Private market experts from both sides of the Atlantic will be joining Corporate Adviser and US DC alternatives industry body DCALTA in a special webinar which takes place next Wednesday at 2pm GMT/9am ET (US).
The session comes at a time when both the US and UK governments are encouraging the implementation of alternatives, including private markets, into DC schemes, including master trusts and GPPs in the UK and 401(k) plans in the US. REGISTER HERE
While both nations’ governments are pushing private markets in DC, they are approaching the issue in very different ways. The US is encouraging allocations to alternatives, with the Trump administration having issued an executive order thaht directs regulators, mainly the Department of Labor and the SEC, to make it easier for 401(k) plan fiduciaries to offer funds that include alternative assets, and to reduce litigation/regulatory friction that discourages this.
The August 2025 order requires the Department of Labor (DOL) to, within 180 days, reexamine its ERISA fiduciary guidance for offering asset-allocation funds that include alternatives. It also tells DOL to consider safe harbours and other ways to curb ERISA (the act that requires fiduciaries to seek best outcomes) litigation risk for fiduciaries.
The UK meanwhile is legislating for powers that will enable it to mandate allocations to private market assets, including specific allocations to UK private markets, in the event that the industry does not increase private market allocations through its own volition.
The webinar will be chaired by Corporate Adviser editor John Greenwood in partnership with DCALTA founder and president Jonathan Epstein, as well as Anne Lester of Money Mentor, Bob Long, CEO Stepstone Private Wealth and Mike Ambery, retirement and savings director, Standard Life.
The webinar will explore:
- The huge difference in policy approaches between the US and UK towards implementing private market assets in DC
- Implementation of alternative assets to date in both countries
- How the US and UK are approaching the fiduciary considerations of alternative asset implementation
- How alternatives deliver value for money in terms of performance, risk management and charges
- The technical challenges of bringing alternative assets to unitised, daily-priced products such as D.C. pensions
