The numbers are relatively small but a greater percentage of defined-contribution plan participants stopped contributing to their accounts in the first half of this year compared to the same period last year.
A total of 2.1 percent of participants stopped contributing to their plans during the first half of 2014, compared with 1.5 percent during the same period a year earlier, according to the Investment Company Institute in Washington, D.C.
Also, 2.3 percent took withdrawals in the first half of this year, which was only slightly higher than the 2.2 percent of the previous year.
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Hardship withdrawals remained the same at 0.9 percent.
These and other findings were released in a study titled, "Defined Contribution Plan Particpants' Activities, First Half 2014." The research was based on plan recordkeeper data covering about 25 million employer-based accounts.
The study noted that loan activity edged up slightly by the end of June, with 17.9 percent of plan participants having outstanding loans.
Elsewhere, most participants did not alter asset allocations. Through June, 6.6 percent had reallocated account balances, and 4.3 percent had done so to their contributions. This activity was slightly lower than during the same period in 2013.
Overall, defined-contribution plans continue to be popular. Assets in all such plans represented more than one-fourth of assets in the total retirement market and nearly one-tenth of U.S. households' aggregate financial assets at the end for the first half of 2014, the ICI said.
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Alan Goforth
Alan Goforth is a freelance writer in suburban Kansas City. In addition to freelancing for several publications, he has written a dozen books about sports and other topics.
