Retirement Assets Total $47.6 Trillion in First Quarter 2026
Washington, DC; June 18, 2026 - Total US retirement assets were $47.6 trillion as of March 31, 2026, down 2.5% from December 2025. Retirement assets accounted for 34% of all household financial assets in the United States at the end of March 2026.
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, First Quarter 2026." 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 $18.2 trillion at the end of the first quarter of 2026, a decrease of 2.9% from the end of the fourth quarter of 2025. Defined contribution (DC) plan assets were $13.8 trillion at the end of the first quarter, down 2.7% from December 31, 2025. Government defined benefit (DB) plans—including federal, state, and local government plans—held $10.0 trillion in assets as of the end of March 2026, a 1.0% decrease from the end of December 2025. Private-sector DB plans held $3.0 trillion in assets at the end of the first quarter of 2026, and annuity reserves outside of retirement accounts accounted for another $2.6 trillion.
Retirement Assets by Type
Billions of dollars, end-of-period, 2025:Q4–2026:Q1
e Data are estimated.
Sources: Investment Company Institute and Federal Reserve Board
Defined Contribution Plans
Americans held $13.8 trillion in all employer-based DC retirement plans on March 31, 2026, of which $9.9 trillion was held in 401(k) plans. In addition to 401(k) plans, at the end of the first quarter, $850 billion was held in other private-sector DC plans, $1.5 trillion in 403(b) plans, $535 billion in 457 plans, and $1.1 trillion in the Federal Employees Retirement System’s Thrift Savings Plan (TSP). Mutual funds managed $5.7 trillion, or 58%, of assets held in 401(k) plans at the end of March 2026. With $3.3 trillion, equity funds were the most common type of funds held in 401(k) plans, followed by $1.6 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 $18.2 trillion in assets at the end of the first quarter of 2026. Mutual funds were 40% of IRA assets, or $7.3 trillion. With $4.2 trillion, equity funds were the most common type of funds held in IRAs, followed by $1.2 trillion 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
Mutual funds play a key role in US households’ individual account-based retirement savings but are less important for traditional DB plans. Mutual funds represent $14.5 trillion, or 45%, of the assets held in IRAs and DC plans in March 2026. Mutual funds are also held through variable annuities (VAs), which have similar tax advantages and restrictions as retirement plans and are counted as part of Americans’ nest egg for retirement. In March 2026, VA mutual fund assets outside retirement plans amounted to $1.4 trillion.
Mutual Funds Play an Important Role in Account-Based Retirement Saving
Assets, trillions of dollars, 2026:Q1, period-end
e Data are estimated.
Note: Components may not add to the total because of rounding.
Sources: Investment Company Institute and Federal Reserve Board
The quarterly retirement data tables are available at “The US Retirement Market, First Quarter 2026.”
Technical Notes
The Investment Company Institute’s total retirement market estimates reflect revisions to previously published estimates.
The latest estimates incorporate newly available 2022 and 2023 data on IRA flows and year-end assets from the Internal Revenue Service Statistics of Income Division published tabulations. Incorporation of the newly available information resulted in downward revisions to previously published estimates of IRA assets beginning in the first quarter of 2023.
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