What happened to asset allocation targets?

AZ Cat · November 2020

Just downloaded R30.10 There are a lot of new bells and whistles on asset class, but it also stripped off all my old target percentages. Any way to recover those? They also removed the very helpful sample asset classes.

Jim_Harman · November 2020

I'm afraid your old targets are gone unless you printed out the allocation page before installing 30.10.

I think the sample allocations and expected returns have also been removed from Quicken.

BK · November 2020

@Jim_Harman , Do you know if this was planned and communicated? Did it just become a Premier-only feature? Or a mistake? I don't see anything in the release notes.

bernie.otten · November 2020

Same issue........Very Disappointing!

Bob_L · November 2020

Removing the sample asset classes is IMHO a big mistake. My bet is that it was driven by either cost considerations regarding Newport or maybe Newport just stopped offering them. Also customer requests for custom asset classes muddied things up as well.

Computation of expected returns and risks are still shown but it is not clear how they come up with these, especially given that custom classes can be included.
Too bad as expected returns for various asset classes was something that was very helpful.

Boatnmaniac · November 2020

Jim_Harman said:

I'm afraid your old targets are gone unless you printed out the allocation page before installing 30.10.

I think the sample allocations and expected returns have also been removed from Quicken.

Yes, the old targets are gone but it is easy to set up new targets, again...as long as you remember about what those targets were.

But I'm a bit confused by your comment that the expected returns have been removed. Here is what I'm seeing and expected returns and risks are still shown:

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6031128/uploads/editor/q1/aqi10y3h493v.png

I don't really recall anything about Sample Allocations from before R30.10. R30.10 does show some Sample Allocation in the Allocation Guide but it looks odd...doesn't really fit in with the look of the rest of the section. Is this what you are referring to or is it something else?:

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6031128/uploads/editor/bn/xgmeftlrt267.png

Ralph Knox · January 4

I too liked the sample target allocations. They provided you with a nice thumbnail set of targets based upon risk/return criteria which you could then map to your own personal tolerance and goals. In the updated version, additional information is provided about factors that determine your risk/return tolerance, but nothing to assist you in creating your personal target. So, yes this is a big loss from a personal investment management point of view.

And no answers to the real questions: Why was this removed? And does anyone at Quicken care?

Bob_L · January 4

Well I believe the reason for this change is that there was a vocal group of users asking for "custom" asset classes, e.g. mid cap, REITs, etc. Quicken responded by giving them custom asset classes, apparently not realizing how there would then be no way to come up with expected return and risk. It also makes the downloaded asset class information for mutual funds involving a mixture of asset classes no longer accurate since they are based on the previous pre-determined asset classes, without for example mid cap.

I found the previous expected return and risk to be very helpful, thinking it was done by the Newport group using modern portfolio theory. Since Newport seems to have now disappeared from Quicken, I have no idea how they are currently calculating expected returns, even if you remain with the original classes and do not add any new custom ones.

Quicken owes us an explanation as to how expected returns and risk are now being calculated if users remain with the existing, preset asset classes. I also worry that they may now choose to save more money by eliminating downloaded asset classes for securities. Hopefully they will not do that!

Gary587 · February 8

Adding this to this thread since Quicken no longer has the Newport analysis.

Ironically the app still says that Quicken can provide help selecting target allocations even though they removed the Newport service.

For those who need a little more guidance than what Quicken now provides (basically nothing !) , here's a link with a nice chart of five asset allocation scenarios from Schwab based on investment time horizons.

https://www.newretirement.com/retirement/sample-asset-allocations/

mshiggins · February 9

Bob_L said:

Quicken owes us an explanation as to how expected returns and risk are now being calculated if users remain with the existing, preset asset classes. I also worry that they may now choose to save more money by eliminating downloaded asset classes for securities. Hopefully they will not do that!

@Bob_L
Did you ever get an explanation from Quicken?

Bob_L · February 9

Nope

What happened to asset allocation targets?

Answers