We (my brother and I) are planning to reduce the allocation to bonds a bit. If you read the Credit Suisse Investment Returns Yearbook I think you'll understand why:
1. We definitely have too much in the Invesco Sterling Bond Fund. By my calculation it is 16% of her total net worth. This is a larger share than when I last blogged on it. This large share was all due to a mistake by Citibank... I plan to halve the allocation to this fund.
2. I plan to reduce the Janus Short Term Bond Fund by less. The two funds would each then each have about the same amount of money in them.
Also we want to:
3. More than double the investment in the Man-AHL fund. Visit these links to find out why I like managed futures.
4. We will ask for suggestions from the bank for new funds and asset classes to invest in. Including real estate and even alternative bond funds. Any recommendations from readers will be welcome. We can't buy US mutual funds but we can buy some international marketed variants.
Generally, we want to rebalance and diversify.
We also need to move some money around for my Mom's expenses and generally try to reduce the number of accounts she holds in different countries. We still have some problems left over from when my father died in 2002 with accounts still in his name that banks and government are being obstructionist about. You'd think that joint accounts would transfer automatically to the surviving spouse. But it isn't so simple always. If you are married I strongly recommend having some money in your own name in case you end up in a legal limbo too.
4 comments:
I think that's weird that joint accounts wouldn't revert to the surviving account owner - in what countries is this not the policy, and why?
That's a LONG time to have accounts still tied up.
Well one account was in my father's name only and we still haven't cleared it up. They won't recognize the probate process from the country where he died. Account is in the country where he lived the largest part of his life (and I was born). We are going to get a lawyer onto it. But we have a lot of other priorities in looking after my Mom etc. The other was a joint account and I am not sure of the complication exactly that my brother tried to explain. So maybe I exaggerated in this post a bit. None of this is happening in the US or Australia.
PS, it was only a few years ago that we disentangled finally from the country my father was born in. That was complicated by 44 years of Communist government and other misfortunes.
Thank you, for such a clear and comprehensive post. Since I’ve been reading you, I feel I have begun to understand more about this topic. Please keep writing. I just hope people are listening to you and reading you.
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