Employee Retirement Accounts Still Have a Lot of Employer Stock

A new study from Hewitt Associates shows that employees and employers have not moved away from employer stock in retirement accounts, despite the experiences of Enron, WorldCom, and others in recent years. The study, based on 2.5 million employee accounts, shows that employees holding company stock have an average of 41% of their investment in company shares, and more than 25% of participants had over half their assets in employer stock. Thirty percent of those over 60 had more than 50% in employer stock. The numbers are essentially unchanged form recent years. This could be attributable in part to the importance of employer matches in 401(k) plans as well as employee investment choices.