before u.s. markets opened wednesday, financial planner stacy francis had a few clients email to ask if they should move their 401(k) stock holdings into havens like gold funds, cash or treasurys in the wake of donald trump <u+2019>s presidential upset. ms. francis, chief executive and president of francis financial in new york, told clients to keep their existing allocations but also shared examples of investors who got burned by trying to time the market. for instance, she told the story of a man who moved his portfolio entirely into cash in 2008 before he was a client of her firm and then stayed out of the market for over two years. he finally reinvested around 2010 but his portfolio still hasn<u+2019>t made up for those lost years, she says. <u+201c>the best action to take now is none,<u+201d> she says of her advice, reminding them also that <u+201c>long-term investors who maintain their ideal asset allocation in good times and bad win.<u+201d> while companies that serve the 401(k) market say call volumes from investors spiked early wednesday, they saw relatively few of those investors make changes to their portfolios. and after u.s. markets opened and stocks rose, calls from concerned investors subsided and instead turned to questions about how to play for upside. at fidelity investments, the country<u+2019>s largest 401(k) recordkeeper with more than 22,000 plans and $1.31 trillion in assets under administration, call volumes were up wednesday around 18% before easing. on its website, fidelity has posted articles urging investors to stick with their long-term investment plans<u+2014>a message call-center representatives are echoing, says jeanne thompson, senior vice president at fidelity. that investor restraint is wise, says ms. thompson, who says fidelity has found that <u+201c>people don<u+2019>t have a good track record for trying to time the market.<u+201d> fidelity tracked individuals who sold stocks and went to cash in the last three months of 2008 and the first three months of 2009. by december 2015, their accounts were up 27%<u+2014>mainly due to new contributions<u+2014>while the accounts of those who stayed invested in stocks rose 157%. ed murphy, president of empower retirement, the country<u+2019>s second largest 401(k) recordkeeper, said that when executives <u+201c>saw the futures sell off last night and asia fall, we started to mobilize our forces and prepare for what we thought would be very high call volumes this morning.<u+201d> to meet anticipated demand, empower canceled training sessions that would ordinarily sideline 15% of its 600 call-center representatives on any given day, says mr. murphy. the company also put about 200 employees with other jobs on notice that they could be needed in the call centers. but as the markets stabilized wednesday morning, call volumes rose only about 7%, he said. empower, which serves 37,000 corporate, government and nonprofit customers in 401(k)-style plans for over 8 million participants, oversees $445 billion in assets. meanwhile, a representative for vanguard group said that while the fund company has seen increases in phone and web volumes, <u+201c>typically our clients are calling for reassurance or perspective<u+2014>not to make drastic movements in their portfolios. this is even more true within 401(k)s, as 99% of our more than 4 million participants don<u+2019>t trade in response to market events.<u+201d> write to anne tergesen at anne.tergesen@wsj.com and veronica dagher at veronica.dagher@wsj.com
concerns over 401(k)s spike, then fade, and pros say that<u+2019>s for the best - wsj
anne tergesen veronica dagher