Americans continued their commitment to saving in the first half of the year, according to an analysis of recordkeeper data by Investment Company Institute. Just 1.5% of defined contribution plan participants stopped making contributions in the first six months of 2013.
This continues a trend that began in 2011 and continued through 2012 when 1.6% of participants stopped their contributions.
ICI's report covers data from about 24 million participants. The report found that DC plan assets account for one-quarter of the total retirement market and are approximately one-tenth of households' financial assets. IRAs take the largest share of the retirement market, followed closely by public pension plans.
The percentage of participants taking loans from their plans was also low. Just 2.1% of participants took withdrawals in their first half of the year, a trend that has held steady since 2010. Less than 1% took hardship withdrawals, again continuing a long-standing trend. The percentage of participants taking hardship withdrawals has held steady at 0.9% since 2009, except for a brief blip in 2011, when it hopped to 1.1%.
