MMFs in Retirement Plans Break $1 Tril.
The Investment Company Institute published, "Retirement Assets Total $49.1 Trillion in Fourth Quarter 2025," which includes data tables showing that money market funds held in retirement accounts jumped to $1.016 trillion (up from $988 billion) in the latest quarter, accounting for 13% of the total $7.746 trillion in money funds. MMFs represent just 6.9% of the total $14.7 trillion of mutual funds in retirement accounts. The release says, "Total US retirement assets were $49.1 trillion as of December 31, 2025, up 2.1 percent from September. 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." It continues, "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." The ICI tables show money funds accounting for $772 billion, or 10%, of the $7.402 trillion in IRA mutual fund assets and $244 billion, or 3%, of the $7.336 trillion in defined contribution plan holdings. Money funds in 401k plans totaled $163 billion, or 3% of the $5.816 trillion of mutual funds in 401k's.
