Participants Prefer Professional Investment Help

The Vanguard Group has been releasing detailed reports on its client base for over a decade. The 2012 edition of How America Saves finds a growing trend toward participants choosing professionally managed investments. According to Vanguard's data, one third of all participants it services had all of their plan assets "in either a single target-date fund, a single target-risk or traditional balanced fund, or a managed account advisory service."  The impact is that it moves responsibility away from the participant and back toward the investment and advice programs selected by the employer. This was a jump from 9% at year-end 2005 to year-end 2011. Average account balances, which had declined dramatically during the 2008 economic downturn, are back at 2007 levels. Plan asset and contribution allocations have moved away slightly from equities. The average number of funds offered remains in the 18-19 range, with the average number used by participants remaining at 3.    

The Vanguard website contains the complete report, How America Saves 2012.