There are a few things in life you can depend on. Unsolicited advice from your parents, for instance. Or being one sock short after washing a load of laundry. You can also rely on Morningstar Director of Personal Finance Christine Benz sharing the long-term stock and bond return forecasts of several highly respected investment firms—including BlackRock, J.P. Morgan, Morningstar Multi-Asset Research, Research Affiliates, Schwab, and Vanguard—each January.

Why does she engage in this annual ritual?

“Long-term return projections can be useful and are arguably even mission-critical in a financial planning context,” she argues. “Without some expectation of what market returns might be, it’s difficult to know how much to save,…