Target date mutual funds slipped again in 2011. Morningstar data shows 2015 target-date funds fell 0.4 percent on average last year, reports the Wall Street Journal.

"We had a real 'stress test' in the first nine months of 2011, and the industry failed," Ron Surz tells the newspaper. Surz is president of Target Date Solutions, a company that advises 401(k) plan sponsors.

Target dates remain very popular in 401(k) plans. The article points out that they now lay claim to $368 billion in assets, "more than double the amount they held in 2008." Target-date funds, as part of the Pension Protection Act of 2006, became one of the "default" options for retirement plans.

Questions about target date mutual fund performance first surfaced in 2008, but the article concedes that "since that downturn, the funds have generally done well -- until last year." 

Edited by: HFD


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