Retirement assets rose to $24.7 trillion as of the end of December, up 1.7 percent from the end of the third quarter and up 6 percent from the end of 2013.
According to the Investment Company Institute, retirement assets totaled 36 percent of all household financial assets in the U.S. at the end of 2014.
The total is considerably higher than that reported by Towers Watson’s annual Global Pension Assets Study, which put the total for institutional retirement funds at $22.1 trillion. That figures, however, does not include assets that are not part of institutional plans.
According to ICI, IRAs made up the largest portion of the total, with assets totaling $7.4 trillion at the end of the year — an increase of 1.4 percent over the third quarter.
Defined contribution assets came next, totaling $6.8 trillion, and up by 2.1 percent in the quarter.
After that were assets in government defined benefit plans, totaling $5.2 trillion and up 1.9 percent for the quarter; that includes federal, state and local government plans.