Video

Focus on Funds: Latest Data on Mutual Fund Ownership

|
| Print
Focus on Funds

Latest Data on Mutual Fund Ownership

The November 20, 2015, edition of Focus on Funds reviews ICI’s newly released annual survey of mutual fund–owning households. Senior Director of Retirement and Investor Research Sarah Holden examines fund investors, their savings goals, and their typical holdings.

Transcript

Stephanie Ortbals-Tibbs, ICI Director, Media Relations: U.S. mutual fund ownership is significant and strong. That’s a key finding from ICI’s latest survey of American households. This comprehensive annual survey offers a host of insights on Americans’ investment habits and ICI Senior Director for Retirement Investment Research, Sarah Holden, shared some more of the detailed findings with me, including information on household investment holdings, risk tolerance, savings goals, and confidence in funds. Here’s more.

Sarah Holden, ICI Senior Director, Retirement and Investor Research: The key finding that we get from the annual mutual fund shareholder tracking survey is the percentage of U.S. households that own mutual funds. So in mid-2015, 43 percent of U.S. households, or nearly 54 million households, owned mutual funds. These folks indicate that they have a lot of goals in terms of their financial investing, but three-quarters of them say that saving for retirement is their primary financial goal.

Ortbals-Tibbs: So Sarah, thinking about this very diverse group of savers that do generally share a common savings goal, what else do we see in terms of insight about their age and their income levels?

Holden: So the majority of mutual fund owning households are in their peak earning and saving years. 64 percent of them are headed by someone between the ages of 35 and 64. They tend to be employed and they tend to have moderate incomes, and many of them came to invest in funds through that job, through their retirement plan at work.

Ortbals-Tibbs: So what do the data tell us about their fund holdings?

Holden: So the households that own mutual funds do tend to own many, or multiple mutual funds. 81 percent of them own more than one fund and the most common type of fund owned is equity funds. And this reflects really the long-term perspective that they have in being invested in the market.

Ortbals-Tibbs: And finally, the data show that there’s a lot of investor confidence in their funds.

Holden: Yes, so we asked them how they feel about the industry and they feel very favorable towards it, and 84 percent of them say that they’re confident that mutual funds can help them meet their financial goals.

Additional Resources