Northern Trust released the inaugural edition of the DC Tracker, a report that follows how investors moved their money based on the 85 plans and $190 billion of assets for which Northern Trust provides custody services. Despite a 16.4% gain in domestic equities as measured by the Russell 3000, investors experienced outflows as high as 5% for small cap. It comes as no surprise that the winners were target-date funds (TDFs), which increased overall assets from 11.87% to 14.62%. And fixed income saw inflows of 7.17%—a big surprise. International equities saw inflows in 2012 of 4.67% and company stock experienced outflows of 11.22%.
The numbers may be deceiving, though, because dominant TDFs are the big three equity managers (Fidelity, Vanguard and T. Rowe Price), which means a lot of money could have been invested in domestic equities through fast-growing TDF investments.
