Participants Remained Committed to Their DC Plans During 2018

Defined contribution (DC) plan participants remained committed to their plans in the first three quarters of 2018, data from the Investment Company Institute (ICI) shows.

A mere 2.2% of participants stopped contributing to their DC plans and only 2.9% took withdrawals, with the latter figure up only slightly from the 2.8% that took withdrawals in the first three quarters of 2017. Only 1.4% took hardship withdrawals in the first three quarters of 2018, up only slightly from the 1.3% that did so in the comparable time period in 2017.

Participants also generally stayed the course with respect to their asset allocations, with only 8.4% changing the asset allocation of their account balances and 4.4% changing their contribution allocations. ICI says these figures were on par with the data from 2017.

In the first three quarters of 2018, 16.4% of plan participants had outstanding loans, down from 16.7% at year-end 2017.

ICI’s report, “Defined Contribution Plan Participants’ Activities, First Three Quarters of 2018,” also showed that 28% of U.S. retirement assets were in DC plans as of the end of the third quarter of 2018. ICI’s full report can be downloaded here.