Top 10 Facts About Mutual Fund Owners

Currently, 92 million Americans in nearly half of all U.S. households are invested in mutual funds. More than 31 million own long-term mutual funds in taxable accounts.

Today, one in three Americans is a mutual fund shareholder.

Nearly half of all mutual fund shareholders are Baby Boomers and 24 percent are Generation X.

The median household income for mutual fund shareholders is $68,700.

Two-thirds of mutual fund shareholders own funds outside employer-sponsored retirement plans and about 80 percent of them have purchased at least one of these funds through a professional financial adviser.

Excluding their primary residence, nearly half of the household financial assets of mutual fund owning households is in mutual funds, including funds held in employer-sponsored retirement plans.

More than 9 out of every 10 mutual fund shareholders are saving for retirement. More than two-thirds of mutual fund shareholders own IRAs, and 84 percent have defined contribution retirement plan accounts.

Seventy percent bought their first mutual fund more than 10 years ago and 58 percent purchased their first fund through a defined contribution retirement plan.

Eight out of every 10 mutual fund investors own equity funds.

Sources: Investment Company Institute 2005 Fact Book and 2004 Profile of Mutual Fund Shareholders.

The Fact Book is the Institute’s annual review of its statistics and research, including investment company statistics, mutual fund shareholder demographics, analysis of the economics of the investment company industry, and the role of mutual funds in the retirement market.

Profile of Mutual Fund Shareholders is the Institute’s periodic survey of mutual fund shareholders that examines their demographic, financial, and fund ownership characteristics.

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