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What is the rebalancing premium, and how does PortfolioPilot calculate it?

The rebalancing premium is the additional return that comes from systematically rebalancing your portfolio back to its target allocation over time. When different assets grow at different rates, rebalancing forces you to sell the high-performing ones and buy the under-performing ones — a "buy low, sell high" effect that can improve long-term returns.

PortfolioPilot estimates the rebalancing premium for your portfolio based on the volatility and correlation of your holdings.

What affects the rebalancing premium:

  • Higher-volatility assets generally produce a higher rebalancing premium.
  • Assets with low correlation to each other produce more premium.
  • Across diversified multi-asset portfolios, the premium is typically small but it compounds significantly over decades.

You can change the rebalancing frequency inside the Retirement planner calculations and use what-if scenarios to compare different frequencies side-by-side (e.g. quarterly vs annually) and see the long-term impact on your projected net worth in one view.

To see the rebalancing impact on your current portfolio directly, create a draft portfolio with your desired allocation and use Analysis & comparison to compare it against your current portfolio. You can also ask the AI Assistant: "What is the rebalancing premium for my portfolio?"

Last updated on
May 25, 2026

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