While the size of an IRA allocation can differ based upon age and the amount within the account, there is no difference in allocation between the gender of the owner of the IRA. A report by the Employee Benefit Research Institute came to this conclusion. The report stated that “those IRA owners who are older, have higher account balances, or own a traditional IRA that originated as a rollover had, on average, lower allocations to equities.” The report also concluded that when an owner’s account balance increased, the percentage of assets that the owner held in equities increased as well. It also appears that the amount within an IRA has a greater affect on an owner’s allocation than age. The report concluded that the youngest IRA owners had the lowest allocations of any group but there were noticeable increases in allocation if the owner’s IRA was larger. The report also came to a many other conclusions. To examine the report, a full copy is provided on the Employee Benefit Research Institute’s website.
See Michael Cohn, Men and Woman Make Similar IRA Allocations, Accounting Today, Oct. 26, 2012.
Special thanks to Brian Cohan (Attorney at Law, Law Offices of Brian J. Cohan, P.C.) for bringing this article to my attention.
