Close Close
Popular Financial Topics Discover relevant content from across the suite of ALM legal publications From the Industry More content from ThinkAdvisor and select sponsors Investment Advisor Issue Gallery Read digital editions of Investment Advisor Magazine Tax Facts Get clear, current, and reliable answers to pressing tax questions
Luminaries Awards
ThinkAdvisor

Retirement Planning > Saving for Retirement

Top 1% of 401(k) Plans Hold Bulk of Assets

X
Your article was successfully shared with the contacts you provided.

Much in the same way the wealthiest 1% of Americans hold a disproportionate share of the country’s riches, the top 1% of 401(k) plans owns a lopsided proportion of defined contribution retirement assets.

Of the 540,000 active 401(k) plans as of the end of last year, 5,400, or 1% of sponsoring employers, held $3.06 trillion, or 71% of all assets, according to an analysis from Judy Diamond Associates, a provider of data and analytics tools for retirement advisors and plan sponsors. 

That the largest employers are dominant is not surprising, given that they employ the majority of Americans enrolled in retirement plans. The largest employers claim 45 million participants, or 56% of all enrollees. The balance, meaning that 99%, have 35 million participants, or 44% of all enrollees in defined contribution plans.

Nonetheless, the asset ratio is still significantly out of balance in favor of larger firms.

“The market is extraordinarily top-heavy,” said Eric Ryles, managing director of Judy Diamond, which is owned by the same parent company as BenefitsPro.

Overall, there is $4.3 trillion in 401(k) plans. With the bulk of those assets in plans at the top 1%, 534,000 employers are left to hold $1.25 trillion.

The disparity is even more dramatic when narrowing things down to the nation’s 500 largest sponsors. Those plans hold $1.9 trillion, more than the plans in the 99% segment.

Ryles thinks this has ramifications for all plans.

“You’ve got 500 investment committees who are, essentially, dictating trends in retirement savings that can’t help but influence the rest of the market. That’s an enormous amount of influence concentrated in a very small number of hands,” Ryles said.

He said much of the imbalance can be explained by the fact that larger companies have been around longer. That means their employees have been contributing for longer, and those assets have had more time to mature.

By comparison, a start-up company with 20 employees who contribute the maximum allowed in their 401(k)s will only be adding $360,000 per year.

“Precisely because there is a cap on how much an individual can defer into their 401(k) plan, the amount of time a plan has been around has a direct relationship with how much money is in it,” explained Ryles.

He also noted that, typically, the larger a plan is, the less advisors can charge as a percentage of assets. Many advisors charge a flat fee per head with larger plans, while they earn a percentage of assets in smaller plans. 

“This results in more money staying in the plan” with the larger plans, a notable factor in helping assets in larger plans grow even more, Ryles said.

— Check out Gen X, Y Driving DC Contributions and Rollovers on ThinkAdvisor.


NOT FOR REPRINT

© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.