Individual Retirement Account Balances, Contributions, and Rollovers, 2013; With Longitudinal Results 2010-2013: The EBRI IRA Database

36 Pages Posted: 30 May 2015

See all articles by Craig Copeland

Craig Copeland

Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI)

Date Written: May 1, 2015

Abstract

This paper, the annual, cross-sectional analysis of the EBRI IRA Database, examines the distribution of IRA owners by IRA type, average and median account balances, and contributions and rollovers to IRAs. Added to this cross-sectional study is a longitudinal component that looks at account balance changes and contribution behavior from 2010 to 2013 of a consistent sample of individuals who own IRAs. For year-end 2013, the EBRI IRA Database contained information on 25.8 million accounts owned by 20.6 million unique individuals, with total assets of $2.46 trillion. The average account balance decreased from $91,864 in 2010 to $87,668 in 2011 before increasing to $119,804 in 2013 -- an increase of 30.4 percent from 2010 to 2013, and 14.1 percent from 2012 to 2013. The percentage of individuals who contributed to their IRA was relatively consistent ranging from 12.1 percent in 2010 to 13.8 percent in 2013. The percentage of individuals owning Traditional IRAs who contributed to them rose from 5.2 percent in 2010 to 7.0 percent in 2013. In contrast, the percentage of Roth owners who contributed ranged from 24.0 percent to 26.0 percent from 2010-2013. The percentage of contributors who contributed the maximum rose from 43.5 percent in 2010 to 53.5 percent in 2012. However, with the increase in the maximum allowable contribution in 2013, the percentage contributing the maximum overall fell to 43.3 percent in 2013. The average contribution increased from $3,335 in 2010 to $4,145 in 2013. When examining the same individuals that were in the database each year from 2010 to 2013, the median percentage change in these individuals’ account balances was a 33.6 percent increase. Furthermore, at the 25th percentile and the 75th percentile, increases of 2.6 percent and 57.1 percent resulted. The growth rates for Roth IRA balances were higher both overall and by age and gender. The average and median rollover amounts to Traditional IRAs were $96,660 and $27,967, respectively, and to Roth IRAs were $22,915 and $8,291. In addition, nearly 1.6 million rollovers to Traditional IRAs occurred in 2013 compared with 0.1 million rollovers to Roths. When comparing contributions to IRAs with rollovers to IRAs, rollovers overwhelmingly outweighed new contributions in dollar terms. While almost 2.6 million accounts in the database received contributions compared with the 1.7 million accounts that received rollovers in 2013, 14.5 times the amount of dollars were moved to IRAs through rollovers than were contributed to IRAs. This is not surprising, given the annual contribution limit of $5,500 ($6,500 for those ages 50 or older) to IRAs in 2013, relative to the theoretically unlimited amount that could be added via a rollover.

Keywords: Demographics, Individual retirement account rollovers, Individual retirement accounts (IRAs), Pension plan assets, Pension plan contributions, Roth IRA, Savings Incentive Match Plans for Employees (SIMPLE), Simplified Employee Pension (SEP)

JEL Classification: D31, D91, G12, G23, J10, J16, J33

Suggested Citation

Copeland, Craig, Individual Retirement Account Balances, Contributions, and Rollovers, 2013; With Longitudinal Results 2010-2013: The EBRI IRA Database (May 1, 2015). EBRI Issue Brief, Number 414, May 2015, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2611780

Craig Copeland (Contact Author)

Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) ( email )

1100 13th Street, NW
Suite 878
Washington, DC 20005-4204
United States
202-775-6356 (Phone)
202-775-6312 (Fax)

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