Target date funds continue to grow, new data shows assets total $4.7T

The target date market continues to expand rapidly in 2025, building on last year’s gains, with new trends reshaping how retirement solutions are designed and delivered.

The latest mid-year study from Sway Research reveals that combined assets in US mutual fund and collective investment trust target date products rose 10% in the first six months of the year, climbing to $4.37 trillion by June 30 and rising to more than $4.7 trillion when the $328 billion invested in custom target date strategies is included.

Vanguard remains the clear leader in this segment, adding $121 billion in the first half of 2025 to close June with $1.6 trillion in target date assets, which is 2.6 times more than Fidelity, which reported $623 billion.

One of the most notable developments is the rise of target date funds with built-in income features, products that combine the growth potential of target dates with the security of guaranteed retirement income. These funds’ assets reached $103 billion at the midway point of 2025, up sharply from $83 billion at the end of 2024.

TIAA is at the forefront, with its RetirePlus model portfolio growing from $50 billion at year-end 2024 to $60 billion in June 2025. The product blends a traditional target date glide path with optional annuity-based income and risk management features.

"Today's workers are sending a clear message, they want the security their grandparents had with traditional pensions, but within the flexibility of modern 401(k) plans,” says Tim Pitney, Head of Lifetime Income Default Solutions at TIAA. “Our lifetime income-enabled target date strategies answer this call by seamlessly integrating guaranteed income into the investment vehicles participants already know and trust."

BlackRock’s LifePath® Paycheck series, launched in 2024, is also gaining ground quickly with assets up from $16 billion in January to $24 billion by mid-year, making it the largest income-focused product within a unitized target date structure. AllianceBernstein’s Lifetime Income Strategy managed nearly $13 billion over the same period.

Much of this innovation is fueled by co-manufacturing partnerships, where recordkeepers, insurers, asset managers, and trust companies collaborate to create exclusive, lower-cost offerings. Sway’s data shows that 13 of the 16 target date products with income features were developed through these types of arrangements.

CIT-based target date series, in particular, have surged ahead of their mutual fund counterparts and as of June 2025, they accounted for 53% of assets compared to 47% for mutual funds.

All six new target date launches in the first half of the year were CIT-based, while three mutual fund series were liquidated. In total, Sway tracked 156 Target date series at mid-year: 48 mutual funds, 107 CITs, and a single ETF.

Chris J. Brown, founder and principal of Sway Research, emphasized how transformative these shifts are for the industry.

“Retirement income, co-manufacturing, and (coming soon) access to alternatives, such as private market investments, are reshaping the Target date market as innovation meets demand. This is fueling opportunities for new entrants and smaller players to gain a foothold in this roughly $5 trillion market.”

Sway’s biannual report, The State of the Target-Date Market: Mid-Year 2025, draws from proprietary data covering more than 6,000 share classes and CITs across 156 Target date solutions.