Ownership of Mutual Funds, Shareholder Sentiment, and Use of the Internet, 2019

Abstract

Each year, the Investment Company Institute (ICI) conducts a telephone survey of US households to track households’ ownership of mutual funds and to gather information on their demographic and financial characteristics. The most recent survey was conducted from May to July 2019 and was based on a dual-frame telephone sample of 4,000 US households. Of these, 1,800 households were from a landline random digit dial (RDD) frame and 2,200 households were from a cell phone RDD frame. Of the households contacted, 1,821 households, or 45.5 percent, owned mutual funds. This paper presents results from the survey, highlighting incidence of mutual fund ownership among US households; mutual fund shareholder sentiment; households’ willingness to take financial risk; and mutual fund–owning households’ use of the internet.

Keywords: mutual fund ownership, household finance

JEL Classification: G, J