“A large portion of the contributions roll over from defined contribution plans," said Bing Waldert, director at Cerulli. "We anticipate IRA rollover contributions will continue to grow.”

The Retirement Markets 2013: Data & Dynamics of Employer-Sponsored Plans report looks at the size and segmentation of public and private US retirement markets, including defined benefit, defined contribution and IRA.

"Participants do not necessarily roll over their assets immediately after leaving their employer. Some take action months or even years after their departure," Waldert added.

The findings echo recent insight from Kevin Chisholm, associate director at Cerulli, who said that financial services providers are increasingly focusing on IRA rollovers to win and retain clients, and boost assets under management or advisement.

Similarly, a recent Pershing white paper said that as the Baby Boomer generation retires, advisors will need help managing the transition of billions of dollars from retirement plans into rollover IRAs.

Meanwhile, in February Cerulli said that retail individual retirement accounts represent nearly half of a financial advisor’s book of business.

“Financial advisors play a key role in asset managers' abilities to win flows from rollovers,” said Waldert at the time. “However, these rollover assets are hard to acquire.”