Morningstar published its inaugural Global Investor Portfolio Study, which examines how individual investors in 14 markets construct portfolios. The study finds there is a wide divergence in portfolio preferences based on where an investor is located.
“Our inaugural global study of portfolio construction shows that there is no such thing as an average investor,” said Wing Chan, lead author of the study and head of manager research for Europe and Asia Pacific. “As investors around the world demand more personalized portfolios, it’s important to understand the factors that drive investing behaviors in order to improve the investing experience and empower investors’ financial success.”
The study analyzes how local market practices and investment culture, retirement safety net, and regulatory landscape drive investors’ financial needs and their appetite to take risks in their portfolios. It also considers the availability of financial products, how investors approach portfolio construction, the overall asset allocation of portfolios, and the magnitude of home-market bias – when a portfolio’s geographic exposure is skewed towards the investor’s home market.
Investors are more willing to take risks in their portfolios when they begin investing early in life. This is seen in markets with a higher prevalence of defined-contribution retirement schemes, where investors tend to build or are defaulted into more aggressive portfolios with higher equity weightings and less bond and cash exposure. This includes markets such as Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
In contrast, in markets such as France, Germany, and Japan, which have defined-benefit schemes and, in some cases, are supported by universal healthcare and a comprehensive social security net, there is less incentive for investors to make their own financial planning decisions. As a result, these investors tend to have conservative portfolios.
Real estate makes up most non-financial asset wealth globally and is the primary reason investors take on significant debt, especially in highly indebted markets such as Australia, Canada, China, Hong Kong, and New Zealand.
Home-market bias is prevalent in all markets, though there are often additional drivers beyond traditional reasons such as familiarity, accessibility, and avoiding currency risk. These include the size of the domestic equity and bond markets, capital controls, and tax benefits.
U.S. investors generally have a high appetite for risk, as U.S. households hold the least amount of cash and deposits. Investors in Japan, however, represent the most conservative cohort, with more than 50% of households’ assets sitting in cash or deposits, despite more than two decades of close-to-zero interest rates.
While sustainable investing is most popular in Europe and is gaining interest in Australia, New Zealand, and North America, ESG issues have yet to become top considerations when investors construct portfolios in Asia. In the U.S., sustainability plays a supporting role in investment selection, but ESG considerations appear to be particularly important to younger investors.
Cryptocurrencies are included in portfolios across the globe but continue to be used by a minority of investors, with a heavy concentration among younger cohorts. The most cryptocurrency-friendly investors are in Singapore – which is home to several prominent cryptocurrency companies, Hong Kong, and Canada – which has over 14% of assets allocated to the space.
