Global Equities Find Renewed Favor With Advisors

Despite last year's turmoil, advisors are investing more assets in global equities due to seemingly more favorable valuations, according to Financial Planning's latest Global Asset Allocation Tracker.

Domestic bond markets, however, gained little favor with advisors.

Our monthly barometer of where wealth managers are allocating assets on behalf of clients finds growing allocations to non-U.S. equities, reaching levels not seen since last summer.

The tracker, using a baseline of 50, surveyed 255 advisors.

Wealth managers were drawn to changes in the ECB's monetary policy, and more favorable valuations compared with U.S. equities. One advisor said the U.S. is "a maturing bull market."

Another respondent said, "Clients are feeling better about economic stability in Europe and realize the tide may have turned on the euro versus the dollar."

U.S. fixed-income options seemed particularly unappealing. "Clients are extremely cautious on U.S. markets, and gun-shy of bonds overall," says one planner.

Some advisors were concerned Europe would not rebound quickly and said they were looking to Asian markets for investing opportunities. One wealth manager expressed pessimism over Europe and Japan: "There is nowhere left to go but emerging Asia."

Another advisor, however, dissented. "America good, offshore bad, that's it in a nutshell," that advisor said.

"After a slight reprieve late in 2014, we have returned to a very myopic outlook. That being, why go anywhere else for value and safe return, other than the good ol' USA," the advisor added. "The market indexes speak for themselves. The trends are your friends. 'Nuff said."

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