2024 performance

US Equities returned 34.62% in 2024 versus the Fund’s benchmark return of 34.59%.

The outperformance was attributable to the internal Large Cap US Equity Fund beating its benchmark by 88 basis points. The two index funds finished the year even with their benchmarks as designed.

The 5-year return generated by our US equity program is 16.60% per year, which compares to the 5-year benchmark return of 15.68% per year.

Investment approach

The bulk of assets managed in the US equity market are invested in our internally managed US Large Cap Equity fund. This fund is benchmarked to the S&P 500 Index and primarily focuses on large cap US equities. The goal of this fund is to provide index plus performance over time.

We manage an internal US Low Volatility Dividend fund benchmarked to the S&P 500 Low Volatility High Dividend Index. This fund is used to lower overall volatility of the US equity exposure and is expected to outperform the S&P 500 during periods of drawdown while providing an equity rate of return over time.

For 2025 we also have two index funds, one is indexed to the Russell Midcap index and the other is indexed to replicate the performance of the S&P 500 index.

Capital allocation

The Fund’s 21.1% allocation to US Equities represents an overweight exposure compared to the policy benchmark of 17.5%. The share of US stocks relative to the Fund’s total public equity allocation was 39.6% at the end of the year.

Within the US equity allocation, we have 80% allocated to large cap equities, 10.1% allocated to midcap equities, 8.5% allocated to the low volatility dividend strategy, and the balance in an index fund