SOAR advisers recommend shifting U.S. equity exposure toward mid-cap, trimming small-cap overweight

Advisers to the St. Mary’s County Sheriff’s Office Retirement Plan (SOAR) told the board on March 27 that the plan’s U.S. equity mix is modestly overweight small-cap stocks and underweight large and mid caps, and recommended shifting some assets into mid-cap strategies to reduce volatility risk and improve long-term positioning.

Patrick Wing of Workette Associates led a detailed review of the plan’s U.S. equity structure and historical performance, saying the SOAR allocation is concentrated in five funds: a broad Vanguard Total Stock Market index fund plus four “satellite” managers (large-cap growth, large-cap value, small-cap value and small-cap core/growth). Wing said the combination produces roughly a 2-percentage-point overweight to small caps (about 10% of the plan’s U.S. equity sleeve versus roughly 8% representation in the benchmark), which he characterized as “a decent overweight” because small caps make up a small share of the broad market.

The presentation summarized long-term return, volatility and valuation data across large-,…