Markets in a Minute

Visualized: How Bonds Help Reduce Bear Market Risk

Published

2 years ago

July 13, 2022

Dorothy Neufeld

This infographic is available as a poster.

Bear Market

This infographic is available as a poster.

Visualized: How Bonds Help Reduce Bear Market Risk

Which tactics can investors use to reduce portfolio downside risk?

One time-tested method is allocating to bonds. Bonds have sheltered portfolio losses during bear markets thanks to the lower risk profile of bonds compared to stocks. Often, when stocks declined during market selloffs, safer assets like bonds tended to increase as the demand for stability grew.

This Markets in a Minute from New York Life Investments shows the performance of bonds and stocks during bear markets since World War II.

Bond Performance During Bear Markets

Bear markets are defined as a 20% or more decline in U.S. large cap stocks from peak to trough. Since World War II, bear markets have occurred less frequently than bull markets, with the U.S. stock market spending 29% in a bear market versus 71% in a bull market.

With this in mind, we show how a spectrum of portfolio asset allocations to stocks and bonds have performed over the last several bear markets.

Stocks: represented by U.S. large cap stocks
Bonds: represented by U.S. intermediate government bonds, which are issued with maturity dates between two and five years

Allocation (Stock / Bond)	Average Drawdown	Average Time Until Recovery*
100% / 0%	-34%	3.3 years
90% / 10%	-31%	3.2 years
80% / 20%	-28%	2.9 years
70% / 30%	-24%	2.8 years
60% / 40%	-20%	2.5 years
50% / 50%	-16%	2.1 years
40% / 60%	-11%	1.2 years
30% / 70%	-7%	0.8 years
20% / 80%	-4%	0.8 years
10% / 90%	-2%	0.5 years
0% / 100%	-1%	0.2 years

*Length of time until new all-time high

For a 100% stock portfolio, the average drawdown was -34%, with 3.3 years until recovery—the time it took to reach a new all-time high.

Comparatively, a portfolio entirely made up of bonds fell -1% on average during bear markets with a recovery time of just a few months.

Balanced Portfolios in Bear Markets

Looking closer, we show how adding bonds to a portfolio has cushioned portfolio losses over the following market downturns, sometimes by as much as 20 percentage points.

Bear Market	100% Stock Portfolio Max Drawdown	60/40 Portfolio Max Drawdown
2020	-20%	-10%
2008	-51%	-30%
2001	-45%	-22%
1988	-30%	-17%
1973	-43%	-26%
1969	-29%	-18%
1962	-22%	-13%
1947	-22%	-13%

A balanced 60/40 portfolio had a 20% average drawdown, recovering in 2.5 years. During the 2020 COVID-19 crash, for instance, a 60/40 portfolio fell almost 10% and fully recovered in six months. By contrast, a 100% stock portfolio declined nearly 20%.

In all of the above historical downturns, investors with a diversified portfolio have been better positioned in a bear market.

Building Portfolio Strength

Bonds have historically seen less volatility than stocks during tougher financial conditions. Typically, riskier assets like stocks have been more prone to market fluctuations than bonds.

To prepare for a bear market, investors can structure a portfolio that aligns with their risk tolerance. Over the long run, the diversification benefits of bonds have been fundamental to protecting portfolios and lowering risk.

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Markets in a Minute

The Top 5 Reasons Clients Fire a Financial Advisor

Firing an advisor is often driven by more than cost and performance factors. Here are the top reasons clients ‘break up’ with their advisors.

Published

3 days ago

April 15, 2024

Dorothy Neufeld

This circle graphic shows the top reasons for firing a financial advisor.

The Top 5 Reasons Clients Fire a Financial Advisor

What drives investors to fire a financial advisor?

From saving for a down payment to planning for retirement, clients turn to advisors to guide them through life’s complex financial decisions. However, many of the key reasons for firing a financial advisor stem from emotional factors, and go beyond purely financial motivations.

We partnered with Morningstar to show the top reasons clients fire an advisor to provide insight on what’s driving investor behavior.

What Drives Firing Decisions?

Here are the top reasons clients terminated their advisor, based on a survey of 184 respondents:

Reason for Firing	% of Respondents Citing This Reason	Type of Motivation
Quality of financial advice and services	32%	Emotion-based reason
Quality of relationship	21%	Emotion-based reason
Cost of services	17%	Financial-based reason
Return performance	11%	Financial-based reason
Comfort handling financial issues on their own	10%	Emotion-based reason

Numbers may not total 100 due to rounding. Respondents could select more than one answer.

While firing an advisor is rare, many of the primary drivers behind firing decisions are also emotionally driven.

Often, advisors were fired due to the quality of the relationship. In many cases, this was due to an advisor not dedicating enough time to fully grasp their personal financial goals. Additionally, wealthier, and more financially literate clients are more likely to fire their advisors—highlighting the importance of understanding the client.

Key Takeaways

Given these driving factors, here are five ways that advisors can build a lasting relationship through recognizing their clients’ emotional needs:

Understand your clients’ deeper goals
Reach out proactively
Act as a financial coach
Keep clients updated
Conduct goal-setting exercises on a regular basis

By communicating their value and setting expectations early, advisors can help prevent setbacks in their practice by adeptly recognizing the emotional motivators of their clients.

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Markets in a Minute

The Top 5 Reasons Clients Hire a Financial Advisor

Here are the most common drivers for hiring a financial advisor, revealing that investor motivations go beyond just financial factors.

Published

3 days ago

April 15, 2024

Dorothy Neufeld

This circle graphic shows the top reasons for hiring a financial advisor.

The Top 5 Reasons Clients Hire a Financial Advisor

What drives investors to hire a financial advisor?

From saving for a down payment to planning for retirement, clients turn to advisors to guide them through life’s complex financial decisions. However, many of the key reasons for hiring a financial advisor stem from emotional factors, and go beyond purely financial motivations.

We partnered with Morningstar to show the top reasons clients hire a financial advisor to provide insight on what’s driving investor behavior.

What Drives Hiring Decisions?

Here are the most common reasons for hiring an advisor, based on a survey of 312 respondents.

Reason for Hiring	% of Respondents Citing This Reason	Type of Motivation
Specific goals or needs	32%	Financial-based reason
Discomfort handling finances	32%	Emotion-based reason
Behavioral coaching	17%	Emotion-based reason
Recommended by family or friends	12%	Emotion-based reason
Quality of relationship	10%	Emotion-based reason

Numbers may not total 100 due to rounding. Respondents could select more than one answer.

While financial factors played an important role in hiring decisions, emotional reasons made up the largest share of total responses.

This illustrates that clients place a high degree of importance on reaching specific goals or needs, and how an advisor communicates with them. Furthermore, clients seek out advisors for behavioral coaching to help them make informed decisions while staying the course.

Key Takeaways

With this in mind, here are five ways advisors can provide value to their clients and grow their practice:

Address clients’ emotional needs early on
Demonstrate how you can offer support
Use ordinary language
Provide education to help clients stay on track
Acknowledge that these are issues we all face

By addressing emotional factors, advisors can more effectively help clients’ navigate intricate financial decisions and avoid common behavioral mistakes.

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