Schwab: 401(k) Savers Grow More Conservative

NU Online News Service, Dec. 19, 6:31 p.m. – Workers who used self-directed 401(k) plan brokerage accounts at Charles Schwab Corp., San Francisco, to save for retirement put nearly 95% of net new assets into taxable bond funds, asset-allocation funds, fixed-income securities and money-market funds during the third quarter, up from 49% who made such conservative choices in the second quarter, according to Schwab.

But overall self-directed account allocations were similar in the third quarter to allocations for the third quarter of 2001, Schwab says.

Forty-three percent of the assets were in mutual funds, unchanged from 2001. Equity assets fell to 21%, from 25%, and cash and cash equivalents rose to 29%, from 26%. Fixed-income assets increased to 7%, from 6%.