Is 60/40 Too Risky?

David Valcourt, VP at Financial Architects Partners (part of NFP), gives an unbiased tour after nearly 20 years in the life insurance business. David shares how the economics work, where the commissions go, and a deep dive on PPLI: the UHNW tool that lets policyholders rebalance investments without triggering a capital gains tax.

Watch or listen here.

The 60/40 portfolio built its reputation on a simple premise: stocks grow, bonds cushion, and the two rarely fall together. But that premise has weakened. And if you define risk as the chance of permanently losing money, 60/40 starts to look riskier than its reputation suggests.

The equity side has grown more concentrated as a handful of mega-cap AI names drive index returns and valuations sit near record highs. And in 2022, stocks and bonds fell in tandem, leaving the "safe" 40% doing little to cushion the fall.

For investors holding generational capital over long horizons, the remedy is broader diversification.

The table below pairs each vulnerability of a 60/40 with a practical way to address it, based on a Navigating Wealth Podcast episode with David Stein, former Chief Investment Strategist at FEG and host of Money for the Rest of Us.

Read the full breakdown: The 60/40 Portfolio: Why It Can Be Too Risky Once You Have Enough

We asked the Long Angle community which areas they most want help with in their financial and personal lives. The answers double as a map of what matters to people navigating wealth and life at this level. Results can be summed up in two words: learning and connecting.

Learning about complex financial and life decisions topped the list at 58% of respondents, followed closely by meeting other members in person (51%). 

People want to pressure-test big decisions against peers who've faced them, meet those peers face-to-face, and get recommendations from people they can trust. 

The funny takeaway is that for an online community, connecting online isn’t a top priority. 

Learn more about Long Angle membership, in-person events and meetups, educational resources, and much more.

Traditional private equity asks investors to commit capital for 8–10 years with no exit. Semi-liquid funds, the category that includes evergreen and interval funds, offer a middle path: private market exposure with periodic windows to subscribe and redeem.

Instead of a fixed fund life, these vehicles run perpetually. Capital is deployed immediately rather than called over years, so compounding starts on day one and there's no J-curve drag. Investors can typically redeem on a quarterly basis, subject to caps (often around 5% of fund assets per quarter) designed to protect the portfolio during heavy demand.

There are tradeoffs, of course. To meet redemptions, these funds hold some cash which creates a drag on returns, especially in strong markets. And "semi-liquid" is of course not liquid. Gates can limit withdrawals exactly when you want them. 

Read more in our primer: Semi-Liquid Funds: How They Work and What the Tradeoffs Are

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Chris Bendtsen

Insights Lead, Long Angle

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