US Asset Managers "The Newest Foray into 401k" Brown

Research evidence excerpt

US Asset Managers "The Newest Foray into 401k" Brown

Global Research

20 May 2026ab

US Asset Managers Equities

AmericasThe Newest Foray into 401k

Financial

Michael Brown

Our take: Positive step, but early-stage with uncertain scale potential Analyst

We view this as a positive step for CG and BAM as a clear and credible path for private mike.brown@ubs.com

markets penetration in the defined contribution (DC)/401k channel. We believe 401k +1-212-713 1387

adoption of private assets will open access to a large pool of steady, long-duration, and Vijeth Mudalegundi

highly sticky retirement assets for alternative asset managers. Though, based on our Analyst

rough back-of-the-envelope assumptions, the revenue opportunity appears modest vijeth.mudalegundi@ubs.com

even by 2030 (see Fig. 1 & 2). A more meaningful contribution would require faster +1-212-649 8172

underlying DC adoption of private markets or broader partner expansion, in our view. Mary Mahrer

Importantly, details remain limited at this stage, leaving uncertainty around Analyst

implementation, adoption pace, and ultimate economics. mary.mahrer@ubs.com

+1-212-713 9014

The Latest Strategic Partnership to Address the Defined Contribution Market Daniel Lehmann

AllianceBernstein, BAM, and CG announced a partnership to deliver “ABC [ONE],” their Associate Analyst

joint private markets solution for DC plans, as the path for adoption of private markets daniel-j.lehmann@ubs.com

+1-212-713 2391

for 401k plans gets more clear. AB will oversee asset allocation and manage private

credit, leveraging its ~$105B custom target-date expertise. BAM will manage private Cory Johnson

real assets, while CG will oversee private equity. The solution dynamically adjusts Associate Analyst