The “Ex-America” Trade: Why Geographic Diversification Is Back on the Agenda

For much of the past decade, the simplest and most profitable call an adviser could make for a client was to stay concentrated in US equities. That pattern has shifted. Non-US markets have posted some of their strongest returns in years, and the gap has been wide enough that strategists at several major houses are now describing it as a genuine rotation rather than a one-off blip. For advisers with internationally mobile clients, this is a timely moment to revisit how much of a portfolio sits outside the United States.

A Reversal More Than a Decade in the Making

The numbers tell a striking story. Non-US equities, as measured by the MSCI World ex USA index, climbed by roughly a third in 2025, comfortably outpacing a still-solid year for the S&P 500. That outperformance has continued into 2026, with strategists at Goldman Sachs noting that global stocks have outpaced the US market by a wide margin since the start of the year, marking one of the weakest starts for US equities relative to the rest of the world in three decades.

Two forces are doing most of the work. The first is currency: a weaker US dollar has meaningfully boosted the US-dollar returns that international holdings deliver to overseas investors, accounting for a large share of the recent outperformance. The second is valuation. After years of US markets trading at a growing premium, the gap has become historically wide, with the S&P 500 trading at close to double the forward earnings multiple of the broader international index. Research from J.P. Morgan has gone further, suggesting developed international markets could outperform US equities over the coming decade on the back of that valuation gap alone.

What This Means Beyond the Headline Numbers

None of this amounts to a call to abandon US exposure, and short-term rotations of this kind have reversed before. But for clients who built portfolios during a decade when concentration in US markets was consistently rewarded, the current environment is a useful prompt to check whether that concentration still matches their risk tolerance and long-term objectives, rather than simply reflecting what has worked recently.

This is precisely the gap that a genuinely global, multi-asset approach is designed to close. TEAM’s UCITS funds are built around diversified exposure across asset classes and geographies rather than a concentrated bet on any single market, which means a client invested in the Multi Asset Growth, Balanced or Conservative fund is already positioned to capture strength in non-US markets without needing to time the rotation themselves. For advisers, this is a natural entry point to revisit a client’s existing allocation and discuss whether their current geographic split still reflects their goals.

Geographic diversification is not limited to listed equities. Clients looking to extend that principle beyond the stock market may also find International Property Investment a useful complement, offering exposure to real assets outside a single home market as part of a broader diversification strategy. For clients weighing a defined view on where markets go from here rather than broad exposure, Structured Notes can also be built around specific international indices or baskets, allowing a more targeted way to participate in the trend while managing downside risk.

A Conversation Worth Having Now

Rotations like this one tend to prompt client questions, whether from those who feel they have missed the move or those wondering whether it has further to run. Either way, it is a good moment for advisers to reopen the diversification conversation, using the current environment as a concrete, data-backed reason to review allocations rather than waiting for a client to raise it first.

At NEBA Financial Solutions, we support advisers in translating shifts like this into practical portfolio decisions, whether that means reviewing how a client’s allocation to TEAM’s UCITS funds is positioned for continued international strength, or discussing where International Property Investment or Structured Notes could add a more targeted layer of geographic diversification. Advisers looking to discuss a specific client scenario are welcome to reach out to their NEBA Financial Solutions relationship manager.

This article draws on public market research and reporting, including data from Goldman Sachs, Fidelity, Dodge & Cox, J.P. Morgan and Forbes, current as of mid-September 2026.