Press Releases

Mellon Analytical Solutions Reports Continued Gains for U.S. Trust Plans in 3Q05

PITTSBURGH, November 7, 2005 — The median plan for the 504 corporate, foundation, endowment, public, Taft-Hartley, and healthcare funds that make up Mellon Analytical Solutions' U.S. Master Trust Universe (formally the Russell/Mellon Trust Universe) posted a positive return of 3.98% for the third quarter. Of the plans in the universe, 99% achieved positive results. The U.S. Master Trust Universes represent a market value of $1.6 trillion with an average plan size of $3.1 billion.

"Asset allocation decisions were the primary drivers of plan performance. Plans that had higher allocations across the Non-U.S Equity and U.S Equity asset classes tended to have the best performance," said Tim Clark, Mellon Analytical Solutions senior client relationship manager. "Despite rising oil costs, hurricane damages and a falling consumer confidence index, the majority of plans reported respectable gains for the quarter."

Median results for Non-U.S. Equities posted a 10.84% return, below the MSCI AC W XUS Index return of 11.83%. U.S. Equities generated a return of 4.42%, ahead of the Russell 3000® Index return of 4.01%. Non-U.S. Fixed Income returned 1.72%, outperforming the Citigroup World Government Non-U.S. return of -1.13%. The only asset class with a negative return was U.S. Fixed Income with -0.33%, versus the Lehman Brothers Aggregate return of -0.67%.

Endowments plans were the top performing plan type for the third quarter with a 4.62% median return, followed by Public, Foundations, Corporate, Taft-Hartley and Healthcare.

The Universe's median total fund also beat the 2.83% quarterly return of its benchmark (Russell 3000 Index 50%, Lehman Brothers Aggregate 40%, MSCI World ex-U.S. 10%). Approximately 82% of the plans outperformed the benchmark for the third quarter.

The average asset allocation in the U.S. Master Trust Universe for the third quarter was: U.S. Equity 42%, U.S. Fixed Income 24%, Non-U.S. Equity 20%, Non-U.S. Fixed Income 1%, Alternative Investments 5%, Real Estate 2%, Cash 1%, and Other (Private Equity, Oil, Gas, etc.) 5%.

Mellon Analytical Solutions provides performance measurement, attribution and investment analysis services to more than 2,600 institutional investors in 25 countries and is responsible for $6 trillion in assets under measurement. Mellon Analytical Solutions' professional staff consists of more than 600 employees operating in 11 cities in five countries.

Mellon Financial Corporation is a global financial services company. Headquartered in Pittsburgh, Mellon is one of the world's leading providers of financial services for institutions, corporations and high net worth individuals, providing institutional asset management, mutual funds, private wealth management, asset servicing, payment solutions and investor services, and treasury services. Mellon has approximately $4.5 trillion in assets under management, administration or custody, including $766 billion under management. Its asset management companies include The Dreyfus Corporation and U.K.-based Newton Investment Management Limited. News and other information about Mellon is available at www.mellon.com.

Mellon Analytical Solutions' Trust Universes Median Plan Returns
Period ending September 30, 2005