About the Survey
The Investment Company Institute undertook a comprehensive survey in 2006 to examine mutual fund shareholders’ use of ongoing, professional investment advice. ICI engaged Northstar Research Partners, an independent research firm, to conduct a telephone survey of 1,003 randomly selected households owning mutual funds outside workplace retirement plans. The survey sample was drawn from telephone exchanges with median household incomes of $75,000 or more. The average household income of households owning funds outside workplace retirement plans is roughly $75,000. The overall
sampling error for the survey is ±3.1 percentage points at the 95 percent confidence level, and among households with ongoing advisory relationships, it is ±4.0 percentage points at the 95 percent confidence level.