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EBRI

401(k) Database

In an ongoing collaborative effort, the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) and the Investment Company Institute (ICI) collect annual data on millions of 401(k) plan participants as a means to examine how these participants manage their 401(k) plan accounts. The EBRI/ICI Participant-Directed Retirement Plan Data Collection Project is the largest, most representative repository of information about individual 401(k) plan participant accounts. As of December 31, 2018, the EBRI/ICI database included statistical information about:

  • 14.6 million 401(k) plan participants, in
  • 90,987 employer-sponsored 401(k) plans, holding
  • $1.1 trillion in assets.
The 2018 EBRI/ICI database covers 25 percent of the universe of 401(k) plan participants, 15 percent of plans, and 21 percent of 401(k) plan assets. The project is unique because it includes data provided by a wide variety of plan recordkeepers and, therefore, represents the activity of participants in 401(k) plans of varying sizes — from very large corporations to small businesses — with a variety of investment options.
    Annual Cross Sectional
    Longitudinal
    Additional Studies