DOL Alternative Assets Rule Passes White House Review

A White House office concluded its review of the Department of Labor’s proposed rule concerning a plan sponsor’s fiduciary duties when adding alternative investments to defined contribution plans’ investment offerings.

The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, a division within the Office of Management and Budget, originally received the rule in January. Now that it has cleared regulatory review, the DOL can release the proposal for public comment.

Once the DOL publishes the rule and holds a public comment period, which typically lasts for 30 or 60 days, the department can finalize the rule.

In a statement, a DOL spokesperson did not specify the timeline: “The ‘Fiduciary Duties in Selecting Designated Investment Alternatives’ proposed rule has cleared the process of government-wide review of federal regulatory actions, and will be submitted to the Federal Register for publication on a routine timeline.”

The details of the proposed rule are unknown until the department releases it for public comment.

President Donald Trump’s August 2025 executive order asked regulators, including the DOL and the Department of the Treasury, to provide a regulatory framework for how fiduciaries under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act can include alternative investments, ranging from private equity and credit to digital assets, in defined contribution retirement plans.

Though the investments have long been available in DC plans, adoption has remained low, with litigation risks often cited as a reason not to include them. For example, only 3.9% of plans included investments such as private equity in 2024—up from 2.2% the year before—according to sister publication PLANSPONSOR’s 2025 DC Plan Benchmarking Report.

Since the executive order, those in the retirement industry have discussed the potential benefits and risks of adding the assets to professional managed multi-asset funds, such as target-date funds.

At events, interviews and webinars, proponents have argued the assets would provide better diversification and investment results for plan participants, while opponents have said the investments lack liquidity and transparency, as they are not priced daily, as public investments are.