Assets in corporate defined contribution plans grew to $2.4 trillion in 1999 from close to $2.2 trillion a year earlier, according to a new study by Spectrem Group. About half of all corporate retirement plan assets are invested in defined contribution plans, the study revealed.
Few plan sponsors indicated they plan to change service providers. Of the 635 plan sponsors interviewed for the study, only 2% said they would ‘‘definitely’’ switch vendors for a 15% fee reduction, study results showed.
The segment of the defined contribution plan market that is growing the most is the small plan arena, comprising plans with fewer than 100 participants, the study stated. Just 20% of small companies have defined contribution plans, Spectrem’s study said; and 420,000 of the country’s 470,000 corporate defined contribution plans are small plans.
