The mutual fund industry has boasted that even in 2002, with the S&P 500 down more than 22%, it took in a net $75 billion. But $64 billion, or 85% of that money, came from passive, automatic 401(k) contributions not investors actively seeking out funds in nonretirement accounts, The Wall Street Journal reports. In fact, stock funds in nonretirement accounts lost a net $54 billion last year, according to the Journal. And the trend is continuing this year.
The figure is particularly significant because 401(k) flows have amounted to no more than 20% of all fund flows in recent years, data from the
"Participants contributions to their 401(k) plans powered the fund industrys growth in the 1990s and has held steady since then," Chris Brown, an analyst with
At
