In its analysis, the ICI says that since most Roth IRA investors are younger, it makes sense that their portfolios are weighted more heavily towards equity investments. The age discrepancy might also contribute to the lower withdrawal activity among Roth investors.
With more than $6 trillion in assets at the end of 2014, traditional IRAs are still the most used of the two accounts. By the end of 2015, around $660 billion had accumulated in Roth accounts, according to the ICI.
The ICI data was published in two reports, “The IRA Investor Profile: Traditional IRA Investors’ Activity, 2007-2014” and “The IRA Investor Profile: Roth IRA Investors’ Activity, 2007-2014,” drawing on data from The IRA Investor Database, which houses almost 10 years of account-level data for millions of IRA investors.