Retirement savings sure to draw legislative attention

At the end of 2014, U.S. household retirement assets totaled a whopping $27 trillion (according to the latest edition of the Federal Reserve’s Flow of Funds Report.) Those assets, the great majority of which enjoy some degree of tax advantage, are spread across various sectors of the system: IRAs, pension plans, 401(k) plans and so on.

The single largest slice is IRAs, at $7.3 trillion. Employment-related plans account for most of the remainder, with private, federal and state/local government defined benefit pension plans respectively representing $3.1 trillion, $3.3 trillion and $4.9 trillion. Defined contribution plans total $6.3 trillion (the great majority of which is in private sector plans.