Definition
Executive Order 14330, signed August 7, 2025, directs the Department of Labor and Securities and Exchange Commission to reduce regulatory barriers to alternative asset investments in defined contribution retirement plans. The order defines alternative assets to include six categories: private market investments, real estate, digital assets held through actively managed vehicles, commodities, infrastructure financing, and lifetime income investment strategies including longevity risk-sharing pools.
Why it matters
Alternative asset allocations have long been a substantial portion of public pension and defined benefit plan portfolios but were effectively unavailable to defined contribution plan participants under prevailing fiduciary interpretations and litigation risk. EO 14330 is the executive action that reoriented federal regulatory policy toward opening DC plan investment menus to those asset classes. The order's Section 3(a) definition is worth reading carefully: alongside the private-market categories that generated most of the industry commentary, subclause (vi) formally identifies "lifetime income investment strategies including longevity risk-sharing pools" as a category of alternative assets within scope of the order's fiduciary safe-harbor and regulatory-clarification directives. That is the first federal executive-branch text to embed longevity risk-sharing pools as an ERISA-adjacent regulatory category.
How it works
Section 3(a) of the order defines the term "alternative assets" as encompassing six subclauses: (i) private market investments in equity, debt, or other instruments not traded on public exchanges, including active-management strategies; (ii) direct and indirect interests in real estate, including debt secured by real estate; (iii) holdings in actively managed investment vehicles that are investing in digital assets; (iv) direct and indirect investments in commodities; (v) direct and indirect interests in projects financing infrastructure development; and (vi) lifetime income investment strategies including longevity risk-sharing pools. Section 3(b) directs the Secretary of Labor, within 180 days, to reexamine prior DOL guidance regarding ERISA fiduciary duties in connection with asset allocation funds that include alternative assets, and to consider rescinding the DOL's December 21, 2021 Supplemental Private Equity Statement. Section 3(c) directs the Secretary to clarify DOL's position on alternative assets and the appropriate fiduciary process, including possible calibrated safe harbors, and to prioritize actions curbing ERISA litigation that constrains fiduciaries' offering of alternative investments. Section 3(e) directs the SEC to consider revisions to the accredited investor and qualified purchaser definitions, among other measures, to facilitate access. DOL implementation has proceeded on multiple tracks: rescission of the 2021 Supplemental Private Equity Statement in August 2025; Advisory Opinion 2025-04A confirming lifetime income as a QDIA in September 2025; and a proposed rule establishing process-based safe harbors for alternative assets in defined contribution plans released March 30, 2026.
In practice
For a participant, EO 14330 is a policy backdrop rather than a directly actionable item — it modifies what plan sponsors and fiduciaries may prudently include in the plan menu, without directly changing the participant's own investment choices among currently available options. Over the coming years, the practical effect on participants is likely to arrive through expanded plan menus — target date funds and managed accounts that include private-market allocations, lifetime income options structured as QDIAs, and asset allocation funds combining features. The order's explicit inclusion of longevity risk-sharing pools within the alternative-assets definition is a signal that pooled-mortality structures may become more visible in future plan-menu discussions, though the specific vehicles by which they enter is a matter for DOL rulemaking and market development. For plan sponsors and fiduciaries, the order affects what can be considered without disproportionate litigation exposure once the DOL's implementing rules are final; interim guidance already provides meaningful additional room compared with the pre-order status quo.
Related terms
- Alternative assets in DC plans
- Longevity risk-sharing pool
- Lifetime income as a QDIA
- DOL advisory opinion 2025-04A
- Qualified default investment alternative
- Fiduciary safe harbor for annuity selection
- SECURE Act lifetime income provisions
- Department of Labor