Fund Execs Urge Investors to Focus On Long-Term

Several funds prepared for Monday’s steep market declines by issuing statements on their Web sites intended to encourage investors to remain calm and focus on the long-term. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 685 points Monday to close at 8,821 while the Nasdaq dropped 116 points to 1,150.

On Friday, William Lyons, president of American Century Investments, urged investors to follow the lessons of history and remain invested in the markets. "Specific to investor portfolios, market dips that occurred on the heels of such crises as Pearl Harbor, the John F. Kennedy assassination and the Oklahoma City bombing were erased within months of the tragedies," he wrote in his message.