I always like to study different asset allocation types and I thought readers might find this model portfolio from Goldman Sachs somewhat interesting:
Asset class Percent of portfolio Investment grade fixed income (US muni bonds) 30 Other fixed income (U.S. high yield munis, EM local debt) 6.5 Public equity (US large cap value and growth, non-US developed, others) 36.5 Hedge funds (event driven, equity long/short, tactical trading) 7 Private equity/debt (buyout, energy, EM, others) 14 Real estate (Global REITs, private RE) 6 Total 100 Goldman Sachs Investment Management Division
This is interesting. Actually, it’s not that interesting in my opinion. If you break this portfolio down and reconstruct it you can put together a 24 month history using available ETFs. Here’s what you get relative to your plain vanilla 60/40 stock/bond index:
Basically, you get a closet index fund that they probably charge 1-2% for. No value add from a risk adjusted perspective (yes, I ran the numbers). No discernible difference in portfolio performance. In other words, the model portfolio just looks like a fancy sounding version of something VBINX (the Vanguard Balanced Index) does. Now, of course I am taking a narrow view here because this is 24 months of performance, but I highly doubt a much longer track record would result in much different outcomes.
Mr. Roche is the Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Discipline Funds.Discipline Funds is a low fee financial advisory firm with a focus on helping people be more disciplined with their finances.
He is also the author of Pragmatic Capitalism: What Every Investor Needs to Understand About Money and Finance, Understanding the Modern Monetary System and Understanding Modern Portfolio Construction.
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