Defined contribution plan participants remained committed to saving for retirement, according to the Investment Company Institute's latest report on participant behavior.
Just 1.3% of plan participants stopped making contributions in the first half of 2019, down slightly from 1.4% in the same period the year before. Their withdrawal activity was also virtually unchanged. In the first half of 2019, 2.5% of participants withdrew funds from their retirement accounts, with 1.1% taking hardship withdrawals. That compares with 2.2% who withdrew money and 0.9% who took hardship distributions from their accounts in the first half of 2018.
Loan activity was also in line with the previous year. In the first half of 2019, 16.3% of participants had loans outstanding, down slightly from 16.5% in the first half of 2018.
Participants also stayed put with their asset allocations as stock values rose. During the first six months of last year, 6.1% changed the asset allocation of their account balances, while 3.6% changed the asset allocation of their contributions. That compares with 7.1% who changed the allocation of their balances and 4% who changed the allocation of their contributions in the first half of 2018.
The report updates results from ICI's survey of a cross-section of record-keeping firms covering more than 30 million employer-based defined contribution participant accounts as of June 30.
