MMFs in Retirement Plans Up to $936B
The Investment Company Institute also published, "Retirement Assets Total $43.4 Trillion in First Quarter 2025," which includes data tables showing that money market funds held in retirement accounts jumped to $936 billion (up from $880 billion) in the latest quarter, accounting for 13% of the total $6.975 trillion in money funds. MMFs represent just 7.1% of the total $13.1 trillion of mutual funds in retirement accounts. This release says, "Total US retirement assets were $43.4 trillion as of March 31, 2025, down 1.6 percent from December. Retirement assets accounted for 34 percent of all household financial assets in the United States at the end of March 2025. Assets in individual retirement accounts (IRAs) totaled $16.8 trillion at the end of the first quarter of 2025, a decrease of 1.3 percent from the end of the fourth quarter of 2024." It continues, "Defined contribution (DC) plan assets were $12.2 trillion at the end of the first quarter, down 1.9 percent from December 31, 2024. Government defined benefit (DB) plans—including federal, state, and local government plans -- held $8.9 trillion in assets as of the end of March 2025, down 0.9 percent from the end of December 2024. Private-sector DB plans held $3.2 trillion in assets at the end of the first quarter of 2025, and annuity reserves outside of retirement accounts accounted for another $2.4 trillion." The ICI tables also show money funds accounting for $707 billion, or 11%, of the $6.445 trillion in IRA mutual fund assets and $229 billion, or 3%, of the $6.685 trillion in defined contribution plan holdings. (Money funds in 401k plans totaled $153 billion, or 3% of the $5.341 trillion of mutual funds in 401k's.)
