Many Households Have No Retirement Account Assets

A new report by Nari Rhee and Ilana Boivie for the National Institute for Retirement Security says that 45% of working-age households have no assets in retirement accounts. The 40 million households without retirement plan assets are especially common among lower-income households, and the authors conclude that "account ownership rates are closely correlated with income and wealth" (p. 1). The median value in retirement accounts for all households headed by a working-age adult is $2,500. For "near-retirement households" (those headed by people aged 55 to 64), the median is $14,500, meaning that 62% of such households have retirement assets less than one year's current annual income.