Issue Briefs
Individual Retirement Account Balances, Contributions, Withdrawals, and Asset Allocation Longitudinal Results 2010–2015
Using the EBRI IRA Database, this Issue Brief examines the trends in account balances, contributions, withdrawals, and asset allocation in IRAs from 2010-2015. Results from both the annual cross-sectional samples and a consistent sample of IRA owners who have been in the database in each year from 2010-2015 are presented. The cross-sectional overall average balance increased 36.1 percent from 2010 to 2015, while the increase for those IRA owners who continuously owned IRAs from 2010-2015 was 47.1 percent. Similarly, the cross-sectional share of assets allocated to equities increased from 45.7 percent in 2010 to 54.7 percent in 2015, while among consistent account owners, the share of assets allocated to equities increased from 44.5 percent in 2010 to 52.6 percent in 2015. Finally, among consistent Traditional IRA owners, 87.2 percent did not contribute to the IRA in any year, as opposed to 60.1 percent of consistent Roth IRA owners not contributing in any year.
What Does Consistent Participation in 401(k) Plans Generate? Changes in 401(k) Plan Account Balances, 2010–2015
This Issue Brief provides an annual update of a longitudinal analysis of 401(k) plan participants drawn from the EBRI/ICI 401(k) database—the largest participant-level database of its kind, with about 26.1 million 401(k) participants at year-end 2015. The average 401(k) plan account balance for consistent participants rose each year from 2010 through year-end 2015. Overall, the average account balance increased at a compound annual average growth rate of 13.9 percent from 2010 to 2015, to $143,436 at year-end 2015. The median 401(k) plan account balance for consistent participants increased at a compound annual average growth rate of 17.9 percent over the period, to $66,412 at year-end 2015.
Employee Tenure Trends, 1983–2016
The typical American worker stayed at their job just over five years last year, down slightly from the record high since 1983 set in 2014, according to new research by EBRI.
401(k) Plan Asset Allocation, Account Balances, and Loan Activity in 2015
The asset allocations of 401(k) retirement plan savers in their 20s at the end of 2015 differed significantly from the allocations of 401(k) participants in their 20s in the mid-1990s, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) and the Investment Company Institute (ICI).