The Price of Holding Retirement Assets: QPAMs Explained

The retirement industry has become big—really big. Retirement investments valued at more than $33 trillion, according to the Investment Company Institute, now make up the largest share of U.S. corporate stock. Defined benefit and contribution plans account for more than half of that.

Major international asset managers such as Barclays, Citigroup, and JPMorgan Chase also have grown. One consequence of that interconnected web of financial institutions holding retirement assets is the potential for conflicts of interest, which are regulated by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974. The private-sector pension law prohibits transactions with any “party ...