What do workers do with their retirement savings after they leave their employers?
A deep dive into post-termination behavior, 2008–2017
About this study
This research analyzed more than 2 million participants who terminated between 2008 and 2017. Together, these individuals had account balances in excess of $100 billion. Activity was measured as of December 31, 2017 on both an asset-weighted and headcount-weighted basis to analyze the number of participants and dollars that:
- Remained in the plan;
- Rolled over to an IRA or other qualified employer plan; or
- Took a cash distribution.
Individuals who kept their assets in the plan but took installment payments were analyzed separately.
Rollovers were examined in two ways:
- How much money left DC plans through IRA rollovers versus plan-to-plan rollovers; and
- Which financial institutions received the most IRA rollovers.
The methodology section at the end provides additional detail on how individuals were categorized.