S&P 500 vs. School Endowments: The Outcomes Are In

Faculties throughout the nation maintain billions of {dollars} in endowment funds, investing in every little thing from non-public fairness to hedge funds. These establishments have entry to elite monetary managers and unique funding alternatives, but 12 months after 12 months, they path behind fundamental index funds just like the S&P 500 and NASDAQ 100.

During the last decade, faculty endowments have returned simply 67% of the S&P 500’s efficiency and 37% of the NASDAQ 100’s progress. Meaning if that they had merely invested in an S&P 500 index fund, their belongings could be almost 50% bigger immediately. If that they had adopted the NASDAQ 100, their portfolios would have greater than doubled.

Regardless of this constant underperformance, endowment managers justify their methods by citing threat administration. Nevertheless, their asset allocations don’t help that argument. With most holding solely 10% in fastened earnings investments, these portfolios already carry substantial threat. So why are faculties sticking with funding methods that depart billions on the desk?

Given this comparatively high-risk combine, faculties may considerably improve their funding returns — with out growing threat — by shifting a larger portion of their endowments into low-cost, broad-based index funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs). By doing so, they would cut back administration charges, improve diversification, and seize extra of the market’s long-term progress. It may additionally release extra money for scholar monetary support and campus enhancements.

School Endowment Efficiency

This chart compares the common annual return on funding for faculty endowments with the S&P 500 since 2011. The information is offered on a fiscal 12 months foundation working from July 1 to June 30. 

The S&P 500, which tracks the five hundred largest U.S. firms, is definitely accessible to traders by means of ETFs akin to Vanguard VOO, State Road SPY, and iShares IVV. 

As this chart exhibits, the S&P 500 had a larger return on funding than faculty endowments in yearly besides one. The funding returns are earlier than subtracting the charges that schools pay to their funding managers, so the precise hole in returns is even wider. 

The common annual return on funding was 8.3% for faculty endowments, in contrast with 13.3% for the S&P 500. 

On common, faculty endowments goal a 7.5% fee of return on funding. This fee of return is designed partly as a hedge towards inflation and partly primarily based on spending necessities and funding administration charges.

Even a really conservative funding combine, with two-thirds invested within the S&P 500 and one-third in money, would have outperformed the common faculty endowment. 

To make it clearer, this chart exhibits simply the distinction between the common fee of return on funding for faculty endowments and the S&P 500. On common, the S&P 500 beat faculty endowments by 5.1% from 2011 to 2024. 

Cumulative Returns: Endowments vs. Market Indexes

Lengthy-term cumulative returns amplify the distinction between actively managed faculty endowments and passive index funds.

This chart exhibits the common cumulative return on funding for faculty endowments and the S&P 500 since 2011. Though faculty endowments demonstrated a powerful 188% cumulative acquire, the S&P 500 greater than doubled this, with a 431% cumulative acquire on funding. Each, nevertheless, are dramatically shadowed by the 1021% cumulative acquire from investments within the NASDAQ 100. 

These figures illustrate the dramatic efficiency hole between faculty endowments and passive funding methods.

The Case For Investing In Know-how Shares

Faculties may considerably enhance their efficiency past the S&P 500 by investing in expertise  shares. 

The NASDAQ 100, which tracks the highest 100 firms within the NASDAQ and is out there by means of the Invesco QQQ ETF, has constantly outpaced the S&P 500. 

This index is tech-heavy, with its prime holdings together with the so-called Magnificent Seven:

• Alphabet (Google)
• Amazon
• Apple
• Meta (Fb)
• Microsoft
• NVIDIA 
• Tesla

Collectively, these firms characterize greater than 40% of the holdings of the NASDAQ 100 by market capitalization. 

Since 2011, the NASDAQ 100 has delivered a mean annual return of 20.1%, greater than double the common return on funding of school endowments. 

Endowment Tax

The most important faculty endowments pay an excise tax on their internet funding returns, decreasing the funds out there for scholar monetary support and different faculty priorities. 

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 launched a 1.4% excise tax on the web funding earnings of school endowments. This tax applies to personal faculties and universities with at the least 500 college students and endowment belongings of at the least $500,000 per full-time-equivalent scholar. [26 USC 4968] Public faculties are exempt from this tax.

A number of legislative proposals have sought to extend the tax fee greater than tenfold. For instance, Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY-17) launched the Endowment Accountability Act [HR 118-9213] to extend the endowment tax to 10% and scale back the per-student threshold to $200,000. Rep. Troy E. Nehls (R-TX-22) launched the Endowment Tax Equity Act [HR 119- 446] to extend the endowment tax fee to 21%. The current menu of price range reconciliation proposals would improve the endowment tax to 14%. 

The endowment tax just isn’t decreased if a university will increase the quantity of scholar monetary support or supplies a specific quantity of monetary support to its college students. 

School Endowment Spending Insurance policies

In accordance with a 2023 Congressional Analysis Service (CRS) report, School and College Endowments: Payout Charges and Spending on Pupil Monetary Assist (IN12126), faculties usually goal a 4.5% endowment spending fee, with a excessive of 4.8% in 2021. That is decrease than the 5.0% spending requirement for personal foundations.

Practically half of all endowment spending helps scholar monetary support.

Conclusion

Regardless of accessing elite funding alternatives, faculty endowments considerably underperform passive index funds. By decreasing administration charges and reallocating towards low-cost ETFs, faculties may dramatically enhance their returns whereas sustaining threat ranges corresponding to their present portfolios.

The information suggests a compelling takeaway: typically, the very best funding technique is the only one.