US Retirement Plan Assets: $12T Invested

DOL Form 5500 filings cover over 130,000 retirement plans managing more than $12 trillion in assets. This analysis examines how those assets are distributed and what the concentration patterns reveal about American retirement security. See our methodology.

Key Findings

  • 1.Asset concentration is extreme, the top 100 plans hold a disproportionate share of total assets, while the majority of plans are small ($1M-$10M).
  • 2.Plan size correlates strongly with participant outcomes: larger plans negotiate lower fees, offer more investment options, and tend to have higher employer contribution rates.
  • 3.Geographic concentration follows economic gravity, states with major corporate headquarters and financial centers hold a disproportionate share of plan assets.
  • 4.Defined benefit plans account for a declining but still significant share of total assets, as legacy pension obligations work their way through the system over decades.

The Distribution of Retirement Wealth

The headline numbers are impressive, over $12 trillion in assets across 130,000+ plans serving tens of millions of participants. But the distribution behind those numbers tells a more complicated story. A relatively small number of very large plans at major corporations hold the majority of assets, while the vast majority of plans are small businesses with modest retirement programs.

This concentration has practical implications. Workers at large employers benefit from institutional pricing, professional investment management, and robust plan governance. Workers at small employers often face higher fees per dollar invested, fewer investment options, and less sophisticated plan design. PlainRetire makes this variation visible by letting you compare plans of any size.

Size Distribution: The Long Tail

The plan size distribution follows a classic power law. A handful of mega-plans (Fidelity, Vanguard, Boeing, AT&T) hold tens or hundreds of billions each. The median plan is orders of magnitude smaller. Understanding where your plan falls in this distribution helps you calibrate expectations, a $5M plan simply cannot offer the same fee structure as a $50B plan.

However, small plans have been getting better. The growth of pooled employer plans (PEPs) and the SECURE Act provisions are enabling small employers to access institutional-quality retirement programs at lower cost. These trends are visible in the year-over-year Form 5500 data that PlainRetire tracks.

Explore the Data

  • Browse all plans - search and sort by assets, participants, and type
  • Plans by state - geographic distribution of retirement plan assets
  • Plans by industry - which sectors hold the most retirement wealth
  • Rankings - the largest plans by assets, participants, and other metrics
  • Fee guide - how plan size affects the fees you pay

Data source: DOL EBSA, Form 5500 Datasets (2024).

Analysis published: April 2026

Download plan-size bucket aggregates that illustrate the asset concentration on this page: plan-size-buckets.csv.