No, not the academy awards. Too early for that. But this post is about the ostrich-like approach 401(k) participants have taken in opening (or rather not opening), their December 31, 2008 statements. Earlier this month, I posted the visual below about participants’ hesitation, Just Get It Over With, from Jessica Hagy’s award winning blog, Indexed,
That’s a facetious description, of course. But specific and troubling data comes out of a recent survey by I-Pension, LLC, a Newton, MA-based Registered Investment Advisor focused on middle-income investors.
I-Pension surveyed middle-income investors following the 2008 year-end meltdown and found that:
- 27% of the respondents admitted to not opening their fourth-quarter 401(k) statements.
- Of those that did open their statements and read their statements, almost 33%spent less than one minute reviewing the results and 72% spent less than 3 minutes.
Here is I-Pension’s press release that discusses the survey and other findings regarding 401(k) participants’ investment expertise – or lack thereof.
To paraphrase a pop culture expression, the answer is out there somewhere.
