Aon Hewitt Releases 401(k) Data

November 2011 – Index Activity Over Time

• Participant transfer activity was slightly below average during November, with 0.033% of balances transferred on average during November, according to the results of the Hewitt 401(k) Index™. All together $253 million (0.20%) of total 401(k) assets transferred between funds.
• The direction of transfers was almost an even split in terms of net flows—with 52% of November days in favor of equities, while 48% of the days favored fixed income investments. Despite this fact, the net dollars moved for the overall month again favored fixed income funds—a consistent trend since June.

• Nearly all equity asset classes saw net outflows. Including company stock, $239 million of all transfers came from equities. Small U.S. equity funds had the largest outflows in November, totaling $67 million (representing 27% of total outflows). International funds experienced $43 million (17%) of outflows, and large U.S. equity funds lost $36 million (14%) for the month.
• Fixed income asset classes received most of the net transfers, with bond funds receiving the largest amount of $149 million (59%) of total inflow activity. Stable value funds received $94 million (37%), while money market funds had nominal gains of $6 million.
• Participant discretionary contributions directed to equities (employee only contributions) continued to decline from 61.5% in October to 60.8% in November. Contributions to equities have been falling steadily since July and are a reasonable gauge of participant sentiment.
• The overall average participant equity allocation declined from 58.8% to 58.6%. The primary driver of this was participant transfers, while market movement had a negligible impact.

The following tables show Hewitt 401(k) Index statistics and the returns of major market indices for the month of November 2011:

Index Returns

Index Statistics