ABSTRACT
Once investments are made, trustees and fiduciaries of pension assets will want to evaluate the performance of these investments against the goals of the fund. As emphasized, pension funds are long-term investors that start collecting contributions when individuals enter the workforce and may not pay out benefits until 30 to 40 years later. As universal owners, pension funds should evaluate the performance of their investment portfolios based on the impacts of their investments on the broad economy. The success of an investment portfolio is often evaluated against a benchmark. Generally, market indices tracking a broad asset class, such as large capitalization stocks, or a narrower segment within an asset class, such as technology stocks, are used as benchmarks. To enable an apples-to-apples comparison, a strategy that uses exclusionary screens should compare its results with a benchmark that excludes companies based on the same criteria as the strategy.
