By Jeff Mason and Isla Binnie
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order on Thursday that aims to allow private equity, real estate, cryptocurrency and other alternative assets in 401(k) retirement accounts, a White House official said.
The order smoothes the way for private equity and other fund managers to tap into trillions of dollars of Americans’ retirement savings. It could open up a vast new funding source to managers of so-called alternative assets outside of stocks, bonds and cash, though critics say it also could bring too much risk into retirement investments.
“The order directs the Securities and Exchange Commission to facilitate access to alternative assets for participant-directed defined-contribution retirement savings plans by revising applicable regulations and guidance,” the White House official said on condition of anonymity.
The order directs the Labor Secretary to consult with her counterparts at the Treasury Department, the SEC and other federal “regulators to determine whether parallel regulatory changes should be made at those agencies,” the official said.
Such a move would be a boon for big alternative asset managers such as Blackstone, KKR and Apollo Global Management by opening the $12 trillion market for retirement funds, known as defined contribution plans, to their investments.
The president is scheduled to sign executive orders at 12:00 ET, according to a White House public schedule.
The new investment options carry lower disclosure requirements and are generally less easy to sell quickly for cash than the publicly traded stocks and bonds that most retirement funds rely on. Investing in them also tends to carry higher fees.
In defined contribution plans, employees make contributions to their own retirement account, frequently with a matching contribution from their employer. The invested funds belong to the employee, but unlike a defined benefit pension plan, there is no guaranteed regular payout upon retirement.
Many private equity firms are hungry for the new source of cash that retail investors could offer after three years in which high interest rates shook their time-honored model of buying companies and selling them at a profit.
Whatever changes may come from Trump’s order, it likely will not happen overnight, private equity executives say. Plaintiffs lawyers are already preparing for lawsuits that could be filed by investors who do not understand the complexity of the new forms of investments.
BlackRock, which lobbied for the change, is not waiting. The world’s largest asset manager plans to launch its own retirement fund that includes private equity and private credit assets next year.
However, CEO Larry Fink acknowledged in a recent call with analysts that the change may not be a panacea for the industry.
“The reality is, though, there is a lot of litigation risk. There’s a lot of issues related to the defined contribution business,” Fink said. “And this is why the analytics and data are going to be so imperative way beyond just the inclusion.”
CFO Martin Small said the industry may seek litigation reform before it can expand into the market.
The Department of Labor issued guidance during Trump’s previous presidency on how such plans could invest in private equity funds within certain limits, but few took advantage, fearing litigation.
Proponents argue that younger savers can benefit from potentially higher returns on riskier investments in funds that get more conservative as they approach retirement.
Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren wrote in June to the chief executive of annuity provider Empower Retirement, which oversees $1.8 trillion in assets for more than 19 million investors, asking how retirement savings placed in private investments could be safeguarded “given the sector’s weak investor protections, its lack of transparency, expensive management fees, and unsubstantiated claims of high returns.”
(Reporting by Jeff Mason and Isla Binnie, additional reporting by Rishabh Jaiswal and Doina Chiacu; Editing by Louise Heavens, Kirsten Donovan)
