Looking to boost your investment returns and lower your risk? Try looking overseas.

International stocks offer better value than their U.S. counterparts on a variety of time-tested measures. And, contrary to received wisdom, if you invest globally in a sensible manner you'll reduce the risk to your portfolio, not increase it.

In the past 12 months, the U.S. stock market--as measured by the standard MSCI US Equity index--has risen about 16% and is hovering around all-time highs.