In the first quarter of 2013, DC plan members in the United States maintained the same contribution rate observed in the first quarter of 2012, a study shows.
Only 1% of DC plan participants stopped contributing in the first quarter of this year, the same as in the first quarter of 2012, according to figures gathered by the Investment Company Institute (ICI), the national association of U.S. investment companies.
The survey also shows that DC plan members generally did not tap their accounts earlier this year. Only 1.3% of participants took withdrawals in the first quarter of 2013, compared with 1.2% during the first quarter of 2012.
Only 0.4% took hardship withdrawals during the first quarter of this year, the same share as the first quarter of 2012.
Additionally, the poll shows that loan activity among DC participants edged down slightly by March 2013, although it remains high compared to five years ago. At the end of this year’s first quarter, 17.9% of participants had outstanding loans—compared with 18.2% at year-end 2012 and 15.3% at year-end 2008.
Yet another survey finding is that as stock values generally rose during the first three months of this year, most plan members kept their asset allocations unchanged. In the first quarter of 2013, only 4.8% of DC plan participants changed the asset allocation of their account balances, and 4.8% altered the asset allocation of their contributions. Similar levels were observed in the first quarter of 2012.
As of 2013, assets in all DC plans represented more than one-quarter of assets in America’s retirement market and accounted for almost one-tenth of U.S. households’ aggregate financial assets.
The ICI study is based on data covering 24 million DC plan participant accounts.
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