U.S retirement assets reached $25.3 trillion as of Dec. 31, up 1.4% from Sept. 30 and up 6.1% for the calendar year, according to quarterly data compiled by the Investment Company Institute.
Individual retirement accounts, with an estimated $7.85 trillion in assets at year-end 2016 — up 7% from $7.33 trillion at year-end 2015 — remained the largest component of retirement assets.
It was followed by defined contribution plans, $7.03 trillion, up 8% from $6.5 trillion; government defined benefit plans, $5.46 trillion, up 5% from $5.2 trillion; private-sector DB plans, $2.9 trillion, flat vs. a year earlier; and annuity reserves, $2 trillion, essentially unchanged from the end of 2015.
Within the DC universe, 401(k) plans accounted for $4.8 trillion in assets, ICI said. Other private-sector DC plans had $550 billion in assets, $905 billion was in 403(b) plans, $282 billion was held by 457 plans and $467 billion in assets were in the Federal Employees Retirement System's Thrift Savings Plan.
Mutual funds continued to dominate 401(k) plan lineups, accounting for $3.02 trillion, or 63%, of plan assets as of Dec. 31, ICI said. Mutual funds made up $2.81 trillion of plan assets at year-end 2015.
Target-date mutual fund assets reached $887 billion as of Dec. 31, up 16.3% from the $763 billion at the end of 2015. DC plans accounted for $598 billion, or 67.4%, of target-date mutual fund assets last year; IRAs represented $180 billion, or 20.3%, and other investors accounted for the remaining $108 billion, or 12.3%, according to the ICI report issued Wednesday.
