Retirement plan investors continued engaging in robust trading in May as stocks recovered from their April lows, according to the Alight Solutions 401(k) IndexTM. There were five above-normal1 trading days, bringing the year-to-date total for 2025 to 41, which matches the total for all of 2024.
May observations:
• On average, 0.023% of 401(k) balances were traded daily.
• 13 of 21 days favored fixed income funds.
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Inflows and outflows during the month of May:
• Trading inflows mainly went to bond, large U.S. equity and small U.S. equity funds. • Outflows were primarily from target date2, stable value and company stock funds. |
Asset classes with most trading inflows in May | Percentage of inflows | Index dollar value ($mil) |
| Bond funds | 48% | $442 |
| Large U.S. equity funds | 17% | $158 |
| Small U.S. equity funds | 17% | $155 |
Asset classes with most trading outflows in May | Percentage of outflows | Index dollar value ($mil) |
| Target date funds2 | 83% | $763 |
| Stable value funds | 9% | $87 |
| Company stock | 4% | $34 |
May investment portfolios: |
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Asset classes with largest percentage of total balance at the end of May | Percentage of balance | Index dollar value ($mil) |
Target date funds2 | 31% | $82,865 |
Large U.S. equity funds | 29% | $77,374 |
International equity funds | 7% | $18,302 |
Asset classes with most contributions in May | Percentage of contributions | Index dollar value($mil) |
Target date funds2 | 50% | $655 |
Large U.S. equity funds | 22% | $291 |
International equity funds | 7% | $92 |
Returns for common indices | May | 2025 YTD |
Bloomberg Barclays U.S. Aggregate Bond Index | -0.72% | 2.45% |
S&P 500 Index | 6.29% | 1.06% |
Russell 2000 Index | 5.34% | -6.85% |
MSCI All Country World ex-U.S. Index (net) | 4.58% | 14.03% |
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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