IRA investors continue to diversify, and the news looks mixed for funds. According to a new report out by the ICI, 65 percent of IRA-holders held mutual funds.

IRA-holders, however, have slightly decreased their total holdings of funds from a high in 2001. Mutual fund assets as a share of total IRA assets increased steadily from 1981 to 2001, shooting from seven percent to 44 percent. In 2003, however, fund assets were down one percent.

Meanwhile, fund firms are tops when it comes to providing IRA services. Fund companies were the second most popular place to hold traditional IRA accounts in 2004, at thirty percent of all households with IRAs. That's just three percent behind full-service brokerages. For Roth IRAs, 26 percent of IRA-households held their accounts with fund firms -- the same percentage that held their accounts with brokerages.  

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