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Asset location

Deciding which account type holds which assets, so that the most heavily taxed holdings sit in sheltered accounts and tax-efficient ones sit in taxable accounts.

Location is distinct from asset-allocation. The overall mix stays the same; only the placement changes. Interest income, REIT distributions and high-turnover strategies are taxed unfavourably and are natural candidates for a tax-advantaged-account; broad equity index funds generating little taxable income each year are comparatively efficient in a taxable account.

The benefit is real but modest, generally worth a few tenths of a percent a year, and it interacts with other decisions. Holding only equities in the sheltered account and only bonds in the taxable one complicates rebalancing, since selling to rebalance in a taxable account has a cost.

Location choices also depend on which account is likely to be spent first, and on estate treatment, both of which vary by jurisdiction and by individual circumstance.

Related: tax-advantaged-account, asset-allocation, tax-loss-harvesting, tax-aware-rebalancing, cost-basis-method, rebalancing

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