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June 06, 2012 at 08:55 AM
Average IRA balances are about a third higher, and the median balance is about 42% higher, when an individual’s multiple accounts are considered together, the Employee Benefit Research Institute found.
In 2010, an average combined IRA balance for an individual was $91,864, according to an analysis of EBRI’s IRA database. The median balance was $25, 296. For all IRAs, the average balance was $67,438, up 32% from 2008. The median balance was $17,863, up 26% from 2008.
“The results show the importance of being able to look at an aggregation of an individual’s combined account balances to determine the potential total retirement savings he or she has,” Craig Copeland, EBRI research associate and author of the report, said in a statement.
The analysis, released in May, is based on data from more than 11 million individuals in the EBRI IRA database.
Individuals with the highest average and median balances had traditional IRAs that originated from a rollover. Their average balance was $123,426, with a median balance of $38,138.
“When comparing the incidence and dollars going into IRAs from the two funding sources of contributions and rollovers (aside from capital gains and interest earnings), rollovers overwhelmingly outweighed new contributions,” Copeland wrote.
