College savings programs are not adding assets as quickly as old-fashioned mutual funds. Data collected by FRC show that 529 plans across the nation added $21.2 billion in prepaid assets during the first quarter.

That translates into growth of just 2.6 percent during the year's first three months, well short of the 10.6 percent increase in long-term mutual fund and ETF assets over the same period.

Meanwhile, the total number of active accounts for 529 prepaid plans fell 0.1 percent during the quarter to 1.396 million. The number of accounts is down 0.6 percent since the end of 2010.

Twenty programs provided data to FRC and among those plans gross contributions (or new contributions) during the first quarter were 2.0 percent of assets for open plans, 0.4 percent for closed plans, and 1.4 percent for all prepaid plans, according to FRC's data.

The net sales-to-asset ratio was negative 0.03 percent for open plans, negative 1.7 percent for closed plans, and negative 0.6 percent for all prepaid plans.

FRC is now a part of Asset International's Strategic Insight research arm. 

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