Despite pandemic, defined-contribution plan participants kept saving in 2021

Despite pandemic, defined-contribution plan participants kept saving in 2021
Through the first three quarters of 2021, only 1.2% stopped contributing to DC plans, ICI data finds.
FEB 14, 2022

Through the first three quarters of 2021, only 1.2% of defined-contribution plan participants stopped contributing to their plans, according to data from recordkeepers collected by the Investment Company Institute.

That minor fall-off compares with the 2.2% of participants who stopped contributing to plans in the first three quarters of 2020, and the 5.0% who stopped contributing in the similar period of 2009, another time of financial market stress.

The ICI figures are based on DC plan record-keeper data covering more than 30 million participant accounts in employer-based DC plans at the end of September 2021. DC plan withdrawals in the first three quarters of 2021 remained low, but slightly higher than activity observed in recent years, ICI said.

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