While it may be difficult to endure at the time, a market plunge can teach investors plenty about the state of their portfolios. And so it has proven this year: the Covid-19 pandemic may not be over yet, but managers are already putting the lessons of early 2020 to good use.

At the same time, there are still plenty of unanswered questions. Assets such as government bonds have shown the resilience again this year, but there are many who doubt their future role in portfolios.

These doubts centre on their viability as diversifiers - their role as income-paying assets having long since expired - and diversification undoubtedly remains the watch-word for multi-asset strategies at the moment.

Income investors have problems of their own to deal with, now that swathes of companies the world over are cutting dividends. 

In this guide we discuss these issues, examine how investors are preparing their balanced portfolios for the medium and long-term, and ask what's next for multi-asset investing.

It is worth an indicative 60 minutes of CPD.