The Markets December 28, 2006

Fund Assets Up, But Inflows Fall

Rising market values continued to lift mutual fund assets last month, but new cash inflows were down from October’s pace.
Reported by
The combined assets of the nation’s mutual funds increased by $265.3 billion, or 2.6% to $10.281 trillion in November, according to the Investment Company Institute’s (ICI) survey of the mutual fund industry.
What the ICI terms “long-term funds’ – stock, bond, and hybrid funds – had a net inflow of $20.82 billion in November, down about 20% from $24.73 billion the month before.
Stock funds posted an inflow of $11.30 billion in November, compared with an inflow of $12.73 billion in October. Among stock funds, so-called world equity funds (US funds that invest primarily overseas) once again dominated, posting an inflow of $11.47 billion in November, though that was down slightly from October’s $11.92 billion inflow. In contrast, funds that invest primarily in the US had an outflow of $169 million in November, versus an inflow of $808 million in October.
Hybrid funds posted an inflow of $2.20 billion in November, compared with an inflow of $1.60 billion in October. Bond funds had an inflow of $7.31 billion in November, compared with an inflow of $10.41 billion in October. Of that, taxable bond funds had an inflow of $5.21 billion (down from an inflow of $8.17 billion in October), and municipal bond funds had an inflow of $2.10 billion in November, roughly equal to October’s $2.24 billion inflow.
Money market funds had an inflow of $55.01 billion in November, with funds offered primarily to institutions representing the lion’s share ($45.34 billion).
Data & Research December 27, 2006

Americans Have “Healthy″ Concerns About Retirement

Nearly one-third of Americans say not having enough to pay for health care is the biggest concern facing our nation in retirement.
Reported by
Nor was that concern relegated to those with lower incomes, according to a new survey from Edward Jones. In fact, those with an income of more than $75,000 are much more concerned about paying for their healthcare later in life (33%) than those with an income of $25,000 (16%), according to the survey.
Not surprisingly, the older the respondent, the more likely they were to be concerned about healthcare costs – 43% of those 55 to 64 years old were concerned, compared with just 10% of younger Americans.
The study, which was conducted by Kelton Research on behalf of Edward Jones, also highlighted that one in five respondents said they would have to rely on others to support them in retirement, though only about half that number (11%) of Baby Boomers thought they would have to rely on others.
Only one in ten said they would have to work longer than normally anticipated to fund retirement.

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