Bloomberg Barclay's 1-5 Year Government/Credit Index 

a fixed income index of short-term US corporate and government securities with maturities from one to five years.

 

Bloomberg Barclay's Global Aggregate Bond Index 

a measure of global investment grade debt from twenty-four local currency markets including treasury, government-related, corporate and securitized bonds from both developed and emerging issuers.

 

Bloomberg Barclay's U.S. Aggregate Bond Index 

a broad-based fixed income benchmark that measures investment grade, U.S. dollar-denominated debt including treasury, government-related, corporate, and securitized bonds.

 

MSCI AC Asia Pacific Index Net*

an index covering large and mid-cap stocks across developed and emerging market countries in the Asia Pacific region.

 

MSCI ACWI ex US Net*

an index comprised of large and mid-cap stocks across developed and emerging countries excluding the United States.

 

MSCI ACWI Net*

an index comprised of large and mid-cap stocks across developed and emerging countries.

 

MSCI All Country World Index ex US Large Cap Net*

an index comprised of large cap stocks across developed and emerging countries excluding the United States.

 

MSCI EAFE Net*

an index covering large and mid-cap stocks across developed market countries excluding the US and Canada.

 

MSCI Emerging Markets Latin America Index Gross*

an index covering large and mid-cap stocks across 5 emerging markets countries in Latin America.

 

MSCI Emerging Markets Net*

an index covering large and mid-cap stocks across 23 emerging markets countries.

 

MSCI Europe Index Net*

an index covering large and mid-cap stocks across 15 developed markets countries in Europe.

 

MSCI US Investable Market Index Health Care

an index covering large, mid, and small cap stocks within the US equity universe that are classified in the Health Care sector as per GICS.

 

MSCI World Real Estate Index

an index covering large and mid-cap stocks across 23 developed markets countries in the Real Estate industry group.

 

S&P 100 Index

an index which generally covers 100 of the larger and more stable companies in the S&P 500.

 

S&P 500 Index

an index covering large cap U.S. equities covering approximately 80% of available market capitalization.

 

S&P Global Natural Resources

an index comprised of 90 of the largest publicly traded companies in natural resources and commodities businesses.

 

S&P Midcap 400 Index

an index covering mid cap U.S. equities.

 

S&P Smallcap 600 Index

an index covering small cap U.S. equities.

 

 

Blended Benchmarks – For the blended benchmarks used for the Tactical Toolbox™ strategies, please see the descriptions above for the indexes in the blend. Blended benchmarks are rebalanced monthly for calculation purposes.

*Regarding indexes listed as “Net,” benchmark returns are calculated with dividends reinvested after the deduction of withholding taxes. “Gross” indexes do not adjust return calculations for these withholding taxes.

Sources: Barclays, MSCI, S&P Dow Jones Indices

 

Note on Material Deviation of Strategies from Benchmark

Clients cannot invest directly in an index. At any time, Financial Trust’s investment strategies differ materially from the stated benchmark to which it is compared. Financial Trust’s strategies are not designed to replicate these benchmarks. In selecting strategy benchmarks, Financial Trust has considered the universe, scope, methodology, and correlation of the strategy relative to the benchmarks chosen. However, there are no fixed limitations on off-benchmark assets (i.e. assets not held within the benchmark) or deviations in position weights. Position and weighting deviations can arise due to, but are not limited to, the following: the strategy methodology, the active nature of select strategies, different weighting schemes, and tactical asset allocation decisions and signals. Investors should take into account these differences when evaluating investment performance.

In particular, Financial Trust’s Tactical Toolbox™ suite of strategies will, by design, always differ materially from the blended 60/40 equity/fixed income benchmark. These strategies, depending on the tactical signal at the time, will either hold a 90/10 equity/fixed income allocation, or a 10/90 equity/fixed income allocation. After observing the historical frequency of positive and negative signals, Financial Trust chose a 60/40 equity/fixed income blend for these benchmarks because it believed that the “average” allocation over a market cycle is approximated by a 60/40 blend. However, it is important to note that this is just an approximation, and there is no guarantee that this average allocation will come out to 60/40 in the future.