Closed restaurants and movie theaters meant more disposable income for retirement savings during the pandemic.

T. Rowe Price is out with its annual Reference Point 401k benchmarking report featuring year-over-year data and analysis on participant behavior and plan design, and the results were positive, all things considered.

“While the financial, physical, and emotional strains caused by the pandemic had, and will continue to have, repercussions on plan design and retirement savings outcomes, it was encouraging to see that through it all, plan sponsors and participants remained committed to retirement savings,” Kevin Collins, head of Retirement Plan Services at T. Rowe Price said in a statement.

Important highlights
The overall average pretax deferral rate for participants increased from 7.6% in 2019 to 7.8% in 2020—the largest annual increase since 2016.
The deferral rate increase, combined with the fact that most participants did not react to the market volatility by making withdrawals from their accounts, contributed to the average account balance increasing by 13% over 2019 when the market rebounded before the end of the year.
Roth 401(k)s continue to gain traction in the marketplace. Since 2016, plans offering Roth contribution options have increased from 60% to 80% in 2020. Nearly 10% of eligible participants took advantage of this benefit in 2020, up from 8.5% the previous year.

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