An “Investment Policy Statement” is a document that forms the foundation for an investor’s portfolio.

A good IPS outlines your entire investment plan

An IPS includes the asset allocation, the asset management approach, and your objectives, time horizon, risk tolerance, expected return, liquidity requirements, income needs, and tax concerns.

If you are a value investor, a growth investor, or a conservative investor, your IPS defines a strategy to invest your assets among diverse asset classes in a way that suits your preferred investment style.

Think of your IPS as long-term GPS for your portfolio.

The goal is to set the asset allocation in a way that can potentially give you the highest possible rate of return corresponding to an acceptable level of risk.

Your IPS keeps you from getting “off track” when it comes to investing.

You and your advisor should keep an eye on your portfolio to see that your invested assets stay within the allocation boundaries set by your IPS. This is why regular reviews are so essential.

Periodically, your portfolio may need to be rebalanced.

Here’s why. As months go by, the ups and downs of the investment markets will throw your asset allocation slightly or dramatically out of whack. As an extremely simple example, let’s say you start out with 25% of your assets in U.S. large caps, 15% in U.S. mid caps, 15% in U.S. small caps, 20% in foreign shares and 25% in bonds. Suddenly, small cap stocks have a great quarter, and thanks to the great returns, you wind up with 21% of your assets invested in small caps and only 19% in bonds. Great, right?

No. What’s actually happened is that your risk has increased along with your return. A greater percentage of your assets are now held in the comparatively risky stock market, removed from the bond market. So while the short-term gains have been great, it’s time to rebalance according to the parameters set by your IPS so that you can help reduce your risk exposure.

Rebalancing in Tax-Deferred Accounts

For tax-deferred investment accounts, this is easily done: you simply transfer assets among accounts to restore the target allocations. Future contributions occur according the IPS parameters.

Rebalancing in Taxable Accounts

When it comes to taxable investment accounts, it is usually best to ramp up future contributions to the underweighted funds rather than sell portions of a fund and trigger taxes.

Maintaining Balance

As a balanced investor your IPS should be designed to help you invest in a consistent, appropriate way, a way that matches your preferred investment style. Without an IPS, you invite impulse, emotion and a short-term focus into the picture.

This material was prepared by MarketingPro, Inc., and does not necessarily represent the views of the presenting party, nor their affiliates. This information has been derived from sources believed to be accurate. Please note – investing involves risk, and past performance is no guarantee of future results. The publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting or other professional services. If assistance is needed, the reader is advised to engage the services of a competent professional. This information should not be construed as investment, tax or legal advice and may not be relied on for the purpose of avoiding any Federal tax penalty. This is neither a solicitation nor recommendation to purchase or sell any investment or insurance product or service, and should not be relied upon as such. All indices are unmanaged and are not illustrative of any particular investment.