Record Number of Millionaires in Fidelity 401(k) Plans, IRAs

Record Number of 401(k) Millionaires

There are more 401(k) millionaires than ever in Fidelity plans.

By the end of the year, 233,000 savers had at least $1 million in their accounts. Fidelity's 401(k) data comes from 23,000 plans and 17.3 million participants.

Long-term savers—those defined as being in their 401(k) plans for at least 10 consecutive years—had an average balance of $328,200. Savers invested for 15 years had an average account balance of $421,700.

Longer-tenured female savers' balances averaged $261,000, the first time that demographic's average surpassed a quarter million dollars. Millennials with 10 years of savings averaged $149,000, also a record high.

More Employers Using Auto-Features

By the end of last year, 35% of employers were automatically enrolling new hires, a record level. More than a third are auto-enrolling at a 5% or higher deferral rate, compared to just 12% that did so at the end of 2009.

Nearly one in five employers have implemented automatic escalation of savings rates, more than twice the number a decade ago. One-third of plans offered a managed account option to savers, double as many as did at the end of 2014. But take-up rates, while increasing, are still low, as adoption of managed accounts was only 3.6% in 2019.

IRAs Hitting Records Too

The average IRA balance was $115,400 at the end of 2019, another record and nearly twice the value of the average account a decade ago. There were 208,000 IRA millionaires, an increase from 182,400 from the third quarter last year.

Contributions to IRAs are increasing, as the number of millennials contributing to an individual account increased by 21%.

Millennials contributed $373 million to IRAs in the fourth quarter of last year, 73% of which went to Roth IRAs.