On August 7, President Trump signed an Executive Order (EO) directing the Department of Labor (DOL), working with other agencies including the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Treasury, “to facilitate” inclusion of alternative investments in 401(k) plans.
The alternative investments covered by the EO include “lifetime income investment strategies including longevity risk-sharing pools,” cryptocurrency, real estate, commodities, digital assets, projects financing infrastructure development, and private market investments (“including direct and indirect interests in equity, debt, or other financial instruments, including those where the managers of such investments, if applicable, seek to take an active role in the management of such companies”).
The EO itself does not and cannot make the legal changes required to make it easier for DC plan fiduciaries to include any or all of these alternative investments in their menu of retirement plan investment choices. Those changes will have to come by regulation—certainly by DOL and likely also by Treasury and the SEC.
These alternative investments are already included in many defined benefit (DB) plan investment choices, but inclusion of them in DC plans with participant-directed features and with daily valuations raise fiduciary issues as well as practical considerations, experts say. Among the issues that DOL and the other regulatory agencies will consider are fee structures, risk, liquidity, complexity, and the appropriate level of disclosure to plan participants.
The EO is posted at https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/08/democratizing-access-to-alternative-assets-for-401k-investors/. A White House fact sheet on it is posted at https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/08/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-democratizes-access-to-alternative-assets-for-401k-investors/.
Prospects: Many alternative investment managers are interested in greater access to the $12.5 trillion DC plan market, and some have already created partnerships with financial institutions offering such investments, plan recordkeepers, and investment consultants. But it will take considerable time—even if DOL and the other agencies move swiftly—to propose (and then, after a comment period, finalize) the needed new fiduciary and other rules. Still, there is excitement in the financial services community about this development—many are saying that while there are more risks and larger costs, there is also the potential for greater investment returns.
NAIFA Staff Contacts: Jayne Fitzgerald – Director – Government Relations, at jfitzgerald@naifa.org; or Mike Hedge – Senior Director – Government Relations, at mhedge@naifa.org.