The Big Take
Trillions in Retirement Dollars Flow Into Opaque Trusts
A little-talked about investment product is taking over the 401(k) world, and offering asset managers a way to increase exposure to private markets.
At the heart of the US retirement industry, underpinning the later-life plans of millions of Americans, is a set of financial products that hardly anyone can tell you a thing about.
No one knows exactly how much money they control. No one can say how it’s all allocated. No single financial regulator is in charge of them. Yet Collective Investment Trusts are now a multi-trillion dollar business to rival mutual funds or ETFs — and are poised to become the backdoor through which more private assets are added to Americans’ retirement savings.