Despite the availability of retirement plans and the rally in financial markets, assets in 401(k) and IRA plans declined for many households between 2013 and 2016, according to a new report from the Center for Retirement Research (CRR) at Boston College, using data from Federal Reserve's Survey of Consumer Finances.

During that time frame, the median value of combined 401(k) and IRA assets fell almost 17% to $40,000 for households headed by someone age 35 to 44 and declined 3% to $97,000 where the head of household was between 45 and 54.

The exception was households approaching retirement led by someone between 55 and 64. The median value of their combined 401(k) and IRA assets rose 24% to $135,000 during the same time frame, but even those savings are nowhere near enough.

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Bernice Napach

Bernice Napach is a senior writer at ThinkAdvisor covering financial markets and asset managers, robo-advisors, college planning and retirement issues. She has worked at Yahoo Finance, Bloomberg TV, CNBC, Reuters, Investor's Business Daily and The Bond Buyer and has written articles for The New York Times, TheStreet.com, The Star-Ledger, The Record, Variety and Worth magazine. Bernice has a Bachelor of Science in Social Welfare from SUNY at Stony Brook.

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