Ownership of employment-based retirement plans and individual retirement accounts was unchanged to declining in 2013, but median account balances of those families owning an individual account retirement plan increased last year.
So reports the Employee Benefits Research Institute (EBRI) in a November 2014 Issue Brief of Individual Retirement Account Plans. The paper examines a 2013 Survey of Consumer Finances, the Federal Reserve Board's triennial survey of wealth.
The EBRI brief reveals that the percentage of families with an employment-based retirement plan from a current employer decreased to 36.2 percent in 2013 from 37.9 percent in 2010 and from 38.8 percent in 1992. In contrast, the percentage of family heads who were eligible to participate in defined contribution (DC) plans and chose to do so was essentially stable: 78.7 percent in 2013 versus 78.2 percent in 2010.
The percentage of families owning IRA/Keoghs saw only a marginal increase: 28.1 percent in 2013, as compared to 28.0 percent in 2010 at 28.0. The percentage of families with an individual account (IA) retirement plan from a current employer or a previous employer or an IRA/Keogh declined to 48.2 percent in 2013 from 50.4 percent in 2010. However, when including defined benefit (DB) retirement plans, the percentage with a retirement plan was mostly unchanged: 63.5 percent in 2013 versus 63.8 percent in 2010.
