Benchmarks
SWIB’s Board of Trustees set the benchmarks that are used to measure the performance of investment portfolios and the Core and Variable Funds. The benchmarks reflect the objectives of the portfolio and the types of investments that can be made.
Typically, benchmarks include a widely used market index (an example would be the S&P 500 or Russell 3000 Index), or a combination of several indexes based on the types of assets. The performance of the benchmark changes based on the performance of the investments held by the index.
SWIB's benchmarks are listed in the Investment Guidelines. The Core Fund benchmark is mainly a composite of several market indexes including the Russell 3000 for domestic equities, the Morgan Stanley World Index ex US plus emerging markets for international equities, a composite of fixed income indexes, the NCREIF (National Council of Real Estate Investment Fiduciaries) for real estate, a composite of private equity/debt .
The Variable Fund includes the Russell 3000 and Morgan Stanley World Index ex US plus emerging markets.