The rule of thumb for retirement portfolios has long been 60/40: 60 percent in stocks and 40 percent in bonds. That is supposed to be roughly the optimal combination of growth (fueled by the equities) and stability (provided by the bonds).
It's not just an old wives' tale. The mutual fund giant Vanguard went back and ran simple model portfolios based on the 60/40 rule and found that, since 1926, an investor with that allocation could have expected an 8.6 percent annual return, with losses in 21 out of 86 years. An all stock portfolio bumped up the returns somewhat, to 9.9 percent — but the volatility was greater, with losses in 25 of the years. An all bonds portfolio reduced the volatility, with losses in just 13 years, but the overall return dropped to an average of just 5.6 percent.
But that's an argument about the past. The present and future landscapes are changing fast enough to make many advisors rethink that basic portfolio allocation. Some of the factors that are reshaping retirement portfolios:
Bond market crash. In the wake of the stock market crash of 2008-09 and the Federal Reserve's subsequent policy of near-zero interest rates, the bond market has taken a serious bath in recent years. The Barclays Aggregate U.S. Bond Index was down 2.71 percent through July 12, which puts it on pace to have only its third losing year since 1976.
No one expects to derive the bulk of their income from the fixed-income side of the equation. But now many people's bond portfolios are not even beating inflation. The bond portfolio, intended to provide stability, has turned into more of a drag on returns for many investors.
Globalization. The American investor now has access to a wide array of international investments, including both equities and debt. Many investment advisors have discovered that branching out into international markets can add diversification, reduce portfolio risk, and help to foster greater returns. International stocks tend to be riskier than domestic ones, allowing advisors to reduce the allocation to equities and increase it to bonds.
Alternative investments. The plain fact of the matter is that there are many other investment opportunities now, aside from stocks and bonds. Investors have access to exchange-traded funds invested in all sorts of things, hedge funds intended to spike overall returns, and long/short strategies that can reduce the volatility of an equity portfolio. Alternative investments are almost ubiquitous at this point. Only 4 percent of advisors say their clients have no money invested in alternatives, down from 17 percent in 2008.
Long/short strategies are similarly growing in usage. Nearly half of all institutional investors, or 45 percent, say they use long/short strategies in mutual funds; that's up from 38 percent in 2010.
