New paper: “Who Contributes to Individual Retirement Accounts?”

The Center for Retirement Research at Boston College has released a new Issue in Brief:

“Who Contributes to Individual Retirement Accounts?”

by Anqi Chen and Alicia H. Munnell

The brief’s key findings are:

• IRAs were intended to give those without an employer plan access to a tax-deferred savings vehicle.
• Today, IRAs hold nearly half of all private retirement assets, but most of these funds are rollovers from 401(k)s, rather than contributions.
• The 14 percent of households who do contribute to IRAs include:
  • higher-income dual-earners who also save in a 401(k);
  • moderate-income singles or one-earner couples, often with a 401(k); and
  • higher-income entrepreneurs with no current 401(k).

• One way to turn IRAs back into an active savings vehicle – one used more for contributions – is to auto-enroll all workers without an employer plan in an IRA.

This brief is available here.