Rethinking the 60/40 portfolio

From the 1980s until recently, a portfolio of 60% stocks and 40% bonds consistently provided investors with attractive risk-adjusted returns, with total returns often equal to or better than those of the S&P 500® Index, and with lower volatility.

But this strategy may no longer pack the same punch. Persistent inflation and growing recession fears have battered markets in 2022, providing strong headwinds to the 60/40 portfolio and prompting some critics to proclaim “the end” of the 60/40 as a useful investment strategy.

However, even if the 60/40 portfolio may deliver lower risk-adjusted returns compared with those over the last four decades, that doesn’t mean it is “broken.” In July 2022, Morgan Stanley & Co. forecast a 10-year return of about 6.2% per year for the strategy, which is 3.9 percentage points above their forecast for inflation.¹ This may make the 60/40 strategy a viable option for some investors, even as others look to different strategies.

To determine the future of the 60/40 portfolio, it is important to understand:

• What drove the 60/40 portfolio’s stretch of performance over the past four decades?
• Why does this record seem unlikely to persist at the same level going forward? 
• How can investors pivot for the future? 

Here’s our take. 

The 60/40 portfolio may owe much of its past performance to three key factors:

• Slowing inflation. In the early 1980s, the Federal Reserve managed to stamp out high inflation from the prior decade, and with that came falling Treasury yields and lower correlations between stocks and bonds. This helped to provide portfolio diversification and healthy total returns for both asset classes.
• Falling real yields. Yields tend to move inversely with asset prices. As inflation-adjusted, or “real,” yields gradually fell over the past four decades, stocks and bonds tended to benefit, as companies enjoyed lower costs of capital and higher valuations for financial assets.
• An accommodative Federal Reserve. The market seemingly grew increasingly confident it could rely on a “Fed put”—central bank intervention aimed at ensuring liquidity in the financial system and containing market volatility. These actions appeared to lead markets to believe the Fed would step in to limit damage during times of uncertainty.  

Those favorable conditions are likely to fade, however, given the following:

• Normalizing inflation. Higher inflation levels could lead to a higher, positive correlation between stocks and bonds, which would reduce the potential diversification benefits of a stock-bond mix.
• Low but rising real yields. Real yields are likely to rise along with inflation, which would pressure bond prices and make stocks less attractive, which could lead to lower returns from the 60/40 portfolio.
• A less hands-on Fed. The Fed may be less willing and able to intervene in moments of market turbulence, removing a key support for asset prices. 

Bottom line, investors should reset expectations for what the classic 60/40 portfolio may return in the years ahead, as returns may be less than they were in the last 40 years. Instead of taking on more risk to make up for potential shortfalls, consider thoughtful strategies.

Tax-efficient investing can help increase after-tax returns, whether through tax-loss harvesting or using realized losses to help offset capital gains for tax purposes.

A mix of active and passive investing may also be beneficial. Many investors prefer either passive strategies, which track an index, or active strategies, which attempt to outperform the index, but the two aren't mutually exclusive. Keep in mind, active strategies can be more expensive and less tax efficient than passive strategies. For example, active strategies tend to turnover their portfolio assets more than passive strategies, potentially generating more taxable capital gains. Additionally, actively managed investment products usually have higher annual fees than passive ones.

Finally, liquid alternative funds may help further diversify a portfolio and potentially enhance its risk-adjusted performance. For example:

• Absolute return: Funds following equity market neutral and relative value arbitrage strategies seek to earn a positive return over time—regardless of whether markets are going up, down, or sideways—and to do so with less volatility than stocks.
• Equity hedge: Macro trading and multi-strategy funds implement strategies with the goal of providing equity-like returns while limiting the impact of market downturns and volatility.
• Equity return: Long-short equity and event-driven strategies aim to deliver attractive risk-adjusted returns in equity or corporate credit securities. 

Please keep in mind that liquid alternative funds, or liquid alts, should not be confused with alternative investments such as hedge funds. While these alternative-style strategies may help investors diversify sources of potential risk and return, it’s important to understand they may ultimately lag or underperform the broad market. Liquid alts are generally more complex, have higher fees and present higher liquidity and volatility risks than other traditional mutual funds and ETFs.  Please carefully review a liquid alt prospectus before making an investment in such a fund.

To be sure, a 60/40 allocation may continue to be an appropriate option for some investors. Bonds have typically been good diversifiers for stocks, helping to dampen the effects of volatility, even if they don’t offer the same degree of diversification as they did before. Ultimately, investors should make sure they are staying true to their goals, timelines, and risk tolerance when considering how they are positioning portfolios for the path ahead.

The source of this article, Rethinking the 60/40 Portfolio, was originally published on August 30, 2022. Data based on Morgan Stanley Wealth Management’s Global Investment Committee report, “Sunset for 60/40?: Assessing Its Long-Term Success, Its Recent Struggles and Some Potential Pivots” (June 7, 2022).

1. Morgan Stanley Research, “60:40 Isn’t Dead, Just Resting,” 7/24/22