“We have been increasing international exposure for the past two to four years based on a client’s situation,” Aaron Clarke, financial adviser at Acorn Financial Services, told InvestmentNews. “Our offices manage over $800 million in assets, and most clients have at least 50% of their equity exposure in international investments.”
International equities have long played second fiddle to U.S. markets, lagging behind U.S. equities for many years following the global financial downturn. However, after years of outperformance, U.S. stocks are beginning to look expensive, so more investors are turning to cheaper opportunities abroad.
“We have increased our international exposure this year and last year to both developed international and emerging-markets international,” Sterling Neblett, founding partner of Centurion Wealth Management, told InvestmentNews. “We feel that international equities are currently selling at cheaper valuations than domestic equities. Another interesting fact is that they still have not reached their 2007 pre-financial-crisis peak levels yet.”
For more information on foreign markets, visit our global ETFs category.