But the question lingered in my febrile brain: What is a good income portfolio for a woman of 57 and her teenage son who like living high off the hog?

Frank Redington was best known for his development of Immunisation Theory which specifies how a fixed income portfolio can be "immunised" against changing interest rates.

Individual business units have risk measures such as duration for a fixed income portfolio or beta for an equity business.

He added: "Clearly there is an added layer of currency risk, but there is a role to play in a well-diversified income portfolio."

He said: "This split works well for income portfolios and I would adopt a similar approach with larger investments."

"Hardly an income portfolio."

But Mr. Kobren includes stock funds in his income portfolio, while most of the others stick to bond funds.

At Storebrand, Mr. Michelet's managed the company's "non-life" cash position, equity portfolios and fixed income portfolio valuing approximately $5 billion.

This year, Ms. Cox said, Schwab will develop a series of income portfolios, with varying amounts of stocks, bonds and variable annuities.

This strategy involves the construction and management of high current income portfolios of senior bank loans.