funds do outperform indexed funds - intuitively it would seem so and fixed income in this market seems to suggest itself as a prime example.

We will examine this deeper in an upcoming article

Disclosure:

MyPlanIQ does not have any business relationship with the company or companies mentioned in this article. It does not set up retirement plans. The performance data of portfolios mentioned above are obtained through historical simulation and are hypothetical.

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