White House Readies Order to Bring Private Equity to 401(k)s (1)

The Trump administration is finalizing an executive order that would pave the way for 401(k) retirement savings plans to invest in private equity, according to people familiar with the matter.

President Donald Trump could sign the directive soon, but details are still being discussed and no date is set for an announcement, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing private deliberations. The move would be a major win for the industry, which has been lobbying to secure a piece of the roughly $12.5 trillion held in 401(k)s.

Shares of alternative asset managers Blackstone Inc., Apollo Global Management Inc. and KKR & Co. rose Wednesday, outpacing the broader market. Apollo climbed as much as 4.3% to $151.98, while Blackstone rose as much as 3.96% to $166.13. Meanwhile, KKR advanced as much as 3.07% to $141.42.

Read More: Private Equity Stocks Gain as Trump Readies Order on 401(k)s

Top officials in Washington have been weighing a directive for months that would ease the legal concerns that have long kept alternative assets out of most worker defined-contribution plans. Retirement portfolios are mostly concentrated in stocks and bonds in part because corporate plan administrators are reluctant to venture into illiquid and complex products.

The directive would be the biggest move yet by the Trump administration to bring private equity to retirement plans. It advances measures taken during his first term, including guidance from the Department of Labor that retirement plan administrators wouldn’t be violating their responsibilities if they included private equity in their portfolios. That guidance was later rolled back by the Biden administration.

Alternative and traditional asset managers are eager to grab a slice of the defined-contribution market, which they see as the next frontier of growth. Institutional investors like US pension funds and endowments have reached the limit of what they can put into private equity amid a broader slowdown in dealmaking and a lack of distributions to clients.

Read More: Private Equity Covets New Golden Age in $12 Trillion of 401(k)s

Opening 401(k)s to private markets products would offer savers more investment options and, proponents argue, greater potential upside. But with that comes greater risk and higher fees that may leave retirement plan administrators vulnerable to lawsuits. The plans to soon release the executive order were reported earlier Tuesday by the Wall Street Journal.

Money managers have pitched policymakers on the argument that savers’ portfolios don’t reflect changes in finance as public markets shrink. The number of publicly traded US firms has greatly declined since a peak in the 1990s, while private equity assets more than doubled in the decade ending in 2023.

(Updates with asset manager share price moves in third paragraph)

--With assistance from Silla Brush and Erin Fuchs.

To contact the reporters on this story:
Josh Wingrove in Washington at jwingrove4@bloomberg.net;
Stephanie Lai in Washington at slai186@bloomberg.net;
Allison McNeely in New York at amcneely@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Laura Davison at ldavison4@bloomberg.net

Amanda Cantrell, Ben Bain

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