Federal Reserve: U.S. corporate retirement assets dip slightly in Q4

U.S. corporate defined benefit and defined contribution plans had combined assets of $6.584 trillion as of Dec. 31, down 0.27% or $18 billion from the previous quarter, according to the Federal Reserve's Flow of Funds report issued Thursday.

Corporate retirement assets at year-end were up $497 billion, or 8.16%, from a year earlier.

The value of equities in corporate retirement plans dropped 1.8% from the previous quarter to $2.218 trillion in Q4, but that amount was an increase of 10.6% from a year earlier. The value of bonds increased 0.73% in the latest quarter to $441.5 billion, which was also a slight increase of 0.14% from a year earlier.

Corporate defined benefit plans had $2.332 trillion in assets as of Dec. 31, and defined contribution plans had $4.252 trillion. DB plan assets dipped 0.51% over the previous quarter, while defined contribution assets dipped just 0.14%.

Total assets in state and local government retirement funds were $3.047 trillion as of Dec. 31, down $22.6 billion, or 0.74%, from the previous quarter. Compared to fourth-quarter 2011 levels, state and local government retirement assets were up 7.87%.

The federal government's retirement fund assets totaled $1.582 trillion, a 2.34% increase from the previous quarter and a 4.81% increase from the fourth quarter of 2011.

— Contact Hazel Bradford at hbradford@pionline.com | @Bradford_PI