US Rollover Market Expected to Jump 34% by 2030

By 2030, U.S. rollovers to retail individual retirement accounts from retirement plans are expected to reach $1.15 trillion, according to a report by the insurance trade association LIMRA. That would represent a 34% increase from the estimated $855 billion in retail rollovers expected in 2025 and nearly double the $612 billion in retail rollovers in 2020.

The average size of rollovers for people aged 50 to 74 more than doubled since 2007, increasing to an estimated $220,000 from $101,400, according to LIMRA analysis of IRS data.

“The dollar amount and the proportion of total assets that the rollover represents for many older workers or retirees … demand a certain level of carefulness and thought,” says Matt Drinkwater, corporate vice president of LIMRA Annuity and Retirement Income Research. “It can be a very big decision, a big financial transaction, probably their biggest of [retirees’ lives]. … The only exception might be purchasing a house.”

Drivers of Growth

The dramatic increase in transfers to an IRA from an employer-sponsored retirement plan is fueled by the growing number of U.S. workers, rising participation in employee retirement plans and investment growth.

According to Drinkwater, automatic enrollment of new employees into employer-sponsored plans and automatic re-enrollment of existing employees have driven participation rates up.

“This is sweeping in a lot of people who, in decades past, maybe would not have been participating in a [defined contribution] plan,” Drinkwater says. “We’ve seen those participation rates increase over the past decade and a half.”

The Bureau of Labor Statistics found retirement plans with more than 500 employees saw participation rates rise to 72% in 2024 from 58% in 2010. Participation in smaller plans rose to 55% from 51% in the same period.

LIMRA’s research indicated the IRA rollover market is growing because the size of employees’ account balances is increasing, as well.

“You would expect investment growth due to increases in wage and salary [and] higher deferral rates due to those automatic features like auto-escalation,” Drinkwater says.

Employment turnovers are another major factor, as 60 to 70 million U.S. workers leave their employers every year, according to LIMRA analysis of BLS data. Changing jobs often prompts individuals to roll an old retirement account balance into an IRA.

Workers are also reaching retirement age in record numbers, as an estimated average of 11,400 Americans turn 65 every day in 2025. In all, more than 4.1 million Americans are expected to turn 65 from 2024 through 2027, according to the Alliance for Lifetime Income.

IRA Provider Selection

LIMRA also conducted a survey of 607 individuals who completed a rollover to a traditional or Roth IRA from a workplace retirement plan and found that 67% of participants decided on a rollover before leaving their employer. More than one-third decided on a rollover more than three months before leaving their employer.

The three most-cited reasons for respondents opting for rollovers, instead of leaving money in the plan, were control over money (shared by 47% of respondents), seeking better returns on retirement savings (42%), and consolidating assets with one provider (38%).

When LIMRA asked 576 investors why they chose a specific IRA company, the top answer—shared by 73% of respondents—was reputation and recommendations, which include recommendations from financial professionals and ads. Other reasons included investment options (70%), services and advice (66%), and consolidation (64%).

Thinking Ahead

Drinkwater says LIMRA’s IRA market growth prediction might even be “conservative,” but he names a few factors that could taper expected growth slightly.

Drinkwater points to in-plan roll-ins, which can happen when an employee switches from one employer with one DC plan to another, and plan documents allow assets from the old plan to be added to the new employer’s plan. He says this option has been around for some time, but he has not seen a lot of activity, as the DC industry, plan sponsors and plan documents have been “slow to change.”

“One thing we have seen is the rise of [is] automatic roll-ins,” Drinkwater says. “If we see more attention paid to roll-ins, then that should—all else being equal—reduce the size of the rollover market,” Drinkwater says.

LIMRA’s survey fielded responses from 807 participants in March and April. Respondents were aged 40 to 75, left an employer within the last two years and participated in the employer’s DC or defined benefit plan while employed, with an account balance of at least $5,000 upon departure.