Products & Services | Asset Allocation Programs

Asset Allocation Programs

Asset allocation — how your portfolio is allocated across major asset classes such as stocks, bonds and cash — is critical. Asset allocation helps diversify your portfolio across major asset classes and manage the balance between risk and return.

"Diversification helps reduce the risk of investing in one market. Over 90% of long-term portfolio returns are dictated by asset allocation."*

Source: Gary Brinson, Brian Singer and Gilbert Beebower, "Determinants of Portfolio Performance II : An Update," Financial Analysts Journal, May/June 1991.

Your overall asset allocation plan is one of the most important decisions you can make as a long-term investor.

That's because asset classes typically rise and fall over time and generally take individual securities with them. So it's your portfolio's "big picture" — not the smaller decisions about specific stocks and bonds — that you should devote the lion's share of your attention to over the long term.

Form your asset allocation strategy carefully, keeping in mind that to maximize its effectiveness, it needs to be custom-designed and updated regularly, and you'll have to stick with it over time.

But don't get intimidated. Get started with an investment program that makes asset allocation easy – the
Dreyfus Managed Asset Program^SM.

The Dreyfus Managed Asset Program provides a comprehensive disciplined strategy for helping you achieve your long-term goals. The program utilizes a sophisticated, quantitative process for analyzing your investment objectives and optimizing your asset mix on an ongoing basis. You will receive professional guidance from a Dreyfus Advisor to help you develop a personalized investment plan and select from a carefully screened selection of mutual funds to implement your plan.

* Asset allocation and diversification cannot ensure a profit or protect against loss.