De-risking at a Lower Price

March 01, 2023 | Nic Solecki, CBDA, Client Analyst

In 2023, managing uncertainty and risk is top of mind as markets continue to grapple with inflation, a potential recession, and ongoing geopolitical conflict. Increasing allocations to investment-grade fixed income may be one way investors can better position their portfolios to navigate the current environment.

The chart above illustrates return outcomes for two portfolios based on a Monte Carlo simulation of portfolio returns over a forward-looking ten-year investment horizon. As a baseline, the 60-40 portfolio consists of a 60% allocation to U.S. equities (the S&P 500) and a 40% allocation to investment-grade fixed income (the Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate). Alternatively, the 50-50 portfolio shifts an incremental 10% from equities to IG fixed income. Benefitting from today’s elevated yields and lower volatility inherent to fixed income, the 50-50 portfolio projects a greater concentration of outcomes centered around the 7% target rate of return with less volatility than the 60-40 baseline portfolio. Although the expected return decreased slightly, portfolio risk decreased by roughly 1.5 percentage points, creating a more favorable risk-adjusted return. As described in Marquette’s latest white paper, The 60/40 Portfolio Revisited: Back from the Dead?, the rise in yields in 2022 has made fixed income a more attractive investment relative to prior years and reduced the expected return differential between stocks and bonds. For many investors, the 60/40 portfolio seems poised to meet their long-term risk and return goals, but for those looking to remove additional risk from their portfolios, the new yield environment makes further de-risking more of an option than it has been over the past decade.

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Disclosure > Hypothetical Performance