• 401(k) participants continued to move monies away from international equities, as the performance of this asset class lagged behind domestic stocks (the return of the MSCI EAFE Index lost 4.1% in August vs. the S&P 500 Index was up 1.5%), according to the results of the Hewitt 401(k) Index™. Over $162 million moved out of international funds in August. Notably, international funds have experienced the largest year-to-date outflows among all asset classes. Nearly $1.2 billion shifted out of these funds, which represented approximately 10% of total assets in this asset class at the beginning of the year.


• Company stock funds also had large outflows during the month of $166 million. So far this year, a sum of $630 million has moved out of this asset class.


• The majority of the transfers (70%) again went into GIC/stable value funds- approximately $309 million moved into this asset class from international funds and company stocks alone. Small U.S. equity and bond also received a portion of the inflows of $81 million and $41 million, respectively.


• In total, August transfers were again fixed income oriented. A total of $328 million shifted from equities into fixed income investments. However, in terms of days, participants moved monies into fixed income investments during only 52% of the days in this month.


• With regards to the level of transfers, 0.05% of the balances were transferred on a net daily basis. Transfers were above normal* level during four days of the month, which was slightly higher than the average number of above-normal days so far in 2008.


• Participants' overall equity exposure remained about the same level at 61.6%.


• On the other hand, employee equity contributions (participant discretionary contribution) continued declining by another 0.6% to 63.4% by the end of August.

*A "normal" level of relative transfer activity is when the net daily movement of participants' balances as a percent of total 401(k) balances within the Hewitt 401(k) Index equals between 0.3 times and 1.5 times the average daily net activity of the preceding 12 months. A "high" relative transfer activity day is when the net daily movement exceeds two times the average daily net activity. A "moderate" relative transfer activity day is when the net daily movement is between 1.5 and two times the average daily net activity of the preceding 12 months.

The following tables show Hewitt 401(k) Index statistics and the returns of major market indices for the month of August 2008:

Dow Jones IA	1.81%
Russell 2000	3.61%
Lehman Aggregate	0.95%
S&P 500	1.45%
MSCI EAFE	-4.05%
NASDAQ	1.80%

Number of Fixed Income Days	11
Number of Equity Days	10
Percent of Equity Days	48%