Total retirement assets near $25 trillion mark

Target-date funds held $741 billion at the end of March, an increase of 5.4 percent from the first quarter; 88 percent of TDF assets are in defined contribution plans and IRAs.

As TDF assets march toward the $1 trillion threshold, the data shows their meteoric rise since the year 2000, when their total value was virtually imperceptible.

Almost $500 billion of TDF assets are held in defined contribution plans, up from $437 billion in 2013, and $128 billion in 2007, the first year after the enactment of the Pension Protection Act of 2006, which paved the way for TDFs as qualified default investments in defined contribution plans.

Private sector defined benefit plans held $3.2 trillion in assets, which is virtually unchanged since 2013.

In 2000, private company DB plans held $2 trillion, compared to the $3 trillion in defined contribution plans. That spread widened in the ensuing decade. By 2012 assets in defined contribution plans were double those in DB plans.

Government defined benefit plans held $5.1 trillion at the end of the last quarter, also virtually unchanged since 2013. In 2000, government sponsored pension benefits were on par with defined contribution assets. Defined contribution assets overtook government pension asset in 2012 and have steadily widened their spread since.