In our view, the primary role of bonds is to provide safety and capital preservation when they are needed most—during the inevitable periods of stock market distress.  Despite legitimate and growing concern over our country’s financial condition, recent examples continue to illustrate the role U.S. Treasuries play as the ballast of a well-diversified portfolio.

Non-U.S. stocks currently account for more than half the global market.  Despite this fact, investors still commit relatively small portions of their portfolios to investments abroad.  In this essay we discuss the appeal to investing overseas and address the question of how much exposure is needed to reap the benefits of international diversification.

Q:  Can you explain how TIPS work and, given widely-reported negative yields, should we be worried about their future performance?

It’s that time of year again.  A fresh batch of “Where to Invest in 2013” publications are in full circulation.  Since we know these market guides won’t ever come with warning labels—“Do not operate large 401(k) balances after reading” or “Contents may impair judgment”—a review of how last year’s predictions turned out might be warning enough.

Vanguard recently announced they will be changing the index benchmarks tracked by several of their exchange-traded funds (ETFs).  The changes, which will occur gradually, are being made to reduce internal fund costs, thus increasing the amount of returns which ends up in investors’ pockets