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Fund Overview: Objective, Strategy and Holdings

This fund is only available to plan sponsors and other institutional investors approved by Wespath under exceptional circumstances.
  • Preserve capital while earning current income generally greater than that of typical money market funds
  • Invests exclusively in units of the sweep account, which holds primarily short-term fixed income instruments including U.S. government bonds, agency bonds, corporate bonds, securitized products, commercial paper, certificates of deposit and other similar types of investments.
  • In periods of stable and falling interest rates, the fund is expected to outperform funds holding securities with shorter maturities.1

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
Connie Christian portrait

Connie Christian, CFA

Manager, Fixed Income

  • With Wespath since 2023
  • B.S. in finance from Xavier University
  • MBA from Xavier University

Management

Wespath Benefits and Investments is the investment adviser to the Fund. Through exposure to the assets in the sweep account, the Fund seeks diversification across sectors, industries, issuers, and credit quality. Wellington Management Company is the primary investment subadviser to the sweep account. The sweep account can hold U.S. government and agency bonds, corporate bonds, securitized products, dollar-denominated international fixed income securities, commercial paper, certificates of deposit, and other similar types of investments. The sweep account also holds loans from our Positive Social Purpose Lending Program (the program that focuses on affordable housing, charter schools, and community development facilities). The sweep account is designed to maintain liquidity to ensure the availability of cash for withdrawals and consequently provide liquidity for the Short Term Investment Fund. The account can only purchase securities rated A-, A1/P1 or higher by a Nationally Recognize Rating Organization. From time to time the account can hold lower-rated securities.The average quality of the portfolio is expected to be Aa3/AA-/AA- or higher.

Securities of any-one issuer, except those issued by the U.S. Treasury and government agency, and repo, may not constitute more than 5% of the account. The effective duration of the portfolio will be within a quarter of a year of its benchmark, the Merrill Lynch 90-Day Treasury Bill Index. No holding with a maturity greater than 3.1 years is permitted.

STIF earnings information is available here.

 

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

1 In periods of very low interest rates, some money market funds may voluntarily choose to reduce or suspend fees, which may result in more favorable performance compared to STIF.

Fund Snapshot
Inception April 30, 2002
Exp. Ratio 0.25% for 2022
Benchmark Bank of America Merrill Lynch 3-Month Treasury Bill Index
Fund Assets $224 Million as of July 31, 2023
Holdings June 30, 2023
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 09/30/2023)

  3 mo YTD 1 yr 3 yr 5 yr 10 yr
Short Term Investment Fund 1.35% 3.67% 4.52% 1.56% 1.66% 1.10%
STIF Benchmark 1.32% 3.62% 4.50% 1.71% 1.72% 1.12%

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

STIF Benchmark

The Short Term Investment Fund performance benchmark is the BofA Merrill Lynch 3-Month Treasury Bill Index. The index measures the investment performance of the 3-month sector of the U.S. Treasury Bill market.The performance presented in the table above provides the actual returns generated by STIF from the date of its inception, and it includes the performance of Wespath's investments managed with the same strategy prior to the introduction of STIF. At any given time, Wespath invests between $400 and $700 Million in a short term investment strategy. This amount includes all direct investments in the strategy (primarily residual cash) and the assets of the Short Term Investment Fund.


Additional STIF Earnings Information

Additional earnings information for STIF including monthly returns, compounded annual earnings net of fees and annual returns at year end are available here.



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

Allocations as of June 30, 2023

  STIF STIF Benchmark
U.S Treasuries 35.3% 100.0%
U.S. Government 17.9% 0.0%
U.S. Corporate 20.1% 0.0%
Mortgage-Backed Securities (MBS) 0.1% 0.0%
Asset-Backed Securities (ABS) 13.8% 0.0%
Other* 12.8% 0.0%

 

* Other includes primarily cash, repurchase agreements and CD's as of 12/31/2020.

Characteristics

Fund Characteristics as of June 30, 2023

  STIF
Effective Duration 0.19
Effective Convexity -0.01
Yield to Worst (%) 4.96%
Effective Maturity 0.31


Quality Breakdown as of June 30, 2023

  STIF
P-1 96.4%
P-2 2.9%
P-3 0.7%


Maturity Distribution as of June 30, 2023

  STIF
0-7 Days 24.5%
8-30 Days 15.4%
31-60 Days 12.9%
61-90 Days 11.5%
91-180 Days 14.5%
> 180 Days 21.2%

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. STIF is subject to the following principal investment risks: market risk, investment style risk, security specific risk, credit risk, interest rate risk, liquidity risk and prepayment 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.

Expense Ratio

The expense ratio is a measure of the annual fund operating expenses paid by the Fund expressed as a percentage of the average fair value of the Fund’s assets for the applicable year. The annual fund operating expenses consist of fees paid to subadvisor(s), and the Fund’s pro rata portion of custody fees and administrative and overhead expenses incurred by the overall Wespath Benefits and Investments organization in connection with providing investment, operating and administrative support to the Fund and the other funds available through Wespath Benefits and Investments, and for non-Fund related activities and operations.

The expense ratio shown on the Fund Overview page is based on the prior year’s data and fee calculation methodology. The fee calculation methodology was changed effective July 1, 2023. The Fund’s actual annual fund operating expenses and the related expense ratio can differ from year to year. Actual annual fund operating expenses may vary depending on, among other things, market events, Fund size, transaction costs, timing of Fund inflows and outflows, and applicable internal costs and third-party fees.

The Fund may also pay transaction costs, performance fees, interest expenses, taxes and fees on uninvested cash held in sweep accounts, which are in addition to the annual fund operating expenses. The annual fund operating expenses and these additional expenses are reflected in the Fund’s unit price and reduce the Fund’s rate of return. For further information about the Fund’s fees and expenses, including the fee calculation methodology change, please refer to the Investment Funds Description – P Series.