According to research by the ICI (investment Company Institute), assets in 401k plans hit a record high in the second quarter of 2016 at $4.860 trillion making up 70% of the assets in all defined contribution (DC) plans which were up 2.1% over Q1; IRA assets also hit a record at $7.5 trillion up 1.7%. Overall, retirement assets grew to $24.5 trillion and representing 34% of all household financial assets.
Government defined benefit plans up slightly reached $5.2 trillion; private DB plans were $2.8 trillion with ICI estimating $4.4 trillion of unfunded liability for both types of DB plans with the majority of the liability within government plans.
IRA and DC assets accounted for 60% of all retirement funds in 2016 up from just 50% in 2007 – both types of retirement grew by 60%. On the other hand, DB assets shrunk from 40% of all retirement assets to just 32% signifying a societal shift from DB to investor director DC plans and IRAs.
According to the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy, the unfunded pension liability of all 50 states plus the District of Columbia rose 84% from 2008 to 2014 from $2.625 trillion to $4.833 trillion from 2008 to 2014 using a 2.18% market rate based on Treasury bonds. Though the actuarial rate using a higher rate of return of 7.5% shows a better picture at only $1.040 trillion of debt in 2014, the situation is still difficult which is why many states have frozen their pension plans.
US RETIRMENT ASSETS 2016 Q2
| 2007 | 2007% | 2016 Q2 | 2016/% | Increase | |
| State DB | $4.6 | 26% | $5.2 | 21% | 13% |
| Priv DB | $2.6 | 14% | $2.8 | 11% | 8% |
| IRA | $4.7 | 26% | $7.5 | 31% | 60% |
| DC | $4.4 | 24% | $7.0 | 29% | 59% |
| Annuties | $1.7 | 9% | $2.0 | 8% | 18% |
| $18.0 | $24.5 | 36% |
