Hedge Funds Barely Register on New Survey

Apparently investors were able to separate the SEC's existence from Mr. Donaldson's. Thirty-six percent of investors checked "don't know" when asked their view of the Commission chairman. And lest he think he's losing some kind of popularity contest to Mr. Spitzer, Mr. Donaldson can rest easy on that front. A full 39% of investors had no opinion of the hard-charging attorney general, who is generally credited with uncovering the mutual fund trading scandals and who recently announced he would run for governor of New York.

Other tid-bits from the survey include:

• 19% of investors who voted for George W. Bush said high-income taxes were their top concern, while only 3% of investors who voted for John Kerry said so.
• 79% of investors who voted for Mr. Bush said his tax cuts helped the economy, while 48% of those who voted for Mr. Kerry said the tax cuts hurt the economy. Fifty-one percent of Mr. Bush's backers, and 45% of Mr. Kerry's supporters agreed that future tax hikes would hurt the economy.
• Nearly two-thirds of investors said the outcome of the presidential election would not cause them to reallocate their investments.
• Only 43% of all investors said they reallocated their investments in 2004, however the percentage of those with more than US$250,000 in investments who said they reallocated this year (50%) was higher than those with less than US$250,000 (36%).
• More than half–55%–of those surveyed said they believe they will need more than US$1 million in assets in order to retire.

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Contact Bob Keane with questions or comments at [email protected].