[26522]
September 26, 2012
TO: PENSION MEMBERS No. 32-12PENSION OPERATIONS ADVISORY COMMITTEE No. 26-12
RESEARCH COMMITTEE No. 10-12 RE: INSTITUTE RELEASES AD HOC SURVEY OF SIMPLE IRAS AS OF JUNE 30, 2012
The Institute recently surveyed certain of its members in a continuing effort to track developments in the SIMPLE IRA market. The Institute’s survey requested SIMPLE IRA data on the number of plans, number of plan participants, and value of the mutual fund assets as of June 30, 2012.
Survey respondents indicate that the number of SIMPLE IRA plans increased 1 percent in the first half of 2012, the number of participants remained stable, and SIMPLE IRA assets invested in mutual funds increased 7 percent. Based on our survey results, the SIMPLE IRA continues to be most popular among very small employers. Most SIMPLE IRA plans have 10 or fewer participants.
Survey results are based on the responses of 18 firms, representing more than three-quarters of the $47 billion of SIMPLE IRA assets invested in mutual funds as of June 30, 2012. Note that the survey respondents are not randomly selected and therefore the survey results do not necessarily reflect the characteristics of the typical SIMPLE IRA account invested in mutual funds.
Highlights of the survey results are as follows:
- Plans: There were approximately 551,900 SIMPLE IRA plans as of June 30, 2012, an increase of 1 percent since year-end 2011 (Figure 1).
- Participants: There were approximately 2.3 million SIMPLE IRA participants (Figure 2) as of June 30, 2012. The number of SIMPLE IRA participants remained steady in the first half of 2012.
- Plan size: For those respondents who were able to provide the data, as of June 30, 2012, 93 percent of the SIMPLE IRA plans had 10 or fewer participants. Approximately 99 percent of the SIMPLE IRA plans had 25 or fewer participants. [1] On average, there were 3.9 participants per plan in June 2012.
Additionally, ICI released data on the U.S. retirement market as of June 30, 2012, today. The release summarizing the results is available along with The U.S. Retirement Market, Second Quarter and Mutual Fund Assets in Retirement Accounts, Second Quarter.
If you have any questions or comments concerning the SIMPLE IRA survey or the U.S. retirement market data, please call me at (202) 326-5940 or email me at eshort@ici.org.
Erin Short
Director, Statistical Research
endnotes
[1] The Institute’s previous ad hoc surveys showed similar distributions regarding plan size.