Comprehensive IRA database planned

The Investment Company Institute and the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association are launching a new research project to improve understanding of investors' use of individual retirement accounts. With the results of the research, the two associations will create a database that produces a major research report annually starting in 2009. The data will cover demographics of IRA accountholders and their investment activities, including contributions, rollovers, asset allocation, account balances and distributions. "The new database will be an important source for policy-oriented research and benchmarking surveys for our members, the media, academics, and policymakers,” Paul Schott Stevens, president and chief executive of ICI, said in a statement. Member firms of ICI and SIFMA hold more than 85 percent of all IRA assets, according to the two organizations. IRAs are growing rapidly, fueled by assets which are rolled from employer-sponsored retirement savings accounts. From 2002 to 2007, IRA assets nearly doubled from $2.5 trillion to $4.7 trillion, according to ICI and Internal Revenue Service data. ICI is based in Washington and SIFMA has headquarters in New York and Washington.