IRAs to Hold 35% of All Retirement Assets by 2018: Cerulli

The distribution of funds among the various channels available to savers will change markedly by 2018, Cerulli said.

IRA assets will rise from 31.2% at the end of 2013 to 35.4% of the total market in 2018; public DB plans will drop from 23.9% to 21.5%; private DC plans from 21.7% to 21.4%; private DB from 14.% to 13.4%; and public DC from 8.4% to 8.3%.

About half of all assets in DC plans are investment-only, with about 42% in proprietary vehicles. Investment-only plans are those overseen by an asset-management firm. Cerulli noted that larger plans with more than $1 billion likely skew the figures because they can easily include nonproprietary investments.

Not surprisingly, as corporations have shifted away from traditional pension plans, the number of DB plans has fallen since 2002 from 48,773 to an estimated 45,010 in 2012.

Of the 307,000 advisors in the U.S. in 2012, Cerulli said 24,440, or 7.9%, are specialists in retirement who receive more than 40% of their income from DC plans. Another 41,698, or 13.6%, get 20% to 40% of their business from that source.