Most Non-Retirement Accounts Unchanged

Only four out of 10 individuals who participate in employer-sponsored retirement plans made a change of some kind in their non-retirement accounts during the past 12 months.

Most likely to have made changes in savings accounts outside a retirement plan were individuals in the wealthiest households.

Spectrem Group found that 56% of the individuals who bought or sold securities or made some other change in their non-retirement savings accounts have an annual household income of at least $100,000.

By comparison, 34% of the individuals who made changes in their non-retirement savings accounts have an annual household income of $50,000 to $100,000, and 22% of those individuals have an annual household income of less than $50,000.

Plan participants cited a wide variety of reasons for change, with the most common being investment performance or market conditions (22%), information received from their employer (21%) and conversations with friends or family members (18%).

Other reasons for making changes in non-retirement savings accounts included a major life event (11%), news reports (10%), a desire to save or invest more money (10%) and a discussion with a professional advisor (9%).

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