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March 04, 2020 at 01:03 PM
The average retirement plan participant account size within self-directed brokerage accounts was $294,105 at the end of 2019, a 19% year-over-year increase and up 6% from the third quarter, Charles Schwab reported Wednesday.
Participants’ asset allocation finished the year just about where it started. Mutual funds held 37% of participant assets, equities 29%, ETFs 19%, cash 12% and fixed income 3%.
Fourth-quarter trading volumes were slightly higher than in the third quarter at an average of 7.2 trades per account, up from 6.7 trades in the earlier quarter.
According to the report participants averaged approximately 10 positions in their SDBAs at the end of the fourth quarter, the same both year over year and quarter over quarter.
A Schwab spokesman on Wednesday said no results of SDBA participants’ trading activity during the current market turmoil were available. The first-quarter report will be published in late April or early May.
Gen X comprised about 42% of SDBA participants, baby boomers 38% and millennials 13%. Seventy-six percent of participants were men and 24% women. The average age of an SDBA participant was 51.
SDBAs are brokerage accounts within retirement plans — including 401(k)s and other types of retirement plans — that participants can use to invest in stocks, bonds, exchange-traded funds, mutual funds and other securities that are not part of their retirement plan’s core investment offerings.
