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Fund Overview: Objective, Strategy and Holdings

  • The International Equity Fund seeks to earn long-term capital appreciation primarily from a broadly diversified portfolio of foreign equities.
  • The Fund holds real estate investment trusts (REITs) and interests in private real estate and private equity partnerships located in foreign countries.
  • 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.

Fund Managers

The following individuals are responsible for the selection and monitoring of external asset managers:

Frank Holsteen Image

Frank Holsteen

Managing Director, Investment Management

  • With Wespath since 2012
  • B.A. from Lake Forest College
Amy Bulger Image

Amy Bulger

Director, Private Markets

  • With Wespath since 2013
  • B.S. from Northern Illinois University
  • MBA from the Kellstadt Graduate School of Business at DePaul University
Mark Warren Image

Mark Warren, CFA, CIMA

Manager, Public Equities

  • With Wespath since 2015
  • B.S. from Purdue University
  • CFA Charterholder
  • CIMA Certification

Management

The Fund invests with strategies that include developed markets, emerging markets and international small-cap. The approach primarily uses active management to invest fund assets among different countries and/or regions of the world. The Fund's managers seek to invest in attractively valued companies that represent long-term above-average investment opportunities.

External Asset Managers

* Signatory to the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment

 

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 December 31, 1997
Exp. Ratio 0.75% for 2021
Benchmark Morgan Stanley Capital International All Country World (MSCI ACWI) ex-USA IMI
Fund Assets $4,824 Million as of February 28, 2023
Holdings December 31, 2022
Unit Price History Wespath Funds Price History
For More Information Investment Funds Description – P Series

Relative level of risk compared to other Wespath Funds

Graphic of relative level of risk compared to other Wespath Funds.

Performance, net of fees (as of 12/31/2022)

  3 mo YTD 1 yr 3 yr 5 yr 10 yr
International Equity Fund 14.29% -21.06% -21.06% -0.46% 1.26% 4.22%
IEF Benchmark 14.15% -16.58% -16.58% 0.20% 0.85% 3.98%

Universe Comparison

International Equity Fund vs. Peer Group Universe

Peer Group Performance Comparison

Peer group performance comparison

Annualized Performance (Net-of-Fees)

  1 Year 3 Year 5 Year 10 Year
International Equity Fund -21.1% -0.5% 1.3% 4.2%
Median -15.2% 0.6% 1.0% 4.3%
Rank (%) in Universe 99th 77th 37th 51st
# of Observations 334 301 251 164

 

Peer Group Performance Comparison and Annualized Performance (Net-of-Fees) data as of December 31, 2022.

Source: Lipper. Lipper International Equity Funds Universe is a group of mutual funds comparable to IEF. Lipper utilized all mutual funds included in the pre-defined Lipper classification universes of "Int'l Multi-Cap Core" to construct this Universe.

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

IEF Benchmark

The International Equity Fund performance benchmark is the MSCI All Country World Index (ACWI) ex USA Investable Market Index (IMI), effective January 1, 2008. The index measures the performance of equities of companies domiciled in developed and emerging markets, excluding the U.S. From January 1, 2006 through December 31, 2007, the benchmark was the MSCI ACWI ex USA Index. Prior to 2006, the benchmark was the MSCI EAFE Index.


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].

Allocations

Holdings-Based Regional Allocations as of December 31, 2022

Region IEF Actual(%) IEF Benchmark (%) Difference(%)
Europe (ex-United Kingdom) 27.4% 30.1% -2.7%
Emerging Markets 25.0% 27.0% -2.0%
Japan 9.8% 15.0% -5.2%
United Kingdom 8.8% 10.0% -1.2%
Pacific (ex-Japan) 8.8% 8.9% -0.1%
North America 8.2% 7.8% +0.4%
Africa/Mideast 0.4% 0.6% -0.2%
Frontier 2.1% 0.4% +1.7%
Cash (equitized) 1.7% 0.0% +1.7%
Other 0.1% 0.2% -0.1%
Alts 7.7% 0.0% +7.7%

 


Holdings-Based Sector/Industry Allocations as of December 31, 2022

Sector/Industry IEF Actual (%) IEF Benchmark (%) Difference(%)
Communication Services 4.2% 5.6% -1.4%
Consumer Discretionary 12.5% 11.4% +1.1%
Consumer Staples 5.6% 8.5% -2.9%
Energy 3.9% 5.8% -1.9%
Financials 14.1% 19.7% -5.6%
Health Care 8.7% 9.5% -0.8%
Industrials 13.4% 13.4% 0.0%
Information Technology 12.4% 10.6% +1.8%
Materials 8.1% 8.8% -0.7%
Real Estate 1.8% 3.3% -1.5%
Utilities 3.3% 3.4% -0.1%
Alternatives 7.9% 0.0% +7.9%
Cash 1.7% 0.0% +1.7%
Unassigned 2.4% 0.0% +2.4%

 


Holdings-Based Style Allocations as of December 31, 2022

Style IEF Actual (%) IEF Benchmark (%) Difference (%)
Large Cap (>$20Bil) 56.0% 69.3% -13.3%
Mid Cap ($5Bil - $20Bil) 19.9% 16.5% +3.4%
Small Cap (<$5Bil) 14.7% 14.2% +0.5%
Cash (equitized) 1.6% 0.0% +1.6%
Alternatives 7.7% 0.0% +7.7%
Unassigned 0.1% 0.0% +0.1%

 

Characteristics

Characteristics as of December 31, 2022

  IEF1 IEF Benchmark
Wgt. Mkt. Cap ($MM) $63,124 $68,368
Price/Earnings 14.51 11.22
Price to Book 2.16 1.53
Dividend Yield2 2.90% 3.28%
Holdings IEF Holdings  

1 Reflects the portion of the fund portfolio that is invested in public equities and REITs.

2 Does not reflect the deduction of fees.


Risk Characteristics as of December 31, 2022

Statistics (trailing 5 years) IEF IEF Benchmark
Beta 1.03 1.00
R-Squared 0.98 1.00


Top 10 Stock Holdings as of December 31, 2022

Company Country Fund % % of IEF Benchmark
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Taiwan 1.92% 1.39%
AIA Group Limited Hong Kong 1.38% 0.51%
ASML Holding NV Netherlands 1.34% 0.84%
Tencent Holdings Ltd. China 1.17% 1.03%
Samsung Electronics Co. South Korea 1.08% 0.81%
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. China 0.84% 0.63%
Kering SA France 0.74% 0.15%
Genmab A/S Denmark 0.71% 0.11%
MercadoLibre, Inc. Argentina 0.70% 0.00%
TotalEnergies SE France 0.70% 0.60%

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. IEF is subject to the following principal investment risks: market risk, investment style risk, security-specific risk, country risk, currency risk, derivatives risk and liquidity 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 addition, losses could result from the reinvestment of the cash collateral received on loaned securities.

Valuation of IEF Units

In the daily valuation of IEF Units, Wespath uses a valuation methodology to capture changes in non-U.S. securities values that arise because of time-zone differences among global securities markets. Many non U.S. securities trade on exchanges that close several hours before IEF’s closing unit price is calculated in the United States, generally at 4 p.m. Eastern time. In the hours between the close of the non U.S. markets and the close of the U.S. market, the value of the non U.S. securities may change due to a variety of factors including, for example, company-specific announcements or market-wide developments. IEF’s daily return may diverge from the daily return of its benchmark index, in part, because the benchmark index values do not reflect such price adjustments.

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 IEF, 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 2021, IEF’s expenses were 0.75% of the fund’s total assets.