Total return strategies and strategic bond funds are top picks

ASSET ALLOCATION

Many investors are left in a quandary about where to place their money in these uncertain times.

With Europe floundering, China looking to remove some of the heat from its domestic economy and the price of risk assets falling. Perhaps the most obvious choice and the one that has certainly been the default selection for many, is government bonds. But bonds do not always exhibit low volatility, as demonstrated in 2008 in corporate debt, when many investment grade bond prices fell in excess of 20%. Purchasing some government bonds now could lead to similar capital losses in the future: if inflation expectations were to rise only modestly (increasingly likely given the pound’s weakne...