Forget 60/40. BNY Wealth's chief investment officer says you need a different portfolio split for today's market.

"Sinead Colton Grant, the chief investment officer at BNY's wealth division, said the traditional strategy of splitting your portfolio 60% on stocks and 40% on bonds no longer yields the same returns. "What a 60/40 portfolio would have given you in the late 90s in terms of exposure to the broader global economy - that's giving you something a lot more narrow today," she said. "If you look at the changes in market structure over the last 20-plus years, they have brought us to a place where to have full exposure to the economy, you need to have exposure to private assets," she added."

"She said the number of public companies in the US has dramatically fallen in the last 30 years amid greater regulation and the growth of private credit since the financial crisis. The US had around 8,000 public companies in 1996, compared to about 4,000 in 2024, per the World Bank. "Some of our clients will say, 'I only want public markets,' and that's fine, but if a client comes to us and says, 'What do you really recommend?' We include private markets," Colton Grant said."

A traditional 60/40 stock/bond allocation no longer provides the same broad economic exposure it once did. Market-structure changes and a sharp decline in US public companies have narrowed public-market coverage, with roughly 8,000 listed firms in 1996 versus about 4,000 in 2024. Full exposure to the global economy increasingly requires private assets. Investors can access private markets through private equity funds, ETFs, venture capital, or private-credit vehicles. A moderate allocation example is 50% stocks, 30% bonds and 18–20% alternatives; alternatives comprise private markets and hedge funds. More aggressive portfolios should increase the private/alternative allocation.

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