As expected, Wes’ endowment dropped by 4.6%, which was less than many and more than a few, ending the fiscal period at $1.56 billion.
By comparison:
Amherst -10%
Williams - 11.2%
Tufts - 9.8%
Bowdoin - 7.1%
I have heard that Middlebury did a little better than this group, coming in at around a 3+% loss, but I’ve not seen it anywhere. As noted in Wesleyan’s year-end letter, there will be some additional losses realized in 2023 in asset classes that tend to drag behind the market a bit. Buck up!
Year-end letters are starting to trickle in. Here is Wesleyan’s:
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So, year-end letters are a thing now? I’ll know where to look next year. Anne’s history was fascinating as someone who was there at the time. The prevailing myth at the time was that Wesleyan had pulled out of equities and was stashing all its money in double-digit interest-bearing bonds. A virtually guaranteed 12% annual return would have looked awfully good in 1974. In reality, it seems they simply shorted their portfolio and left it in cash equivalents, a classic mistake all the more puzzling in view of their cagey handling of money in the 1950s and 60s.
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