University of Michigan Endowment Returns 8.93% in Fiscal 2024

The university’s investment portfolio grew by $1.3 billion during the year, reaching $19.2 billion.




The University of Michigan’s endowment reported an 8.93% investment return for the fiscal year that ended June 30, compared with a 5.2% return last year, to help raise its total asset value by $1.3 billion to $19.2 billion.

The endowment, a collection of more than 13,000 separate funds that is organized similarly to a mutual fund, also reported record distributions of $506 million, breaking last year’s record of $470 million.

In addition to the annual gain, the endowment announced its investment portfolio has an annualized return of 9.6% over the past 25 years, when the university first created a separate investment office. According to the announcement, the endowment was ranked well within the top quartile of U.S. endowments at higher education institutions by Cambridge Associates, which is also the university’s investment consultant.

The university, which has nearly 53,000 students, also stated that the endowment ranks 80th among all U.S. universities on a per-student basis, citing a recent report from the National Association of College and University Business Officers.

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In fiscal 2023, NABUCO data placed the University of Michigan as the ninth-largest university endowment in the U.S. and the third-largest public university endowment, trailing the University of Texas System and the Texas A&M University System.

The university did not release its investment performance by asset class or its annualized returns other than its 25-year performance; however, it stated plans to release a detailed endowment investment report after its board of regents meeting on December 5.

In addition to the investment returns, the university also highlighted its sustainable investments, saying it estimates it could offset 25% of the endowment’s carbon footprint by the end of the current fiscal year and reach net zero by the end of fiscal 2030.

“U-M has become an established leader in energy-transition investments in higher education and is well on its way to transition the investment portfolio to net zero much sooner than the 2050 goal,” CIO Erik Lundberg said in a statement.  

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PBGC Approves $23.6M Grant to Midwestern Teamsters’ Pension Fund

Special financial assistance funds will preserve pension benefits for 615 transportation-industry participants.



The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation announced Wednesday that it will provide a $23.6 million special financial assistance grant to the Midwestern Teamsters Pension Fund.

The plan, based in Oak Brook, Illinois, covers 615 participants and beneficiaries and was projected to become insolvent in 2032 without the grant funding.

Without the funds from the Special Financial Assistance Program, the Midwestern Teamsters Plan would have been required to reduce participants’ benefits to the PBGC guarantee levels upon plan insolvency, roughly 20% less than the benefits payable under the terms of the plan, according to the PBGC’s announcement.

Another Teamsters union plan, the Central States, Southeast and Southwest Areas Pension Plan, in 2022, received one of the largest SFA grants at more than $35 billion, of which it this year repaid $127 million that it mistakenly received as a result of the inclusion of deceased participants in the pension fund’s initial SFA application.

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The SFA Program provision of the American Rescue Plan Act allows for PBGC funding for severely underfunded multiemployer pension plans. Grants are calculated to ensure plan solvency through 2051.

The SFA Program was enacted as part of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. As of October 23, 2024, the PBGC has announced approval of about $68.6 billion in special financial assistance to plans that cover more than 1.18 million workers, retirees and beneficiaries.

Pension funds that receive SFA funds must monitor the interest resulting from the grant money as separate from other sources of funding. The PBGC requires that at least two-thirds of the money it provides be invested in “high-quality fixed income investments.” The Final Rule on Special Financial Assistance, issued in July 2022, states that the other third can be invested in “return-seeking investments,” such as stocks and stock funds.

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