The U.S. Department of Labor has proposed a rule that would make it easier for 401(k) plans to include alternative assets such as cryptocurrencies, private equity and real estate.<\/p>\n
The proposal<\/a> is in response to President Donald Trump\u2019s executive order<\/a>, released in August, which directed the Labor Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission to facilitate expanded access to alternative assets in 401(k)s.<\/p>\n \u201cThis proposed rule will show how plans can consider products that better reflect the investment landscape as it exists today,\u201d Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer said in a statement.<\/p>\n If adopted, the rule would mark a shift in how retirement plans are built. For years, most 401(k)s have focused on stocks and bonds. The new approach would allow plan providers to add a broader mix of assets, including digital tokens and private-market funds that are not traded on public exchanges.<\/p>\n The move builds on earlier changes. Last May, the Labor Department rescinded prior guidance that urged fiduciaries to exercise \u201cextreme care\u201d before adding crypto to retirement plans. Trump\u2019s executive order went further, calling for digital assets to be treated on par with other investment options.<\/p>\n Still, the proposal has drawn criticism from some lawmakers and financial advisors.<\/p>\n \u201cAs cracks emerge in the private credit market, private equity returns fall to 16-year lows, and crypto keeps tumbling, President Trump has decided now is the time to stick all of these risky assets into Americans\u2019 401(k)s,\u201d Senator Elizabeth Warren said in a statement. She warned the rule could expose workers to losses while benefiting large financial firms.<\/p>\n The stakes for crypto could be large. U.S. 401(k) plans hold trillions of dollars in retirement savings, and even a small shift into digital assets could send new capital into the market. If a large plan with tens of thousands of workers were to allocate just 1% of its portfolio to bitcoin, that would translate into millions of dollars flowing into crypto funds or tokens. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The U.S. Department of Labor has proposed a rule that would make it easier for 401(k) plans to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":355998,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[138,246,111,139,69,244,245],"class_list":{"0":"post-355997","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-finance","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-newzealand","12":"tag-nz","13":"tag-personal-finance","14":"tag-personalfinance"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=355997"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355997\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/355998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}