Retirement Assets Total $33.6 Trillion in Fourth Quarter 2022
Washington, DC, March 16, 2023 - Total US retirement assets were $33.6 trillion as of December 31, 2022, up 3.9 percent from September but down 14.7 percent for the year. Retirement assets accounted for 30 percent of all household financial assets in the United States at the end of December 2022.
US Total Retirement Market Assets
Trillions of dollars, end-of-period, selected periods
e Data are estimated.
Note: For definitions of plan categories, see Table 1 in “The US Retirement Market, Fourth Quarter 2022.” Components may not add to the total because of rounding.
Sources: Investment Company Institute, Federal Reserve Board, Department of Labor, National Association of Government Defined Contribution Administrators, American Council of Life Insurers, and Internal Revenue Service Statistics of Income Division
Assets in individual retirement accounts (IRAs) totaled $11.5 trillion at the end of the fourth quarter of 2022, an increase of 3.9 percent from the end of the third quarter of 2022. Defined contribution (DC) plan assets were $9.3 trillion at the end of the fourth quarter, up 4.3 percent from September 30, 2022. Government defined benefit (DB) plans—including federal, state, and local government plans—held $7.6 trillion in assets as of the end of December 2022, a 4.3 percent increase from the end of September 2022. Private-sector DB plans held $3.1 trillion in assets at the end of the fourth quarter of 2022, and annuity reserves outside of retirement accounts accounted for another $2.2 trillion.
Retirement Assets by Type
Billions of dollars, end-of-period, 2022:Q3–2022:Q4
e Data are estimated.
Sources: Investment Company Institute and Federal Reserve Board
Defined Contribution Plans
Americans held $9.3 trillion in all employer-based DC retirement plans on December 31, 2022, of which $6.6 trillion was held in 401(k) plans. In addition to 401(k) plans, at the end of the fourth quarter, $535 billion was held in other private-sector DC plans, $1.1 trillion in 403(b) plans, $385 billion in 457 plans, and $725 billion in the Federal Employees Retirement System’s Thrift Savings Plan (TSP). Mutual funds managed $4.0 trillion, or 62 percent, of assets held in 401(k) plans at the end of December 2022. With $2.3 trillion, equity funds were the most common type of funds held in 401(k) plans, followed by $1.1 trillion in hybrid funds, which include target date funds.
401(k) Plan Assets
Billions of dollars, end-of-period, selected periods
Note: Components may not add to the total because of rounding.
Sources: Investment Company Institute and Department of Labor
Individual Retirement Accounts
IRAs held $11.5 trillion in assets at the end of the fourth quarter of 2022. Forty-four percent of IRA assets, or $5.0 trillion, was invested in mutual funds. With $2.8 trillion, equity funds were the most common type of funds held in IRAs, followed by $983 billion in hybrid funds.
IRA Market Assets
Billions of dollars, end-of-period, selected periods
e Data are estimated.
Note: Components may not add to the total because of rounding.
Sources: Investment Company Institute, Federal Reserve Board, American Council of Life Insurers, and Internal Revenue Service Statistics of Income Division
Other Developments
Retirement entitlements include both retirement assets and the unfunded liabilities of DB plans. Under a DB plan, employees accrue benefits to which they are legally entitled and which represent assets to US households and liabilities to plans. To the extent that pension plan assets are insufficient to cover accrued benefit entitlements, a DB pension plan has a claim on the plan sponsor.
As of December 31, 2022, total US retirement entitlements were $40.1 trillion, including $33.6 trillion of retirement assets and another $6.5 trillion of unfunded liabilities. Including both retirement assets and unfunded liabilities, retirement entitlements accounted for 36 percent of the financial assets of all US households at the end of December.
Unfunded liabilities are a larger issue for government DB plans than for private-sector DB plans. As of the end of the fourth quarter of 2022, unfunded liabilities were 46 percent of benefit entitlements for state and local government DB plans, 37 percent of benefit entitlements for federal government DB plans, and 17 percent of benefit entitlements for private-sector DB plans.
US Total Retirement Entitlements
Trillions of dollars, end-of-period, 2022:Q4
e Data are estimated.
Note: For definitions of categories, see Tables 1 and 2 in “The US Retirement Market, Fourth Quarter 2022.”
Source: Investment Company Institute and Federal Reserve Board
The quarterly retirement data tables are available at “The US Retirement Market, Fourth Quarter 2022.”
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