Retirement plan participants who worked with a financial advisor had balances that were nearly double of those who did not engage with an advisor in the second quarter, according to Charles Schwab.
The report, which analyzed the accounts of 142,000 retirement plan participants who invest through Schwab's self-directed brokerage accounts (SDBAs), found that the 20% of SBDA participants who worked with an advisor had an average balance of $448,515, nearly twice as much as the $234,673 average for non-advised participants.
In advised accounts, mutual funds held the highest percentage of participant assets, at about 50%, followed by equities (19%), ETFs (23%), fixed income (4%) and cash (4%). Advised participants averaged 9.8 trades in the second quarter, compared with 5.7 trades by non-advised participants.
As for non-advised accounts, equities held the highest percentage of participant assets with 33%, followed by mutual funds (32%), cash (17%), ETFs (15%) and fixed income (3%).
The top five stocks for advised participants were Apple Inc. with an average allocation of 5.88%; Amazon at 3.75%; Microsoft at 3%; Berkshire Hathaway at 2.74%; and Visa at 2.09%.
Non-advised participants most often chose Apple, with an average allocation of 9.54%; Amazon at 7.13%; Berkshire Hathaway at 2.51%; Microsoft at 2.15%; and Facebook at 2.13%.
The baby boomer generation ended the quarter with the largest average balance, $391,526, up from $374,622 last quarter, followed by Gen X with $211,375 and millennials with $68,214, the report said.