Fixed-Income Fanatics

According to a Bank of America survey, 37% of mass-affluent investors have at least one-quarter of their assets in fixed-income investments, while 16% have at least one-half of their assets in debt instruments. Interestingly, most of these investors buy and hold their bond positions, preferring individual issues to bond funds. And the bulk of affluent investors are not planning on paring back their fixed-income holdings, even though bonds seem to be coming off a yearlong bull market. Instead, they hedge their fixed-income exposure using other investments, such as hedge funds.