Bringing Alternative Assets To Retirement Accounts: Four Steps The Administration Should Prioritize

President Trump's August 7, 2025 retirement plan Executive Order underscores the administration's objective to make alternative assets available to defined-contribution plan participants. Below, we identify four steps the Department of Labor and the Securities and Exchange Commission should prioritize to achieve this goal.

President Trump's Executive Order (EO) calls for expanding defined-contribution (DC) plan participants' access to alternative assets, which are defined as interests in private market assets, real estate, vehicles that invest in digital assets, commodities, projects that finance infrastructure development, and lifetime income investment strategies. Although plan fiduciaries are not currently prohibited from offering such investments on plan menus, regulatory burdens and litigation risks generally make them reluctant to do so. Accordingly, the EO directs the Department of Labor (DOL) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), in broad