Both the short and long term outlook for equities continues to be promising. Effective Covid 19 vaccines have been tested and are on track to approval; some have already been approved for use in the UK. While the full impact of these positives may not be felt for some time, we continue to believe that U.S. stocks will provide meaningful rewards over the long term. It is less likely that bonds will prove to be as rewarding. The Fed has said that it will keep interest rates low for some time. Rising interest rates are bad for bond prices.

Strategic Asset Ranges are determined by the Board of Managers’ long-term outlook for the stock and bond markets. Based on the current favorable conditions in the equity markets and the much less favorable short- and long-term conditions in the fixed income markets, the Board of Managers has elected to change its Strategic Asset Ranges.

The new Strategic Ranges for Equities shall be 50% to 75% from the previous 50% to 70%, and the new Strategic Range for Fixed Income shall be 20% to 50% from the previous 25% to 50% of total fund assets. Our current actual asset allocation is 70% for equities and 30% for fixed income.

As always, we continue to monitor markets closely and to make adjustments as necessary.