August was a quiet trading month for retirement plan investors, according to the Alight Solutions 401(k) Index™. Trading activity remained low, with zero above-normal1 trading days. When investors did make moves, they generally opted to lock in gains by reallocating assets from equities to fixed income funds.
August observations: |
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The Alight Solutions 401(k) Index statistics for the month of August: |
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Inflows and outflows during the month of August:
• Trading inflows mainly went to bond, money market and emerging markets funds. • Outflows were primarily from large U.S. equity, small U.S. equity and company stock funds. |
Asset classes with most trading inflows in August | Percentage of inflows | Index dollar value ($mil) |
| Bond funds | 68% | $203 |
| Money market funds | 13% | $40 |
| Emerging markets funds | 9% | $26 |
Asset classes with most trading outflows in August | Percentage of outflows | Index dollar value ($mil) |
| Large U.S. equity funds | 44% | $131 |
| Small U.S. equity funds | 20% | $61 |
| Company stock | 16% | $48 |
August investment portfolios: |
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Asset classes with largest percentage of total balance at the end of August | Percentage of balance | Index dollar value ($mil) |
Target date funds2 | 31% | $87,902 |
Large U.S. equity funds | 30% | $85,892 |
International equity funds | 7% | $19,359 |
Asset classes with most contributions in August | Percentage of contributions | Index dollar value($mil) |
Target date funds2 | 51% | $634 |
Large U.S. equity funds | 22% | $276 |
International equity funds | 7% | $86 |
Returns for common indices | August | 2025 YTD |
Bloomberg Barclays U.S. Aggregate Bond Index | 1.20% | 4.99% |
S&P 500 Index | 2.03% | 10.79% |
Russell 2000 Index | 7.14% | 7.06% |
MSCI All Country World ex-U.S. Index (net) | 3.47% | 21.64% |
1 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 2 times the average daily net activity of the preceding 12 months.
2 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.
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