WASHINGTON, March 26, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Total US retirement assets were $49.1 trillion as of December 31, 2025, up 2.1 percent from September and up 11.2 percent for the year. Retirement assets accounted for 34 percent of all household financial assets in the United States at the end of December 2025.
Assets in individual retirement accounts (IRAs) totaled $19.2 trillion at the end of the fourth quarter of 2025, an increase of 1.7 percent from the end of the third quarter of 2025. Defined contribution (DC) plan assets were $14.2 trillion at the end of the fourth quarter, up 1.7 percent from September 30, 2025. Government defined benefit (DB) plans—including federal, state, and local government plans—held $10.0 trillion in assets as of the end of December 2025, a 4.5 percent increase from the end of September 2025. Private-sector DB plans held $3.1 trillion in assets at the end of the fourth quarter of 2025, and annuity reserves outside of retirement accounts accounted for another $2.6 trillion.
Defined Contribution Plans
Americans held $14.2 trillion in all employer-based DC retirement plans on December 31, 2025, of which $10.1 trillion was held in 401(k) plans. In addition to 401(k) plans, at the end of the fourth quarter, $880 billion was held in other private-sector DC plans, $1.5 trillion in 403(b) plans, $550 billion in 457 plans, and $1.1 trillion in the Federal Employees Retirement System’s Thrift Savings Plan (TSP). Mutual funds managed $5.8 trillion, or 57 percent, of assets held in 401(k) plans at the end of December 2025. With $3.4 trillion, equity funds were the most common type of funds held in 401(k) plans, followed by $1.6 trillion in hybrid funds, which include target date funds.
Individual Retirement Accounts
IRAs held $19.2 trillion in assets at the end of the fourth quarter of 2025. Thirty-nine percent of IRA assets, or $7.4 trillion, was invested in mutual funds. With $4.3 trillion, equity funds were the most common type of funds held in IRAs, followed by $1.2 trillion in hybrid funds.
Other Developments
Mutual funds play a key role in US households’ individual account-based retirement savings but are less important for traditional DB plans. Mutual funds represent $14.7 trillion, or 44 percent, of the assets held in IRAs and DC plans in December 2025. Mutual funds are also held through variable annuities (VAs), which have similar tax advantages and restrictions as retirement plans and are counted as part of Americans’ nest egg for retirement. In December 2025, VA mutual fund assets outside retirement plans amounted to $1.4 trillion.
The quarterly retirement data tables are available at “The US Retirement Market, Fourth Quarter 2025.”
If you have any questions or would like to request additional comments on this or data on another topic, please contact ICI’s Media Relations team at media@ici.org.
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SOURCE Investment Company Institute
