Update: Per haukex's query, the version of Regexp::Common::balanced I'm using is 2010010201, so yes, I'm a bit behind the times and the behavior of 1nickt's code is not unexpected.

c:\@Work\Perl\monks>perl -wMstrict -le
"use Regexp::Common qw(balanced);
 print $Regexp::Common::balanced::VERSION;
"
2010010201
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Are you sure about that code? I can only generate the given output when I add the  -keep switch to the  RE_balanced() call.

Without -keep:

c:\@Work\Perl\monks>perl -wMstrict -le
"use strict; use warnings; use 5.010;
 use Regexp::Common 'RE_balanced';
 my $string = 'The use of parentheses (indicates that the ' .
    '(writer [considered] the {information}) less ' .
    '<importantalmost> an afterthought).';
 my $match = RE_balanced( -parens => '(){}[]<>' );
 $string =~ s/${match}.*//;
 $1 and say \"^>$_^<\" for $string, $1;
"
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c:\@Work\Perl\monks>perl -wMstrict -le
"use strict; use warnings; use 5.010;
 use Regexp::Common 'RE_balanced';
 my $string = 'The use of parentheses (indicates that the ' .
    '(writer [considered] the {information}) less ' .
    '<importantalmost> an afterthought).';
 my $match = RE_balanced( -parens => '(){}[]<>', -keep );
 $string =~ s/${match}.*//;
 $1 and say \"^>$_^<\" for $string, $1;
"
>The use of parentheses <
>(indicates that the (writer [considered] the {information}) less <imp
+ortantalmost> an afterthought)<
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