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After peaking in 2007, the average retirement account balance declined by 28.5 percent in 2008 to an average of $36,798, eroding most of the gains from 2007, according to The 2009 Total View, a comprehensive annual report recently released by Principal Financial Group Inc. The report includes benchmarks for an in-depth look at retirement program trends among almost 44,000 retirement plans in 2007 and more than 43,000 plans in 2008 with services provided by Principal.

Investors under 50 took the biggest hit to their retirement accounts – a decrease of 32 percent from year-end 2007 to year-end 2008. The average account balance for men, which decreased from $51,580 at year-end 2007 to $37,201 at year-end 2008, remained consistently higher than the average for women, which decreased from $29,142 to $21,515 during the same period.

Despite the sharp decreases, many people stayed the course and continued investing. Among plans with services provided by Principal, 19.2 percent of participants increased their contributions in 2008, compared with 16.5 percent who stopped contributing or decreased their contributions.

The complete report is available on Principal’s Web site at www.principal.com.