Did 401(k) ‘Innovation’ Just Get Set Up to Fail?: John Authers

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“Investment innovation is a virtue, not a vice” under fiduciary law. So said Lori Chavez-DeRemer, the US secretary of labor, in this week’s landmark announcement that the company-offered pension plans her department oversees can start to invest in alternative assets, like private credit, private equity, infrastructure and cryptocurrencies.

The announcement, long floated, was a victory for the financial services industry — led by Larry Fink of BlackRock, subject of this essay last weekend — which has campaigned for so-called 401(k) pensions to be freed to invest more widely. The biggest long-term ...