Overview
U.S. defined contribution record keepers have steadily grown assets under administration since 2004. At the end of 2023, assets stood at $10.8 trillion, up from $2.7 trillion in 2004, growing at an annualized rate of 7.8%.
Corporate 401(k) assets accounted for $7.4 trillion of the total, while the second-largest plan type 403(b) assets stood at $1.3 trillion. Assets were more evenly split by size of plan, with small, midsize and large employers accounting for $2.3 trillion, $3.9 trillion and $4.5 trillion, respectively.
Fidelity investments has long been the largest record keeper and has increased its share since 2004. Fidelity accounted for more than 30% of all assets at the end of 2023. Alight Solutions, with the addition of Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board assets, and Empower Retirement now have more than 10% of assets each.
Mergers and acquisitions have also played a large role reshaping the competitive landscape. Empower has had two $3.5 billion deals that significantly increased its size. Ascensus has bought more than 10 record keepers. The total number of record keepers has fallen to 27 from 80.
Number of participants and type
According to Pensions & Investments' survey data, 27 firms kept records for more than 125 million U.S. individuals. Fidelity alone keeps records for almost 32 million individuals. Since 2004, participant growth has been coming from both large and small employers, but absolute participant growth has been from the largest employers, which added more than 31 million individuals.
401(k) and 403(b) participants accounted for more than 98 million individuals or more than 78% of the total.
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