Retirement plan participants are calming down, according to a Massachusetts Mutual analysis of its plans.
About 4% of participants changed their 401(k) allocations in the second quarter, despite volatility in the S&P 500 index, which fell 11.4% during the period.
MassMutual administers accounts for 1 million participants in 6,000 plans.
"While I can't speak to the behavior of all investors, I believe that MassMutual participants are holding steady because we have been aggressively communicating with them on the importance of saving consistently and adhering to a long-term investment strategy," said Heather Smiley, chief marketing officer for the retirement services division.
The company noted that plan participants' account balances fell 3.3% in the quarter, beating the S&P by more than eight percentage points.
MassMutual says the lesser drop was due to plan participants' rising allocations to stable-value and bond funds. Equity allocations fell from 41.1% to 38.4% during the quarter.
