401(k)s opened to new assets

401(k) Capital Could Redefine CRE Financing New executive order allows 401(k) retirement plans to invest in alternative assets, including commercial real estate. Even a modest reallocation of the $12 trillion retirement market could expand liquidity and reshape financing models for major projects. The opportunity is real, but structuring these investments to meet regulatory and fiduciary standards will be the differentiator between headlines and successful execution. The New York Times Tara Siegel Bernard reporting: https://lnkd.in/eeBcY-h3 #CommercialRealEstate #RealEstateInvesting #PropertyInvestment #CREInvesting #AlternativeInvestments #RealEstatePortfolio

The Great 401(k) Democratisation Experiment Trump's August 7, 2025 executive order directing federal agencies to expand 401(k) access to private equity, cryptocurrency, and other alternative investments represents the most significant shift in American retirement investing since the creation of 401(k) plans themselves. This policy could fundamentally reshape how 90 million Americans save for retirement, potentially providing access to investments historically reserved for the wealthy while introducing new complexities and risks to the nation's $8.7 trillion in workplace retirement savings. The executive order titled "Democratizing Access to Alternative Assets for 401(k) Investors" doesn't immediately change investment options but sets in motion a regulatory process that could transform retirement investing by 2026. While private equity firms celebrate potential access to trillions in new capital, critics warn of exposing ordinary workers to illiquid, complex investments with fees up to 20 times higher than traditional options. The stakes couldn't be higher: for millions of Americans, their 401(k) represents their primary—and often only—path to financial security in retirement. #401(k) #privateequity #retirement #funding #crypto Please add comments below?

🚨 A Game Changer for Retirement Is Here 🚨 On August 7, 2025, a single executive order cracked open the $8–12 trillion U.S. 401(k) market to crypto, private equity, real estate, and other alternative assets. If this takes effect, even a 1% reallocation could send $80-120 billion into crypto overnight, it’s more than all Bitcoin ETF inflows this year combined. This isn’t just policy change - it’s the potential institutional legitimization of alternative assets in everyday retirement plans. The implications for investors, asset managers, and global markets are massive - but so are the risks. 📖 Read my full breakdown on this article #RetirementInvesting #401k #Crypto #Finance #AlternativeAssets #WealthManagement

The Executive Order is a welcome move toward expanding access to private markets within retirement plans. Diversified private markets exposure, implemented thoughtfully, can serve as a key guardrail: helping manage risk, strengthening portfolio resilience, and maintaining access to high-quality, long-term opportunities. Read here for HarbourVest Partners view on this order: https://lnkd.in/e4khfmDF

Major changes could be coming to your retirement plan. President Trump signed an executive order that aims to make alternative investments, from crypto to private credit, more accessible within retirement accounts. My sources tell me consumers should be wary of high risk, high reward investment tools. Meantime, private credit firms are celebrating the move. More here on what this means for your retirement account: #retirement #401k #stockmarket

Should you add #crypto to your #401k? Economist Allison Schrager says no 🎥

Companies that voluntarily choose to sponsor a 401(k) plan are caught between their own risk of legal exposure and the Trump administration's new vision for American retirement portfolios, which has the firm backing of Wall Street. Plan sponsors are held to strict fiduciary standards of conduct under federal benefits law, putting them sometimes personally liable for poor investment management decisions. Benefits law is processed based. In theory, if plan fiduciaries can demonstrate a prudent process for selecting a financial product with private-equity holdings, they should be spared. But the employee benefits plaintiffs' bar has demonstrated a remarkable capability to find creative solutions for holding plan sponsors accountable after the fact. It also remains to be seen just how helpful Labor Department and SEC guidance will be in stemming the litigation tide. Ultimately, my sources say, it may just come down to a gut decision. https://lnkd.in/eigAAKZN

🇺🇸 The next step in the democratization of venture capital is here. Yesterday, President Trump signed an executive order that could finally open up venture capital, crypto, and other alternative investments to everyday Americans through their 401(k)s. Translation? 90 million Americans who have retirement savings will soon be one step closer to equal economic opportunity. For decades, these strong-performing investments were reserved for institutions, insiders, and the ultra-wealthy. Everyone else? Told to settle for index funds and average returns. That era is ending. This is more than a policy shift. It’s a recalibration of economic fairness—giving millions of Americans access to the kinds of private deals that have historically built generational wealth for the few. When Mike Collins Beth Obermiller Jim Gill and I started Alumni Ventures in 2014, we did so with the strong belief that access to investing in innovation through venture should not be gated by status, wealth, or connections. We've spent the last 11 years meeting that mission - onboarding more than 11,000 investors and $1.5B of capital during that time. The expansion of access to venture and other alternatives is a significant step forward in the continued effort to give everyone an equal economic opportunity. 🛑 No more "you’re not rich enough." 🛑 No more “you don’t belong here.” ✅ It’s your money. You should have a say in how it grows. The future of investing is open. And Alumni Ventures and other firms are ready and holding the door open for you. https://lnkd.in/ejsKv9Bx #venturecapital #401k #alternativeinvestments #retirement #democratizingaccess #financialjustice #alumniventures #wealthbuilding #economicopportunity

Per today's news, the President wants the DOL to bless the inclusion of alternative/private assets/crypto in 401(k) investment menus. The President throws out a lot of sticks for the press to chase every day. This one happened to be thrown into my field. The President evidently ordered his DOL to be less critical and more approving about alts than the Biden DOL was. That may or may not be wise; financial deregulation has produced some reckless consequences. I'm just puzzled by Washington's inattention to arguably more serious obstacles to retirement security in the U.S.: A) The shortfall in access to tax-favored workplace retirement plans (only about half of workers have access to them at any given time), B) the inadequacy of savings accumulations by retirement age, and C) the unresolved future of the Social Security system, on which most Americans rely on for financial security in retirement (and which can give older Americans the risk-capacity to invest in stocks and, if they want, crypto or private assets). Long-standing problems like these don't respond to Executive Orders. The previous iteration of this administration actively undermined state-sponsored workplace Roth IRA programs that try to expand coverage. It has never shown an inclination to strengthen Social Security, only to criticize or, eventually, privatize it. Both political parties, for that matter, are guilty of urging Americans to pursue the American Dream--as if 100% of us can be in the top 20% who can pay for excellent health insurance, college for kids, a single family home in a nice suburb out of pocket. It's impossible. The other 80% have their best shot at achieving security for themselves and their children through pooled, and not isolated, solutions. They need bread, not cake. (The assumption that everyone who works hard will have bread and only lacks cake is one of our national myths.) Social Security is bread for U.S. retirees. Alternative investments, crypto, private assets--these are bread for the money management industry, which explains why we're hearing so much about them. For most Americans, these exotic assets are not bread, or even cake. At best, they're icing.

Here's some context on Trump's bid today to open 401(k) and other employer-backed defined contribution plans to alternative investments, which we wrote about in a recent PitchBook article. https://pitchb.co/e0ToG2 >>What's at stake: Some $14 trillion is in Americans' retirement savings that could be invested for the first time in the private market. >>The alternative asset industry—led by private credit, equity and real estate firms—is eager to funnel a slice of that money into its small but growing lineup of fund strategies that are customized for affluent investors. >>Adding this type of market exposure to 401(k) plans has been at the top of the wish list for a coalition of asset managers lobbying Washington since Trump took office. If his executive order succeeds, more employers would offer everyday Americans access to alt-investments, expanding private-market access to the investing public on a massive scale.