Investing
Private Equity Wants a Piece of Your Retirement Savings
- Firm gains access to vast IRA wealth through Schwab, Fidelity
- More baby boomers are converting retirement funds into IRAs
Savers in the US rolled almost $780 billion into IRAs from 401(k) accounts and other retirement plans last year, according to calculations by Cerulli Associates.
Photographer: Sean Gallup/Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
Amid the roster of banks and brokerages helping KKR & Co. raise money for some of its newest infrastructure investments, two names stand out: Fidelity and Charles Schwab Corp.
Both are known for serving individuals, not the pension funds and endowments that typically invest in multibillion-dollar investment partnerships such as KKR’s. But money from these big institutions is drying up because many of them gorged on private equity to chase returns when interest rates were near zero, and now they’re too heavily invested in the asset class.