Loring Ward

The troubling headlines from Europe just keep on coming, and the seemingly-never-ending string of economic summits has failed so far to develop a comprehensive solution. This has led some investors to wonder if they should reduce their exposure to investments in the eurozone.

Though the eurozone has its share of ongoing challenges and uncertainty, this doesn't mean investors should exit Europe entirely.

Some investors with a keen eye on the markets have asked why their diversified portfolios did not perform in line with the more widely covered industry benchmarks, such as the S&P 500 Index. If your investment portfolio is broadly diversified in the global equity markets with an emphasis on small and value stocks, performance results will likely vary from equity-tracked benchmarks.

The extraordinary performance of fixed income investments in the past few years resulted from a combination of slow economic growth, low inflation and aggressive intervention by the Federal Reserve. These unusual factors are unlikely to be repeated over the next 30 years, and these unexpected returns simply cannot reoccur.