Retirement assets rebounded significantly at year-end 2012, reaching $19.5 trillion, a 44.4% jump from 2009 recession lows and an 8.3% rise from 2011, according to data released Wednesday by the Investment Company Institute.
According to an ICI report, The U.S. Retirement Market, Fourth Quarter 2012, retirement savings accounted for 36% of all household financial assets in the United States at the end of last year.
Assets in individual retirement accounts (IRAs) totaled $5.4 trillion at the end of 2012, an increase of 1.1% from the end of the third quarter, while defined contribution (DC) plan assets rose 0.9% in the fourth quarter to $5.1 trillion.
Combined, DC and IRA assets were up 10.5% for the year, 54.1% since the first quarter of 2009, and 14% since the third quarter of 2007.
On Dec. 31, Americans held $5.1 trillion in all employer-based DC retirement plans, including $3.6 trillion in 401(k) plans, ICI reported. Those figures are up from $5 trillion and $3.5 trillion, respectively, as of Sept. 30.