Alight Solutions 401k Index: December 2017 Observations

Trading among defined contribution plan investors was light in December, according to the Alight Solutions 401(k) Index^TM, with two days of above normal¹ trading activity.

December observations:

Net transfers for the month of December were 0.15% of balances
13 out of 20 days favored equity funds

The Alight Solutions 401(k) Index™ statistics for the month of December 2017:

Index statistics

	December	2017
Total transfers as percentage of starting balance	0.15%	1.45%
# Fixed days	7 (35%)	132 (53%)
# Equity days	13 (65%)	119 (47%)
# Above normal days	2	13

Inflows and outflows during the month:

Trading inflows mainly went to large U.S. equity, international and bond funds
Outflows were primarily from stable value, company stock and money market funds

Asset classes with most trading inflows in December

	Percentage of inflows	Index dollar value ($ mil)
Large U.S. equity funds	49%	$143
International funds	31%	$91
Bond funds	7%	$21

Asset classes with most trading outflows in December

	Percentage of outflows	Index dollar value ($ mil)
Stable funds	54%	$158
Company stock funds	31%	$91
Money market funds	12%	$36

December investment portfolios:

At the end of December, 68.6% of balances were invested in equities, up from 68.3% at the end of November
67.1% of new contributions were invested in equities, down marginally from 67.2% at the end of November

Asset classes with largest percentage of total balance at end of December

	Percentage of balance	Index dollar value ($ mil)
Target date funds²	27%	$55,435
Large U.S. equity funds	24%	$48,478
Stable value funds	10%	$20,518

Asset classes with most contributions in December

	Percentage of contributions	Index dollar value ($ mil)
Target date funds	47%	$489
Large U.S. equity funds	19%	$197
Stable value funds	8%	$84

December market observations

Positive gains were seen for large U.S. equities and international equities (represented by the S&P 500 Index and, MSCI All Country World ex-U.S. Index respectively). U.S. bonds (represented by the Bloomberg Barclays U.S. Aggregate Index) experienced lesser gains. Small U.S. equities (represented by the Russell 2000 Index) experienced a slight loss in December.

Returns for common indices

	December	2017 YTD
Bloomberg Barclays U.S. Aggregate Index	0.5%	3.5%
S&P 500 Index	1.1%	21.8%
Russell 2000 Index	-0.4%	14.7%
MSCI All Country World ex-U.S. Index (net)	2.2%	27.2%

Members of the media: please contact MacKenzie Lucas for questions about the Alight Solutions 401(k) Index™.

Learn more about the Alight Solutions 401(k) Index™ here.

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 Alight Solutions 401(k) Index™ equals between 0.3 times and 1.5 times the average daily net activity of the preceding 12 months. A “high” relative transfer activity day is when the net daily movement exceeds two times the average daily net activity. A “moderate” relative transfer activity day is when the net daily movement is between 1.5 and two times the average daily net activity of the preceding 12 months.
Target date funds also include the amounts in target risk funds for companies who do not have target date funds. The amount in the target risk funds is less than 10% of the total.