Despite the coronavirus pandemic’s impact in 2020, most retirement plan participants did not make trades, loan use fell, and only a small minority took withdrawals. Loan use declined by more than 20% in 2020. Only 13% of participants had an outstanding loan in 2020, compared to 16% in 2015. Due to the CARES Act, participants were allowed to withdraw up to $100,000 from their retirement plan without incurring a penalty through December 30, 2020. Only 5.7% of those with the option made withdrawals through coronavirus related distributions (Source: Vanguard, June 2021).
In a recent study, account balances in defined-contribution plans increased by 30% in 2020. 56% of participants are men and have average and median account balances nearly 50% higher than women’s account balances (Source: Vanguard, June 2021). Approximately 45% of Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 index companies have some form of environmental, social, and governance measures within their executive pay (Source: London Business School, Centre for Corporate Governance, July 2021).
Financial Thoughts
