Financial planners group investments into asset classes (A grouping of investments, based on the total market value of the company or companies and on the type of investment (stock, bond, cash, or other).) based partially on their market capitalization. Market capitalization is determined by multiplying the number of a company's shares by the share price. Depending on the total, it is called a small-cap, mid-cap, or large-cap investment. How your investments are divided or allocated among those classes is an important investment consideration.

You can use Money to figure out how your investments are allocated. Money reviews your portfolio and assigns many of your investments to asset classes. For stocks and certain mutual fund holdings, Money uses the investment's ticker symbol and MSN Money to retrieve asset class information. For bonds, CDs, some money market funds, and other investments, Money uses the data you provide when you add the investment to an investment account. You may also need to manually assign an asset class to an investment after you've created it.

Your assets are assigned to one of the following classes:

• Small-cap investments: Stocks or funds with a market capitalization of less than $1 billion
• Mid-cap investments: Stocks or funds with a market capitalization between $1 billion and $5 billion
• Large-cap investments: Stocks or funds with a market capitalization of more than $5 billion
• Bonds: Corporate or government bonds
• Money Market/Cash: CDs, money market funds, and traditional savings accounts
• Other: Investments not included in the other asset classes

Money determines your asset allocation using the historical performance and risk level of each asset class, together with the percentage of your assets in each class.

In the asset allocation report, you can review your asset allocation in an individual account, in a group of accounts, or in your entire portfolio.