U.S. Treasury Inflation Protection Fund (USTPF) | Wespath Benefits & Investments

Overview
Performance
Characteristics
Risks & Disclosures

Fund Overview: Objective, Strategy and Holdings

U.S. Treasury Inflation Protection Fund (USTPF) seeks to provide investors with current income and to protect principal from long-term loss of purchasing power due to inflation by investing primarily in U.S. Treasury Inflation Protected Securities (TIPS).

The Fund generally does not invest in companies that derive more than 10% of their revenue from gambling or from the manufacture, sale or distribution of alcoholic beverages, tobacco-related products, adult entertainment, weapons, or the management or operation of prison facilities.

Frank Holsteen

Managing Director, Investment Management

With Wespath since 2012
B.A. from Lake Forest College

Nízida Arriaga, CFA

Manager, Fixed Income

With Wespath since 2019
Bachelor's degree from the University of Puerto Rico-Mayagüéz
MBA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison

Management

Neuberger Berman Investment Advisers is the primary subadviser of USTPF. The fund employs a passive investment strategy. The performance benchmark for USTPF is the Bloomberg Barclays U.S. Inflation Linked Bond Index. USTPF may use a sampling approach as an efficient and cost-effective alternative for creating a portfolio that closely matches the overall characteristics of the performance benchmark without investing in all of the fixed income securities in the benchmark.

External Asset Managers

Neuberger Berman Investment Advisers LLC*

* Signatory to the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment

U.S. TIPS Performance in Wespath’s Inflation Protection Fund

Neuberger Berman Investment Advisers LLC has managed a portfolio of U.S. TIPS in Wespath’s Inflation Protection Fund since January 31, 2004 ("U.S. Treasury Inflation Linked Assets").

Please refer to the Investment Funds Description – P Series for a detailed description of the investment strategies used in managing the Fund.

Fund Snapshot
Inception	June 30, 2017
Exp. Ratio	0.30% for 2020
Benchmark	Bloomberg Barclays U.S. Inflation Linked Bond Index
Fund Assets	$889 Million as of December 31, 2021
Holdings	September 30, 2021
Unit Price History	Wespath Funds Price History
For More Information	Investment Funds Description – P Series

Relative level of risk compared to other Wespath Funds

Performance, net of fees (as of 12/31/2021)

	3 mo	YTD	1 yr	3 yr	5 yr	10 yr
U.S. Treasury Inflation Protection Fund	2.24%	5.61%	5.61%	8.41%	-	-
USTPF Benchmark	2.52%	6.00%	6.00%	8.74%	-	-

See Risk and Disclosures for more information regarding Net of Fees Performance.

USTPF Benchmark

The U.S. Treasury Inflation Protection Fund performance benchmark is the Bloomberg Barclays U.S. Inflation Linked Bond Index. The index measures the investment performance of U.S. Treasury Inflation Protected Securities.

Wespath Benefits and Investments (“Wespath”) is a general agency of The United Methodist Church, a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization. Wespath administers benefit plans and together with its subsidiaries, UMC Benefit Board, Inc. (“UMCBB”) and Wespath Institutional Investments, LLC (“WII”) invests (or provides back-office services for) assets on behalf of benefit plan participants and beneficiaries, plan sponsors and other institutions controlled by, affiliated with or related to The United Methodist Church (the “Church”). For GIPS compliance purposes, the Firm referenced herein is defined to include Wespath, UMCBB and WII (“Firm”).

Wespath claims compliance with the Global Investment Performance Standards (GIPS®). GIPS is a registered trademark of CFA Institute. CFA Institute does not endorse or promote this organization, nor does it warrant the accuracy or quality of the content contained herein. To obtain a copy of Wespath’s GIPS Report, please call us at 1-847-866-4100 or e-mail us at [email protected].

Characteristics

Fund Characteristics as of September 30, 2021

	USTPF	USTPF Benchmark
Effective Duration	8.29	8.59
Effective Convexity	0.01	0.00
Real Yield to Worst¹	-1.30%	-1.31%
Effective Maturity	8.49	8.83
Average Quality of Stocks	AAA	AAA

¹ Does not reflect the deduction of fees.

Credit Quality Distribution as of September 30, 2021

	USTPF	USTPF Benchmark
Cash	1.9%	0.00%
AAA	98.1%	100.0%

Sector Distribution as of September 30, 2021

	USTPF	USTPF Benchmark
US Treas.	98.1%	100.0%
Other	1.9%	0.0%

Risks & Disclosures

All investments carry some degree of risk that will affect the value of the fund’s holdings, its investment performance and the price of its units. As a result, loss of money is a risk of investing in the fund. USTPF is subject to the following principal investment risks: credit risk, deflation risk, interest rate risk, market risk, security-specific risk and yield curve risk.

The performance shown is for the stated time period only and computed in U.S. Dollars (USD). Historical returns are not indicative of future performance. For further discussion of the Fund’s investments strategies and risks, please refer to the Investment Funds Description – P Series. This is not an offer to purchase securities.

Lending of Portfolio Securities

The Fund seeks to earn additional income by lending a portion of its portfolio securities to brokers, dealers and other financial institutions. The loans are secured at all times by cash and liquid high-grade debt obligations. As with any extension of credit, there are risks of delay in recovery and in some cases even loss of rights in the collateral should the borrower fail financially. In additionally, losses could result from the reinvestment of the cash collateral received on loaned securities.

Expense Ratio

All expenses of the Fund are deducted from the Fund’s net asset value. The expenses include investment management fees, operating expenses, bank custodial fees and miscellaneous Fund administration expenses. These expenses are paid directly by USTPF, and are reflected in the unit price calculated for the Fund. The unit price is multiplied by the number of units held in each client’s account to determine the total value of the client’s holdings in the Fund. For 2020, USTPF’s expenses were 0.30% of the fund’s total assets.

USTPF