Elizabeth Warren pushes back on plan to get private equity into 401(k)s

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: CNN Business

Published 5:00 AM EDT, Sat July 12, 2025


CNN — A typical 401(k) plan only offers stock and bond funds that invest in publicly traded companies. But private companies — traditionally the domain of institutional and high-net-worth investors — have become a significant part of the overall investing market. Do they belong as an option in workplace retirement plans, given that they are often more expensive and less transparent than publicly traded securities?

It’s a question that’s been getting a lot of attention as the private investment industry and others seek to “democratize” access to such investments. And it’s an issue receiving pushback from some lawmakers and consumer advocates, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the top-ranking Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee.

Most recently, Warren sent a letter and a series of questions to Empower, one of the largest workplace retirement plan recordkeepers, probing its recently announced decision to offer plan sponsors the choice of including private equity as an investment option for their employees.

In its response to Warren earlier this week, Empower — which serves roughly 90,000 corporate, government and nonprofit employers — likened the desire to give people access to private markets to the creation of 401(k)s decades ago. “The 401(k) democratized access to the public markets in unprecedented fashion and without it, many people would have no access to investing,” Empower CEO Ed Murphy wrote. “Today, we are facing a similar moment.”

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/12/business/elizabeth-warren-empower-private-equity-401k

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Link to Sen. Warren PRESS RELEASE - Warren Seeks Answers from Empower Retirement on Threats to Americans' 401Ks from Private Equity and Private Credit

Link to LETTER to company (Empower) (PDF) - https://www.banking.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Warren%20letter%20to%20Empower%20on%20PE.pdf

Link to company's (Empower's) RESPONSE TO LETTER'S QUESTIONS (PDF) - https://docs.empower.com/press/elizabeth-warren-response-july-2025.pdf

(yes - the VAST majority of these so-called "sternly worded letters" actually include questions requesting info and YES, the majority of the time, the recipients will answer them - not always in full but they haven't gone off the deep end like 45's insane people and GOP members of Congress, to completely ignore the request)