Advisers Rank Alts Platforms Last Among DC Tech Tools, Cerulli Finds

Access to alternative investments through third-party platforms ranked last among 10 technology developments financial advisers were asked to rate for their defined contribution plan practices, according to new research from Cerulli Associates and Morningstar.

Just 19.5% of advisers surveyed said access to alternatives through third-party platforms, such as iCapital, would be “very helpful” to their DC practices. Among advisers who focus primarily on retirement plans, which Cerulli calls DC specialists, the figure was 4%.

By comparison, 50.4% of advisers said a fully digital process for moving participant assets from one recordkeeper to another would be very helpful, the top response. Improved access to data on participant assets held outside the plan ranked second, at 48.5%.

“We are in the very early days of private markets adoption in DC plans,” Chris Bailey, director at Cerulli Associates, said in emailed comments to AltsWire. Bailey said advisers rated the developments for their DC practices rather than their wealth businesses.

DC advisers understand what private markets are, and some already use them in their wealth practices, but questions remain about how they work inside plans, Bailey said. “DC recordkeepers deal with mutual funds and CITs as vehicles, so it is not as simple as adding an interval fund or other structure used in wealth management to a plan’s investment menu,” he said. Plan fiduciaries also face new considerations around liquidity, valuations, and the quality of private market assets, in addition to fees and performance, he said.

The findings come as alternatives sponsors push into the retirement channel. The Labor Department in March proposed a rule, Fiduciary Duties in Selecting Designated Investment Alternatives, that would create a process-based safe harbor for plan fiduciaries adding alternatives to 401(k) lineups. The proposal followed an August 2025 executive order directing the department to revisit its guidance on alternative assets in 401(k) plans. The comment period closed June 1, and the department has not issued a final rule.

Asset managers have moved ahead of the rule. Blackstone, Ares, and Apollo in January partnered with OneDigital to add private investments to adviser-managed portfolios for 401(k) plans. The Cerulli report cites OneDigital, CAPTRUST, and Creative Planning as registered investment adviser aggregators building out both retirement and wealth capabilities.

Bailey said a few target-date products with private markets exposure are live, and several recordkeepers have set up adviser-managed account programs that can allocate to private markets. He pointed to iCapital, which in September partnered with Great Gray Trust Co. to develop private market collective investment trusts for DC plans rather than going directly to advisers. As private markets adoption in DC plans progresses, third-party alternatives platforms may play a larger role working directly with DC advisers, Bailey said.

Segment Gap

Interest in alternatives access was similar among the two adviser segments with the largest wealth businesses. Wealth-retirement hybrids, who serve a mix of plan and retail clients, rated it very helpful at 22.1%, and wealth advisers, who serve primarily retail clients, at 20%. DC specialists, who on average generate 66% of their revenue from retirement plans, gave alternatives access the lowest rating any segment gave any of the 10 developments.

The technology question is part of a broader Cerulli study of the “Bridge to Wealth,” the industry’s term for converting DC plan participants into wealth management clients. Cerulli found that just 10.2% of advisers’ wealth clients, on average, come from retirement plan relationships, even though 91.2% place at least a moderate priority on growing their wealth practice.

The research identifies adviser capacity and access to participant data as the main barriers to converting participants. Among advisers who do not make wealth growth a high priority, 37.8% said they lack the time to prospect for wealth clients in their retirement plans, and 24.5% said they lack the staff to offer wealth management to participants. Advisers also pointed to recordkeepers as the gatekeepers for much of the participant data they want. More than half of advisers, 52.5%, require wealth clients to have at least $250,000 in assets.

The Opportunity

DC plans held $15.8 trillion in assets at the end of 2025, with nearly $1 trillion expected to roll over in 2026, according to the report.

Cerulli identified recordkeepers with wealth businesses, including Fidelity, Schwab, Empower, and Vanguard, as already pursuing rollover opportunities directly, which the report said is creating friction with advisers who feel they are competing for the same clients. Empower added Blackstone to its private markets program in January.

“The Bridge to Wealth is real, widely pursued, and almost nowhere built at scale,” the report said.

Cerulli surveyed 338 financial advisers and conducted 22 interviews with home-office executives and advisers. Morningstar Investment Management, a subsidiary of Morningstar Inc., commissioned the study.

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