Aronson Family ETF Portfolio

Ted Aronson heads up AJO Partners based in Philadelphia. They manage about $20 billion. All institutional, tax-exempt retirement funds. No retail/taxable funds like Fidelity and Vanguard. And that's why Ted's portfolio is worth looking at.

"All of my family's retirement money is in AJO funds," says Ted. "But because the fund trades a lot, it's not suitable for taxable investments. So all our taxable money is in Vanguard's no-load index funds." Good advice from one of America's most successful money managers.

Ted is one of the rarest of America's 70,000 money managers. Why? Because he's one of the few that discloses his own portfolio assets and allocations. The 99.9 percent of the rest of them are too embarrassed probably because they're afraid their investors won't like what they see. Not Ted.

So here's Ted's 11-fund portfolio with the equivalent ETFs based on my understanding of his allocations. And remember folks, this is an asset-allocation strategy most financial planners charge big bucks for. The asset allocations percentages are in front of the fund's name.

Domestic stock funds (40%)
(5%) Wilshire 5000 - IWV
(15%) S&P 500 Index - SPY or IVV
(10%) Wilshire 4500 Mid-/Small-Cap - IJR
(5%) MSCI US Small-Cap Growth - IJT
(5%) MSCI US Small-Cap Value - IJS

Foreign stock funds (30%)
(15%) Emerging Markets - EEM
(10%) Pacific Stock Index - EPP + EWJ
(5%) European Stock Index - IEV

Fixed-income funds (30%)
(10%) TIPS: Inflation-Protected Securities - TIP
(10%) High-Yield Corporate - LQD
(10%) Long-Term Treasury - TLT