Find out how your portfolios stack up

How do your portfolios stack up against your peers'? Twice a year, our Portfolio Solutions team reviews thousands of advisor portfolios to uncover insights into how your peers are managing their clients’ investments. Below, you’ll find a PDF containing the snapshot of portfolio exposures, along with our commentary on key trends that stood out.

Advisors maintained steady equity positioning amid market volatility

Artificial intelligence, geopolitical dynamics, and trade policy were just a few of the underlying currents that drove equity market volatility in 2025. In the end, uncertainty is nothing new when it comes to investing, as we have all experienced through various market events over the past several years. Through it all, one theme that’s held steady in our conversations is how financial advisors are positioning their portfolios for the uncertainties inherent in equity investing. This was reflected in advisors sharing 1,808 unique equity sleeves with our team in 2025.

U.S. allocations remained elevated despite international outperformance

Within equities, one of the most popular topics discussed with advisors in 2025 was their sizing of U.S. and international equity allocations. Over the past several years, we have observed advisors intentionally underweighting international equities in favor of U.S. equities when compared to a global equity market benchmark. From our conversations with advisors, rationale varies, but it is generally rooted in performance, where longer-term U.S. market outperformance has influenced their allocation decisions.

Interestingly, despite broad international equity markets outperforming the U.S. in 2025, allocations between the two geographic segments have remained largely unchanged. In 2025, the median U.S. and international equity allocation was 76.9% and 23.1%, respectively. Compared to 2024, which saw a median U.S. and international equity allocation of 77.9% and 22.1%, changes amounted to a 1.0% increase toward international in advisor portfolios. On a relative basis, compared to a global equity market benchmark, advisor active risk increased, as performance was reflected in benchmark changes that increased the global market’s international allocation to a greater degree.

With elevated U.S. equity market valuations, Vanguard strongly believes in the merits of a meaningful allocation to international equities, rooted in the diversification benefit that international equities provide within a multi-asset portfolio along with the potential to deliver superior long-term risk-adjusted returns.

Advisors deepened engagement with fixed income in 2025

Fixed income was a key focus for advisors in 2025 with observed bond allocations rising 15% from year‑end 2024, reflected in the 2,000 sleeves shared with our team for analysis.

Given advisor preferences for active fixed income management, our year-end update continues to monitor how exposures differ between bond portfolios with high and low allocations to active strategies. To define these categories, we have ranked all observed fixed income allocations by their level of exposure to actively managed strategies, with the top half of observations labeled as “high active,” and the bottom half labeled as “low active.”

Median duration remained shorter than broad market duration

Regardless of management style preferences, advisors maintained their short duration positioning relative to the broad U.S. fixed income market. High active portfolios had a median duration of 4.8 years, and low active fixed income portfolios held a slightly longer median duration position of 5.0 years. Both figures remain below the Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Float Adjusted Bond Index duration of 5.8 years and represent relative underweights of 1.0 and 0.8 years, respectively.

With multiple interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve in 2025 and an evolving interest rate landscape, it’s no surprise that duration positioning remains one of the most enduring topics our team discusses with advisors. Positive real yields accompanied by high equity valuations underpin the relative attractiveness of bonds. Vanguard encourages advisors to return to strategic duration targets—aligned with client goals and investment horizons—as a means of preserving portfolio yields and diversification benefits across multi-asset portfolios.

Credit allocations varied by management style

Management style preferences had their most pronounced impact when looking at allocations to investment-grade and below investment-grade bonds. In 2025, the median advisor below investment-grade allocation was 10.0%. A deeper look at that exposure shows that high-active fixed income allocations carried 2.5x more below-investment-grade exposure than their low active counterparts, with median allocations of 14.3% and 5.6%, respectively.  

Given today’s historically tight credit spreads, it is important for allocators to monitor the role that fixed income serves within a multi-asset portfolio. Whether the goal is capital preservation, risk diversification, total return, or income, our conversations with advisors have largely centered around identifying the sources of credit risk in their bond allocations and calibrating those to where we see the best reward for risk in today’s market environment.

Notes:

• All investing is subject to risk, including possible loss of principal.
• Investments in bonds are subject to interest rate, credit, and inflation risk.
• Past performance is no guarantee of future returns. The performance of an index is not an exact representation of any particular investment, as you cannot invest directly in an index. Benchmark comparative indexes represent unmanaged or average returns on various financial assets, which can be compared with funds' total returns for the purpose of measuring relative performance.
• Be aware that fluctuations in the financial markets and other factors may cause declines in the value of your account. There is no guarantee that any particular asset allocation or mix of funds will meet your investment objectives or provide you with a given level of income. Diversification does not ensure a profit or protect against a loss.
• Investments in stocks or bonds issued by non-U.S. companies are subject to risks including country/regional risk, which is the chance that political upheaval, financial troubles, or natural disasters will adversely affect the value of securities issued by companies in foreign countries or regions; and currency risk, which is the chance that the value of a foreign investment, measured in U.S. dollars, will decrease because of unfavorable changes in currency exchange rates.
• High-yield bonds generally have medium- and lower-range credit quality ratings and are therefore subject to a higher level of credit risk than bonds with higher credit quality ratings.
• CFA® is a registered trademark owned by CFA Institute.