Participants in defined contribution plans are staying the course in saving for retirement, according to the Investment Company Institute's latest analysis of participant contribution and withdrawal activity.
In the first quarter, 0.9% of plan participants stopped contributing to their plans, down from 1.1% in the same quarter the previous year.
Participants also displayed little interest in changing asset allocations, with 4.2% changing the allocation of their balances and 2.9% changing the allocation of their contributions, down from 5.1% and 3.5%, respectively, in the year-ago quarter.
In addition, participants shied away from withdrawing funds from retirement savings accounts. In the first quarter, 1.4% of participants took withdrawals, virtually unchanged from the first quarter of 2018. Hardship withdrawals were also low, with only 0.5% taking them.
Meanwhile, loan activity edged down in the first quarter, following a seasonal pattern observed over the past several years. At the end of March, 15.9% of participants had loans outstanding, down from 16.7% at the end of 2018.
ICI's report updates results from its survey of record-keeping firms covering more than 30 million participant accounts in employer-based DC retirement plans as of March 31.
