Alight Solutions 401k Index: December 2019 Observations

According to the Alight Solutions 401(k) Index™, December 2019 was a light month for 401(k) trading with zero days of above-normal¹ activity. On average, only 0.012% of balances were traded daily making December the third lightest trading month in the more than 20-year history of the 401(k) Index.

December observations:

On average, 0.012% of 401(k) balances were traded daily
15 of 21 days favored fixed income funds

Alight Solutions 401(k) Index statistics for December 2019:

Index statistics	December	2019 YTD
Total transfers as percentage of starting balance	0.13%	2.29%
# Fixed days	15 (71%)	216 (86%)
# Equity days	6 (29%)	36 (14%)
# Above-normal days	0	25

Inflows and outflows during December:

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

Asset classes with most trading inflows in December

	Percentage of inflows	Index dollar value ($ mil)
Bond funds	68%	$193
International equity funds	12%	$33

Asset classes with most trading outflows in December

	Percentage of outflows	Index dollar value ($ mil)
Company stock	40%	$114
Large U.S. equity funds	36%	$102

December investment portfolios:

After reflecting market movements and trading activity, average asset allocation in equities increased from 67.7% in November to 68.1% in December
New contributions to equities decreased from 67.5% in November to 67.4% in December

Asset classes with largest percentage of total at end of December

	Percentage of balance	Index dollar value ($ mil)
Target date² funds	29%	$65,964
Large U.S. equity funds	26%	$58,417
Stable value funds	9%	$21,286

Asset classes with most contributions in December

	Percentage of contribution	Index dollar value ($ mil)
Target date funds	49%	$508
Large U.S. equity funds	20%	$208
International funds	7%	$73

December market observations:

Equity indices continued their positive trend with international equities (represented by the MSCI All Country World ex-U.S. Index) rising 4.3%, both large U.S. equities (represented by the S&P 500 Index) and small U.S. equities (represented by the Russell 2000 Index) gaining around 3.0%. U.S. bonds (represented by the Bloomberg Barclays U.S. Aggregate Index) fell slightly by 0.1%.

Returns for common indices

	December	2019 YTD
Bloomberg Barclays U.S. Aggregate Index	-0.1%	8.7%
S&P 500 Index	3.0%	31.5%
Russell 2000 Index	2.9%	25.5%
MSCI All Country World ex-U.S. Index (net)	4.3%	21.5%

Members of the media: please contact Landis Cullen 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. The amount in the target risk funds is less than 10% of the total.