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According to Plan

TD AMERITRADE's Portfolio Planner can help you adjust
your asset allocations to support your goals

Jim Arbogast / Getty Images

Asset allocation — the percentage of investing dollars assigned to each asset category — is considered crucial for balancing risk and return. Yet it's easy to lose sight of how your portfolio breaks down by asset and sub-asset class. TD AMERITRADE's Portfolio Planner can help bring that bigger picture into focus. Log on to your account, then click "Portfolio" under Portfolio & Accounts.

The tool lets you analyze current holdings and design an allocation strategy. Then you can make trades that help bring your portfolio in line with your investment goals. "Choose from five pre-built allocation strategies, design your own, or create a basket of securities and assign allocations to each one," says John Bell, Product Manager, TD AMERITRADE's Managed Solutions Group.

Suppose you choose a pre-built model tailored to "aggressive" investment goals. (The five alternatives range from capital preservation to aggressive.) That strategy's asset allocation targets are 79% equity, 13% fixed income and 8% other, which includes alternative investments and securities such as real estate, commodities and long/short funds.Those asset classes are then broken down into sub-asset classes, each with its own allocation target.

Next you can choose Exchange Traded Funds, closed-end funds or stocks to fill allocation slots, using TD AMERITRADE screening tools to find investments based on your individual parameters. Or you can enter a security's symbol in the search field. Portfolio Planner prompts you to set target allocations for all assets.

"Once you've set your list of assets and target allocations," Bell explains, "the tool determines what trades will bring your allocation back in line with your target. You can then review the orders and execute the trades with a single click." The only costs are the standard trading commissions. "You do the research to choose your investments. The tool simply shows you how to get to your target allocation," Bell says.
— JP

Compatible securities are assigned by TD AMERITRADE to an asset class and subclass based on a third-party provider's asset classification service. Portfolio Planner only uses market orders to buy/sell compatible assets (marginable stocks, Exchange Traded Funds [ETFs] and closed-end funds [CEFs]). Incompatible assets currently include mutual funds (which will soon be available) as well as Pink Sheets and Over-the-Counter Bulletin Board (OTCBB) securities, options, limited partnerships, individual bonds and short positions.

TD AMERITRADE does not make recommendations or determine the suitability of any security, strategy or course of action for you through your use of Portfolio Planner. Any investment decision you make in your self-directed account is solely your responsibility.

To utilize the Portfolio Planner you must subscribe to real-time quotes for all exchanges. The tool uses real-time quotes to calculate rebalance transactions. Access to real-time market data is conditioned on acceptance of the exchange agreements. Professional access differs and subscription fees may apply.

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