At the Forefront of Democratizing Finance

The Defined Contribution (DC) space is at an inflection point, as evolving policy guidance has the potential to support new pathways for innovation in retirement plan design. That was a key takeaway from a recent discussion with Apollo’s Ashwini Apte (Managing Director, Head of Institutional DC Consultant & OCIO Client Relations), Rebecca Tadikonda (Partner and CEO of Vitera) and James Hannigan (Partner and Head of Enterprise Product Structuring).

For decades, conventional wisdom has held that private markets are too illiquid, risky and inflexible for defined contribution (DC) retirement plans. But many of these objections no longer hold water especially those focused on liquidity. Thanks to recent innovations in structure, strategy and oversight, the tools to manage liquidity within DC plans have evolved dramatically.

As the US retirement landscape continues to evolve, the ongoing shift from defined benefit (DB) pensions to defined contribution (DC) plans continues to expose the critical gap in both retirement savings and strategy. The traditional portfolios powering today’s DC plans—typically centered around publicly traded equities and bonds—are showing signs of strain, especially in a world defined by heightened market volatility, concentration, compressed returns and growing longevity risk.