Compliance September 5, 2013

DBs Boosted Plan Assets, Data Shows

The Department of Labor’s (DOL) Employee Benefit Security Administration (EBSA) has released Form 5500 data from 2011.

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EBSA’s Annual Private Pension Plan Bulletins provide statistical summary of Form 5500 data on private pension plans including plan counts, participant counts and financial totals (including assets by category, contributions and benefits).

2011 Form 5500 data shows the total amount of assets held by pension plans increased 1.0% to $6.35 trillion in 2011. Defined benefit (DB) plan assets increased 2.8% to $2.52 trillion, while defined contribution (DC) plan assets decreased by 0.1% to $3.83 trillion.

The total number of pension plans decreased in 2011 to approximately 683,000 plans, a 2.5% decrease over 2010. The number of DC plans declined by 2.5%, while the number of DB plans decreased by 2.8%.

In 2011, the total active participant count decreased from 90.6 million to 90.2 million. The number of active participants in DB plans decreased for the twelfth straight year, by 3.9% in 2011. The number of active participants in DC plans increased to 73.7 million in 2011, up 0.3% from 73.4 million in 2010.

The number of 401(k) type plans decreased from 519,000 to 513,000 in 2011. The number of active participants in 401(k) type plans grew by 1.4%.

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