Purpose of the Diocesan Investment Trust (DIT)
The Diocesan Investment Trust serves various purposes.
- First, the DIT provides parishes with the opportunity to invest their funds in institutional vehicles that have been carefully screened for performance, cost, and purpose, and which are not available to individuals.
- Second, parishes know that their investments are overseen by the trustees.
- Finally, the DIT is committed to offering investments that meet socially responsible screens, achieving acceptable market rate of returns (net of fees) or meeting benchmarks.
Structure of the DIT
The Board of Trustees for the DIT is comprised of five voting members (representing various parishes within the Diocese) and two ex-officio members (the Bishop and the Treasurer of the Diocese). The funds of the DIT are professionally managed with oversight by the trustees. The trustees, who serve without compensation, typically have business, finance, or legal experience and more often than not serve on a number of outside boards.
Current trustees are:
- Maryann Vognild, Chair
Emmanuel Church, Webster Groves - Ron Webb, Vice-Chair
Calvary Episcopal Church, Columbia - Bill Young
The Episcopal Church of All Saints & Ascension, Northwoods - Joshua Schafer
St. Peter's Church/Ladue - Al Ludwig
Diocesan Treasurer - The Rt. Rev. Deon K. Johnson
Bishop of Missouri
Investment Choices within the DIT
There are currently four investment choices within which parishes may allocate their funds:
- The first is a domestic equity investment. The DFA U.S. Sustainability Core 1 Portfolio (DFSIX) is a mutual fund offered by Dimensional Fund Advisors (DFA) that seeks long-term capital appreciation by investing in a broad and diverse group of U.S. companies.
- The second choice parishes have is a bond investment. Here is the vehicle: Vanguard Total Bond Market Index Fund (VBTLX)
- The third choice is an international equity fund option, which is the Dimensional International Sustainability Core 1 Portfolio (DFSPX.)
- The fourth choice is a basic money market option.
Procedures
Participants may allocate their assets to the bond, equity, international equity, or money market funds as they see fit and may change their allocation from time to time as circumstances dictate. TIAA-CREF limits us to one trade date per month. Investment and redemption requests are processed by TIAA-CREF on the 15th of each month. All requests go through the Diocesan Office and need to be received prior to the 15th in order to be processed that month.