Equities Lose 401(k) Participant Assets in May

Defined contribution (DC) plan participants transferred monies from equities into fixed-income investments as the stock markets dropped substantially during May, Aon Hewitt found.

According to the results of the Aon Hewitt 401(k) Index, 64% of the days had transfer activities that favored fixed-income funds during the month. In sum, nearly $140 million moved from diversified equities (equity excluding company stock) into fixed-income investments.  

International equity funds lost $44 million (24%) in net transfers, followed by pre-mixed funds ($34 million, 19%) and small U.S. equity funds ($29 million, 16%). Seventy percent of the transferred assets went into bond funds, netting an additional $126 million. Although major equity indices were down markedly, company stock funds experienced positive flows for the first month since September 2011, totaling $47 million.  

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The overall equity allocation in the Index was down 1.5 percentage points, to 58.9% at the end of May, from 60.4% at the end of April, because of market weakness and changes in participant behavior. Another measure of participant sentiment is discretionary contributions (employee only contributions). In total, 61.3% of employee discretionary contributions were directed to equities by the end of May, down from 62.2% in April.  

More information is here.

 

T. Rowe Price Rolls Out Mobile App

T. Rowe Price released a mobile application to allow investors to manage their accounts and view fund information.

Individual investors and participants in employer-sponsored retirement plans can use the T. Rowe Price Personal App to check account balances, including those associated with T. Rowe Price Brokerage and small business accounts; view asset-allocation charts; track fund performance; check the status of pending transactions; access T. Rowe Price investment insights and market news; and conduct fund research.

Individual investors outside an employer-sponsored retirement plan can conduct mutual fund transactions.

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Security features include 128-bit encryption, which is similar to that available on troweprice.com. 

The free app, which is for iPhone and iPod Touch, is available for download here.  

 

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