Research
Whitepapers
FEATURED
July 18, 2025
Principles for DC Stakeholders on the Consideration and Use of Private Market Investments
Public opinion polls consistently show that a large majority of Americans believe that retirement is in crisis and Americans will have trouble achieving financial security.
July 18, 2025
Principles for DC Stakeholders on the Consideration and Use of Private Market Investments
Public opinion polls consistently show that a large majority of Americans believe that retirement is in crisis and Americans will have trouble achieving financial security.
July 17, 2025
Private Credit in Defined Contribution Plans
Enhancing Retirement Outcomes Through Diversification and Yield
November 18, 2024
Modernizing Retirement Savings
Technology, Innovation, and Alternative Investments in Defined Contribution Plans
December 6, 2023
Considering Private Real Estate as a Foundation of DC Plan Multi-Asset Investment Options
Trends in DC Plan Investments for U.S. Plan Sponsors and Industry Stakeholders
November 1, 2023
Liquidity Framework For Inclusion Of Alternative Assets in DC Plans
A Guide for U.S. Plan Sponsors and Industry Stakeholders
November 1, 2023
Industry Group DCALTA Issues Liquidity Framework for Inclusion of Alternative Assets in DC Plans
Press Release for Liquidity Framework Paper
November 1, 2023
Does Private Equity Enhance
Retirement Investment Outcomes?
Evidence from the Experience of Pension Funds
July 13, 2023
Has the Lack of Asset Diversification in DC Retirement Plans Been a Costly Missed Opportunity?
A new report from Georgetown University’s Center for Retirement Initiatives (CRI) and CEM Benchmarking (CEM) finds that adding illiquid assets, such as private equity, real estate, and infrastructure, to the target date funds (TDFs) of defined contribution (DC) retirement plans would have resulted in a 0.15% (15 basis points) increase in return per year over a decade. When applied to all U.S. target date options, such an increase would currently represent $5 billion in additional annual net returns.
June 1, 2022
Core private real estate fortifies defined contribution multi-asset portfolios
Defined benefit plans, endowments, and foundations have long enjoyed the benefits of investing in private real estate, namely diversification, lower volatility of returns, a hedge against inflation, and the potential for improving risk-adjusted investment performance. This paper considers the current inflationary environment, and the impact core private real estate can have, not only in defined contribution (DC) target date portfolios, but also in multi-asset inflation-sensitive options for participants.
April 13, 2022
Expanding 401(k) Options with Cryptocurrency
How and why the new crypto investment
option brings the 401(k) into the 21st century
February 23, 2021
Daily Valuation of Alternative Assets in DC Plans
Consistent with our mission of enhancing retirement outcomes, DCALTA has published a practical framework to provide plan sponsors clarity on the implementation of daily valuation of private assets.
October 1, 2019
DCALTA-IPC Research Paper: Why Defined Contribution Plans Need Private Investments
We examine the impact of including private investment funds into diversified (e.g., balanced and target date fund) portfolios that otherwise hold only public stocks and bonds. Our analysis utilizes a comprehensive sample of 2,515 U.S. private equity funds to create simulated portfolios for 1987-2017 that invest part of their overall equity allocation in these funds. We find that investing in private funds always increases average portfolio returns and reliably increases Sharpe ratios (return per unit of risk). The results are robust when accounting for the inclusion of higher fees for the private portfolio and while randomly selecting a few funds from each vintage year (e.g., 10), suggesting that the results are feasible in practice for many investor types.
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