Is your portfolio suffering from what is sometimes called portfolio drift?
This occurs when a broadly-diversified portfolio drifts away from its strategic or target asset allocation with movements in investment markets and diverging returns from lower-risk and higher-risk assets.
Your diversified portfolio’s strategic asset allocation to different asset classes should be set with the aim of reaching your goals without exceeding your tolerance to risk. (See Goodbye to ad-hoc portfolios, Smart Investing, April 15.)
And then regular rebalancing of your portfolio back to that asset allocation will regain its intended risk-and-return characteristics. The primary benefit of rebalancing is to keep a portfolio’s risk profile, not to maximise returns.
In today’s low-interest, lower-return investment environment, investors may be more tempted to delay rebalancing their portfolios. This is a trap because a portfolio usually becomes progressively more volatile and riskier without rebalancing.
Repeated research* over more than 30 years, including by Vanguard, has concluded that a diversified portfolio’s strategic asset allocation is the main cause of variations in its long-term returns.
A recent Vanguard research paper, Getting back on track: A guide to smart rebalancing**, suggests three straightforward practices for portfolio rebalancing:
-
Rebalance to manage your risks and emotions: A disciplined, easy-to-follow rebalancing strategy helps remove emotions from your investment decisions. And as discussed, rebalancing reduces the likelihood of your portfolio becoming riskier with movements in investment markets.
-
Set rebalancing trigger: Most investors following a rebalancing strategy use either a “time trigger” or a “threshold trigger”. With a time trigger, you rebalance your portfolio at set intervals of, say, once a year or more frequently. And with a threshold trigger, you rebalance when your portfolio drifts from its asset allocation targets by a predetermined percentage.
-
Minimise rebalancing costs: Keep potential tax and transaction costs of rebalancing to a minimum. Some investors use cash where possible – perhaps from dividends and savings accounts – to replenish asset classes that have become underweight over time. Those with investments inside and outside superannuation should keep in mind when rebalancing that their super savings are either concessionally-taxed or exempt from tax.
The rebalancing of a portfolio can seem counter-intuitive. This is because rebalancing requires the selling of currently outperforming assets to buy currently underperforming assets.
Please contact us on 02 65459935 if you seek further assistance .
*The global case for strategic asset allocation and an examination of home bias, Vanguard 2017.
**Getting back on track: A guide to smart rebalancing, Vanguard 2019.
By Robin Bowerman, Head of Corporate Affairs at Vanguard.
Reproduced with permission of Vanguard Investments Australia Ltd.
Vanguard Investments Australia Ltd (ABN 72 072 881 086 / AFS Licence 227263) is the product issuer. We have not taken yours and your clients’ circumstances into account when preparing this material so it may not be applicable to the particular situation you are considering. You should consider your circumstances and our Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) or Prospectus before making any investment decision. You can access our PDS or Prospectus online or by calling us. This material was prepared in good faith and we accept no liability for any errors or omissions. Past performance is not an indication of future performance.
© 2019 Vanguard Investments Australia Ltd. All rights reserved.
Important:
Any information provided by the author detailed above is separate and external to our business and our Licensee. Neither our business, nor our Licensee take any responsibility for any action or any service provided by the author.
Any links have been provided with permission for information purposes only and will take you to external websites, which are not connected to our company in any way. Note: Our company does not endorse and is not responsible for the accuracy of the contents/information contained within the linked site(s) accessible from this page.