Fedweek

Total account balances stood at nearly $622 billion as of the end of the month, with the average FERS balance just under $147,000 and the average CSRS balance just under $158,000. Compared to year-end 2019, those numbers remain down, however. Image: Viacheslav Lopatin/Shutterstock.com

The TSP in June crossed the 6 million mark in participants while accounts overall continued their recovery from the steep losses of earlier this year.

The 6 million total includes more than 3.5 million under FERS, nearly 300,000 under CSRS and the remainder in the uniformed military, according to information presented at this week’s monthly meeting of the governing board.

Total account balances stood at nearly $622 billion as of the end of the month, with the average FERS balance just under $147,000 and the average CSRS balance just under $158,000. Compared to year-end 2019, those numbers remain down, however, by about $11 billion total—despite a net inflow into the program of about $5 billion a month—and by about $5,000 on average individually for FERS participants and about $3,000 for those under CSRS.

Interfund transfer activity was mixed, following an outflow from stock funds into the government securities G fund in February and March and then a return of much of that money to stocks in April in May as those markets rebounded. In June, the most notable change was a net transfer of nearly $1 billion out of the large company stock C fund, with $727 million going into the bond F fund.

Officials also reported that as of June 30 when the prior lifecycle 2020 fund was retired, $21 billion was moved from that fund into the L Income fund. Some 48,000 participants now have some $3.7 billion in the new L funds that were launched at the same time, for 2025, 2035, 2045, 2055, 2060 and 2065.

Further, they said that about 3,800 participants had taken withdrawals, averaging more than $26,000, under one of the pandemic relief laws (the Cares Act) allowing financial hardship withdrawals for virus-related reasons through the end of the year without the tax penalty that generally applies for taking in-service withdrawals before age 59 1/2. That contributed to an increase in hardship withdrawals of 40 percent in June over May, although year to date they are slightly behind 2019.

That law also made two changes regarding taking loans for pandemic-related reasons: allowing suspension of repayments through the end of the year, which about 1,900 have requested, and taking general purpose loans above normal limits, which fewer than 1,000 have requested and which expires September 22.

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