Private equity may soon be coming for your hard-earned retirement plan — thanks in part to President Joe Biden’s failure to stop the industry’s decades-long push to infiltrate retirement savings and the Trump administration’s presumed support of such an incursion.
Private equity, an opaque, high-fee industry dealing in high-risk and world-destroying investments, has long been trying to get its claws on the $11 trillion sitting in Americans’ retirement savings plans. On Monday, the Financial Times reported that the industry is launching a new lobbying effort to do so, with just days left before President Donald Trump takes power.
Should private equity succeed in fulfilling a longtime “dream” of tapping into the trillions of dollars held in 401(k)s and other defined-contribution retirement plans — which workers pay into, sometimes with an employer match — one executive told the Financial Times it could potentially double demand for the industry’s various funds. But advocates warn that private equity could endanger retirement savings in the same way the industry has imperiled public pension plans — by charging exorbitant fees and funneling money into risky and opaque investments.
Given Trump’s friendliness to private equity and the major backing the industry gave his campaign, his reelection was seen by insiders as a sign that this dream may be fully realized.
But private equity has also benefited from Biden’s refusal to intervene on the issue, despite speaking out against private equity in 401(k)s on the 2020 campaign trail. Biden’s reticence has paved the way for this week’s new lobbying effort.
Private equity has historically not had access to 401(k)s thanks to restrictions in the Employee…
Auteur: Katya Schwenk
