iShares AOR 60/40
iShares Core 60/40 Balanced Allocation (AOR)
Where it stands today
Our calculation, 1926-07 – 2026-09
Growth of $10,000
Where it came from
AOR is an iShares exchange-traded fund of funds that began trading on 4 November 2008 (inception date on the iShares fund page). It holds a handful of iShares Core ETFs and tracks an S&P Target Risk index, in which the stock/bond split is fixed by rule: 30/70 (Conservative), 40/60 (Moderate), 60/40 (Growth) and 80/20 (Aggressive) in the methodology document I could open.
The iShares page I read in October 2026 names the fund 'iShares Core 60/40 Balanced Allocation ETF' and its benchmark 'S&P Target Risk Balanced Index'. Older material and the web address call it 'Core Growth Allocation' and the Growth index. I could not find a dated notice of the rename, so I treat the Growth and Balanced labels as the same 60/40 product; this is an assumption.
The methodology I read (a 2015-era version) fixes the equity/fixed-income split and then sets the weights inside each sleeve by relative float-adjusted market capitalisation of US large, mid and small caps, developed Europe and Asia-Pacific and emerging markets, and of the US aggregate, Treasury and credit bond indices. The index is rebalanced annually at the end of October in that version (a search summary says a later notice moved to semi-annual); so the 60/40 split is static while the sub-weights drift with the market.
I use AOR as the replacement for the Bogleheads four-fund model (see uncertain) because it gives a published, rule-based 60/40 target and a verifiable current holdings list.
What is in it
| iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV) | 35.5% | holdings as of 23 Oct 2026 (stockanalysis.com) |
| iShares Core Total USD Bond Market ETF (IUSB) | 32.3% | |
| iShares Core MSCI International Developed Markets ETF (IDEV) | 17.1% | |
| iShares Core MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (IEMG) | 6.3% | |
| iShares Core International Aggregate Bond ETF (IAGG) | 5.8% | |
| iShares Core S&P Mid-Cap ETF (IJH) | 1.9% | |
| iShares Core S&P Small-Cap ETF (IJR) | 0.9% | cash and treasury fund 0.09% not listed |
How we model it
| US bond market (aggregate) | 38% |
| US large companies (S&P 500) | 37.5% |
| Developed markets outside the US | 17% |
| Emerging markets | 6.5% |
| US small companies | 1% |
For a euro investor
How to build it with European funds
| Part | Share | Example funds (ISIN) |
|---|---|---|
| US bond market (aggregate) (closest match) | 38% | iShares Core Global Aggregate Bond UCITS ETF EUR Hedged (Acc) IE00BDBRDM35iShares Core Global Aggregate Bond UCITS ETF USD (Dist) IE00B3F81409 |
| US large companies (S&P 500) | 37.5% | iShares Core S&P 500 UCITS ETF USD (Acc) IE00B5BMR087Vanguard S&P 500 UCITS ETF (USD) Distributing IE00B3XXRP09 |
| Developed markets outside the US (closest match) | 17% | iShares Core MSCI Europe UCITS ETF EUR (Acc) IE00B4K48X80iShares Core MSCI Japan IMI UCITS ETF IE00B4L5YX21 |
| Emerging markets | 6.5% | iShares Core MSCI Emerging Markets IMI UCITS ETF (Acc) IE00BKM4GZ66 |
| US small companies | 1% | SPDR Russell 2000 U.S. Small Cap UCITS ETF IE00BJ38QD84iShares MSCI USA Small Cap ESG Enhanced CTB UCITS ETF USD (Acc) IE00B3VWM098 |
The idea
A one-fund balanced portfolio with a fixed 60% stock / 40% bond split, a global stock sleeve weighted by market capitalisation and a broad bond sleeve.
How people buy it
The ETF AOR itself (expense ratio 0.20% gross, 0.15% net per the iShares page).
Rebalancing as published
Index methodology: the 60/40 split is reset at the index rebalance (annual, end of October, in the version I read; a later notice reportedly moved to semi-annual). Not verified for the current version.
Variants
- Other iShares allocation ETFs follow the same index family: Conservative 30/70, Moderate 40/60, Aggressive 80/20.
- Older snapshots show a similar mix: IVV about 37.4%, IUSB 30.6%, IDEV 16.6%, IEMG 6.9%, IAGG 5.3%, IJH 2.0%, IJR 1.0% (base.report, undated), i.e. sub-weights drift by a few points.
Criticism
- The rules fix the stock/bond split but the within-sleeve weights are market-cap based, so US stocks dominate; there is no value tilt, no commodities or REITs outside the broad index.
- No stated rule for adjusting the split with age or valuation (it is a fixed 60/40).
- Bonds fell together with stocks in 2022 (no source read here quantifies it for AOR).
Through the eras
| Era | Dates | Total | Per year | Worst drop | S&P 500 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Roaring Twenties boom | 1926-07 – 1929-08 | +90.0 % | +22.5 % | −3.6 % | +153.7 % |
| Wall Street crash and Great Contraction | 1929-09 – 1932-07 | −56.9 % | −25.0 % | −63.1 % | −78.2 % |
| New Deal recovery | 1932-08 – 1937-02 | +153.4 % | +22.5 % | −17.9 % | +268.7 % |
| Recession within the Depression | 1937-03 – 1938-03 | −31.5 % | −29.5 % | −31.5 % | −49.5 % |
| Rearmament and World War II | 1938-04 – 1945-09 | +121.2 % | +11.2 % | −17.5 % | +205.8 % |
| Postwar expansion | 1945-10 – 1965-12 | +537.4 % | +9.6 % | −15.6 % | +1212.9 % |
| Golden age of the 1950s | 1950-01 – 1959-12 | +214.0 % | +12.1 % | −9.1 % | +438.8 % |
| Go-go years and nifty-fifty | 1966-01 – 1968-12 | +24.1 % | +7.5 % | −10.2 % | +34.0 % |
| The Great Inflation (stagflation) | 1969-01 – 1982-07 | +100.9 % | +5.3 % | −30.0 % | +84.6 % |
| 1973-74 oil shock and bear market | 1973-01 – 1974-12 | −24.8 % | −13.3 % | −30.0 % | −41.7 % |
| Second oil shock and the Volcker disinflation | 1979-01 – 1982-08 | +47.7 % | +11.2 % | −10.5 % | +59.2 % |
| Great bull market in stocks and bonds | 1982-08 – 1999-12 | +1070.9 % | +15.2 % | −20.1 % | +2060.4 % |
| Black Monday | 1987-08 – 1987-12 | −14.0 % | — | −20.1 % | −21.8 % |
| Savings-and-loan crisis and 1990 recession | 1990-07 – 1991-03 | +5.1 % | — | −11.3 % | +7.4 % |
| 1994 bond market massacre | 1994-02 – 1994-12 | −3.4 % | — | −5.4 % | −3.2 % |
| Asian and Russian financial crises | 1997-07 – 1998-10 | +10.1 % | +7.4 % | −9.9 % | +22.4 % |
| Dot-com bubble and crash | 2000-03 – 2002-10 | −17.0 % | −6.7 % | −22.0 % | −37.2 % |
| Recovery and housing boom | 2002-11 – 2007-09 | +92.4 % | +14.2 % | −3.6 % | +97.0 % |
| Global financial crisis | 2007-10 – 2009-03 | −27.3 % | −19.1 % | −33.0 % | −44.7 % |
| The decade after the crisis | 2009-04 – 2019-12 | +191.4 % | +10.5 % | −10.9 % | +411.2 % |
| Fourth-quarter 2018 sell-off | 2018-09 – 2018-12 | −8.0 % | — | −8.0 % | −14.4 % |
| Covid crash and stimulus boom | 2020-02 – 2021-12 | +27.3 % | +13.4 % | −12.3 % | +53.6 % |
| Inflation shock and rate hikes | 2022-01 – 2022-12 | −16.3 % | −16.3 % | −21.2 % | −19.9 % |
Calendar years
Any N-year period
| Any N-year period | Worst | 10 % worse than | Median | 10 % better than | Best |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 y (1192) | −43.8 % | −6.6 % | +10.4 % | +23.8 % | +84.0 % |
| 3 y (1168) | −26.2 % | −0.4 % | +8.9 % | +16.0 % | +29.4 % |
| 5 y (1144) | −9.5 % | +2.9 % | +8.5 % | +14.1 % | +24.7 % |
| 10 y (1084) | −0.5 % | +4.8 % | +8.3 % | +13.2 % | +16.4 % |
| 15 y (1024) | +2.1 % | +5.8 % | +8.4 % | +13.1 % | +15.5 % |
| 20 y (964) | +3.2 % | +6.4 % | +8.7 % | +12.3 % | +14.6 % |
| 30 y (844) | +6.4 % | +7.7 % | +9.1 % | +10.7 % | +12.0 % |
How it behaved in history
- 2008 onward. The fund began trading on 4 November 2008, in the middle of the global financial crisis, so it has no history before that; for earlier eras only our asset-class series can say how such a mix would have behaved. www.ishares.com
Published results (by others)
- iShares page: three-year standard deviation 8.42% and equity beta 0.62 (as of 30 Sep 2026); year-to-date NAV total return 6.64% (as of 23 Oct 2026) (to September/October 2026): std dev 8.42%, beta 0.62, YTD 6.64% www.ishares.com
What we could not verify
- REPLACEMENT: the brief's m_bogleheads_four could not be verified. The Bogleheads wiki (bogleheads.org, including Four-fund_portfolio, Lazy_portfolios and the blog) answers every request with a Cloudflare verification page or HTTP 403, and no mirror carried the page. Secondary snippets only suggest it is Rick Ferri's Core Four (about 60/40: 30% US stock, 24% international, 40% bond, 6% REIT), which is already the model m_ferri.
- The Growth versus Balanced name and index change is not documented in a source I could open.
- The ETF-by-ETF weights come from a data aggregator, not from the iShares holdings file; the index methodology I read is from about 2015 and may have changed.
- No dated return table for 2022, 2008-2009 or other eras was found; the iShares performance section was truncated.
- The mapping treats IJH (mid-caps) as us_large and international bonds as US aggregate bonds.
Sources
- www.ishares.com
https://www.ishares.com/us/products/239756/ishares-core-growth-allocation-etf - stockanalysis.com
https://stockanalysis.com/etf/aor/holdings/ - www.spice-indices.com
https://www.spice-indices.com/idpfiles/spice-assets/resources/public/documents/methodology-sp-target-risk.pdf - base.report
https://base.report/ticker/AOR
Calculated on historical data. Past results do not predict the future. Models before the 1990s use stand-ins for classes that had no index yet; fees, taxes and fund costs are not included. This is mathematics, not an investment recommendation.