Americans increase mutual fund ownership, ICI says

Americans increased their mutual fund ownership in 2008 to the highest level in seven years, even as the U.S. economy fell into a recession.

Households owning shares of mutual funds rose to 52.5 million, or 45 percent, from 50.6 million, or 43.6 percent, a year earlier, the Investment Company Institute said in a report. The previous high was 47.8 percent in 2001, according to the Washington, D.C.-based trade group.

Mutual-fund ownership in the U.S. has more than doubled since 1990, according to ICI household data. The 2008 gain came as the Standard & Poor's 500 Index tumbled 38.5 percent for the year, the steepest drop since the Great Depression.

Most U.S. mutual-fund owners in 2008 had moderate household incomes, with three in five ranging between $25,000 and $99,999, the organization said. Two-thirds of those households were headed by people age 35 to 64, ICI said.

While ownership expanded, shareholders' opinions of mutual funds declined, according to the report. Households with a favorable rating on the funds dropped to 73 percent from 77 percent in 2007.

The U.S. economy entered a recession in December 2007, about four months after financial markets started seizing up as rising defaults on subprime mortgages began to affect the value of other assets in the credit markets.

Information for the report was gathered in a May telephone survey of 4,100 households. The results have a margin of error of plus or minus 1.5 percentage points, ICI said.