The total number of 401k plans in the U.S. increased by 2.7%, from 588,500 in 2018 to 604,400 in 2019, according to a new U.S. Labor Department report released this week.
The “Private Pension Plan Bulletin, Abstract of 2019 Form 5500 Annual Reports,” was released by the Employee Benefits Security Administration. Data is usually delayed by up to two years because plans have varying year-end dates, making this the most up-to-date analysis currently available.
The information presented includes weighted counts of plans and participants for both defined benefit (DB) and defined contribution (DC) retirement plans, various breakouts of plan characteristics, as well as information on their assets, contributions and investments.
There were 72.2 million active participants in 401k plans in 2019, reflecting an increase of 2.7%
Source: EBSA
The 2019 Form 5500 report shows there were 72.2 million active participants in 401k plans in 2019, reflecting an increase of 2.7% from the previous year.
The total number of pension plans (DB and DC) grew again in 2019, to approximately 733,700, a 1.6% increase over 2018. The number of DC plans grew by 1.7%, while the number of DB plans grew by less than 0.1%.
Of the 733,700 plans, 726,500 were single employer, 2,500 were multiemployer, and 4,700 were multiple-employer. This is the third year multiple-employer plans have been reported separately.
The growth in participants of 1.5%, or 2.1 million, was similar to the increase in the number of plans and was composed of a 3.1% increase in DC plan participation and a 3.5% reduction in DB plan participation.
Of the 141.9 million total participants in private pension plans, 98.1 million were active. The percentage of active participants increased slightly from 69.0% in 2018 to 69.1% in 2019.
DC plan contributions increased by 7.2%, to $570.2 billion, between 2018 and 2019. DB plan contributions increased by 4.3%, to $102.6 billion. In total, contributions increased by 6.7%, to $672.8 billion.
The total amount of assets held by private pension plans increased to $10.7 trillion from $9.2 trillion, which EBSA noted is the largest increase since 2008. DC plans accounted for $7.4 trillion of that amount, while DB plans accounted for $3.3 trillion.
Pension plans disbursed $857.0 billion for payment of benefits, with $257.9 billion being disbursed from DB plans and $599.1 billion from DC plans. These payments were made either directly to retirees, beneficiaries, and terminating employees or to insurance carriers for payment of benefits. These amounts reflect an 8.8% increase for DC plans and a 5.7% increase for DB plans.
The 68-page report’s Table D3 shows that 401k plans with 2-9 participants make up the biggest part of the 604,400 total plans in 2019, with 194,049. Plans with 10-24 participants accounted for 156,422 of the total, while plans with 25-49 participants accounted for 93,080 of the total.
On the other end of the scale, there were 147 401k plans with 50,000 or more participants, 382 plans with 20,000-49,999 participants and 577 plans with 10,000-19,999 participants.
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