Participant transfer activity perked up in May, notching the highest monthly trading totals in two years.
According to the Aon Hewitt 401(k) Index, there were eight days of above-normal trading activity in May. On average, 0.031% of balances transferred each day, making May the first month with transfers above 0.03% since October 2013. A “normal” level of relative transfer activity is when the net daily movement of participants’ balances, as a percent of total 401(k) balances within the Aon Hewitt 401(k) Index, equals between 0.3 times and 1.5 times the average daily net activity of the preceding 12 months. There have been 23 above-normal trading days in 2015.
Most of those May transfers went to international (45% of inflows), money market (26%), and GIC/stable value funds (24%), while the most common classes for outflows were large U.S. equity (31%), company stock (25%) and small U.S. equity funds (14%).
One-in-four contribution dollars went to target-date funds — twice as much as the next asset class (19% into large U.S. equity funds).
