Blackstone Joins Empower to Expand 401(k) Access to Private Investments
Empower, the second-largest retirement services provider in the United States, announced that Blackstone (NYSE: BX) has joined its private markets investment partnership program. The collaboration aims to bring institutional-grade alternative investments to millions of everyday American retirement savers.
The partnership allows defined contribution plans to incorporate a range of private market strategies, including private equity, credit, real estate and infrastructure.
According to Empower, these asset classes will be delivered through collective investment trust, or CIT, structures. By utilizing Empower’s advice-based managed account platform, individual participants can receive tailored allocations based on their specific risk tolerance and retirement goals.
Blackstone, the world’s largest alternative asset manager with more than $1.2 trillion in assets under management, has offered private market solutions to individuals since 2002.
“Our goal is to bring the power of private market investing – delivered through advice and risk-appropriate structures – to millions of Americans who previously lacked access,” said Edmund F. Murphy III, president and chief executive officer of Empower. “Our private market investing platform is built by the world’s best asset managers. Blackstone’s involvement significantly bolsters the opportunities available to retirement savers.”
Blackstone’s Jon Gray, president and chief operating officer, echoed this sentiment, stating that the partnership enables retirement savers to access opportunities that were historically reserved only for institutional investors.
“Partnering with Empower reflects our shared belief that private markets can play an important role in helping more Americans plan for the future and build long-term financial security,” Gray said.
This announcement follows a period of significant growth for Empower, which administered approximately $2 trillion in assets for more than 19 million investors as of Sept. 30, 2025. Blackstone also recently underscored its commitment to this space by launching a dedicated business unit focused on retirement solutions in October 2025, led by Heather von Zuben, global head of retirement solutions.
“Opening private markets to a broader universe of individual investors is an important evolution in how Americans can benefit from enhanced returns and diversification as they look to build wealth for the future,” she said.
The initiative is designed to provide participants with enhanced returns and diversification while maintaining the guardrails of liquidity management and fee efficiency required for workplace-savings vehicles.
Activity around expanding retirement savers’ access to alternative investments within 401(k) plans has grown tremendously since the beginning of President Trump’s second term. Most recently, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Incentivizing New Ventures and Economic Strength Through Capital Formation Act (H.R. 3383), also known as the INVEST Act, a package of over 20 bills, some of which would allow 403(b) retirement plans – which primarily serve teachers, hospital workers, clergy, and nonprofit employees – to invest in collective investment trusts, or CITs, and unregistered insurance company separate accounts, aligning them more closely with the treatment of 401(k) plans.
In August 2025, the Biden-era regulatory consensus on private investments in retirement accounts shifted dramatically. President Trump’s executive order, Democratizing Access to Alternative Assets for 401(k) Investors, directs the U.S. Department of Labor and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to revisit guidance that had discouraged retirement plans from offering alternatives. Within days, the DOL rescinded its 2021 supplemental statement cautioning against alternative assets in 401(k) plans.
In October 2025, a guest contributor to AltsWire recently explored what these changes imply for advisers. Nevertheless and later that month, a group of senators, led by Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), voiced serious concerns over the executive order, specifically citing vulnerabilities Americans savers may face if exposed to the “lack of transparency” and oversight that exists in private investments.
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