Investment accounts fund practically 7% of US family spending, JPMorgan finds

American households are leaning on their asset placement portfolios to fund each day spending at twice the speed they did earlier than the pandemic, in line with new analysis by the JPMorganChase Institute.

The report, drawing on de-identified checking account information from greater than 20 million Chase clients tracked from 2015 to 2026, discovered that transfers from asset placement accounts into checking accounts rose from the equal of three.5% of complete client spending in April 2019 to six.8% in April 2026. In 2015, that determine stood at simply 2.3%.

“The share of individuals making internet withdrawals from their asset placement accounts has doubled since 2019,” the report’s authors (Chris Wheat, president of the JPMorganChase Institute; George Eckerd, wealth and exchanges analysis director; and analysis vice chairman Melissa O’Brien) wrote within the September 2026 report.

The analysis crew additionally discovered that stock market holdings now account for practically one-third of complete US family belongings as of the primary quarter of 2026, roughly double their share at the beginning of the 2010s, citing Federal Reserve Financial Accounts information.

Who is driving the drawdown

Among individuals aged 65 and older within the prime earnings phase, the share making internet asset placement withdrawals rose 13 share factors to 37% between 2019 and 2025, in line with the report. For that very same cohort, asset placement inflows now signify 15% of annual spending, up 7 share factors from 2019.

The sample is in keeping with the continued shift away from defined-benefit pension plans towards defined-contribution accounts. Access to defined-benefit plans amongst personal sector staff fell from 30.1% in 1984 to 11.1% in 2023, whereas entry to defined-contribution plans rose from 12.0% to 47.7% over the identical interval, according to the Congressional Research Service. That shift locations a rising share of retirement earnings choices, and market danger, immediately within the fingers of people and their advisors.

High-income people throughout all age teams confirmed the sharpest will increase. Among prime earners, the share of spending funded by asset placement withdrawals exceeded 10% each month of 2026, up from a mean beneath 4% in 2015, in line with the JPMorganChase Institute information.

Younger buyers becoming a member of the development

The image is just not restricted to retirees. Among prime earners aged 25 to 44, practically one in 4 people made internet withdrawals from asset placement accounts in 2025, with these flows accounting for about 7% of that group’s spending. Even amongst lower-income adults aged 25 to 44, the share tapping investments doubled, although from a low base, rising to 7%.

Parallel to the expansion in withdrawals, the report discovered a simultaneous rise within the share of youthful individuals actively including cash to asset placement accounts. Among these aged 25 to 44, the share making internet deposits into asset placement accounts practically doubled from 8.5% in 2019 to 16.6% in 2025.

The findings level to a broadening of asset placement account exercise throughout age teams, with youthful cohorts accumulating and older ones spending down – the traditional life-cycle sample, now taking part in out at larger scale and pace.

Financial advisors navigating this panorama are more and more targeted on what the business calls decumulation — translating amassed portfolio belongings into sustainable retirement earnings. As InvestmentNews has reported, decumulation strategies are undergoing their most significant rethink in years, pushed by longer lifespans, greater rates of interest, and the rising cohort of Gen X shoppers coming into retirement.

Market sensitivity is a danger issue

The JPMorganChase Institute’s information additionally surfaced a direct correlation between inventory market efficiency and withdrawal habits.

The upward development in asset placement drawdowns was interrupted 3 times – throughout the COVID-19 selloff of February–March 2020, the sustained fairness decline of January–October 2022, and the market downturn of January–April 2025. Each dip in fairness costs corresponded with a pullback within the share of households transferring cash from portfolios to checking accounts.

That sensitivity has broader financial penalties. The combination private financial savings fee within the US fell to three.0% as of May 2026, close to multi-decade lows, in line with the Federal Reserve’s FRED database, down from a mean above 7% in 2019. The JPMorganChase Institute researchers describe the decline as in keeping with households sustaining spending by pulling from asset placement belongings quite than earned earnings alone.

The report’s authors recommend the hyperlink between monetary exchanges and the actual macro economy might now be stronger than at any prior level, which means market volatility might transmit extra on to client spending than policymakers and advisors have traditionally assumed.

“A bigger share of spending and retirement safety is a perform of market efficiency and monetary self-discipline,” the authors concluded.

Sequence-of-returns danger – the hazard that early market losses completely impair a portfolio’s skill to fund withdrawals – turns into extra acute as a rising share of shoppers depend on asset placement accounts as a major spending supply. Practice management resources for advisors on retirement income planning have grown steadily in response, as corporations adapt to serving an growing older shopper base with more and more advanced decumulation wants.

The administration’s present coverage agenda might amplify the development. The JPMorganChase Institute famous that proposed expansions of tax-advantaged asset placement packages together with Trump Accounts and Trump IRAs, are becoming a member of a sample that already has vital momentum in family monetary habits.

The full report is out there on the JPMorganChase Institute’s research page on household financial health.