The industry-wide effort to bring private assets to retirement accounts took another step with Goldan Sachs Asset Management launching the Goldman Sachs Collective Trust – Private Credit Fund, a collective investment trust.
The private credit CIT will offer access to a mix of private credit funds managed by GSAM, including North American and European direct lending and private placements, along with a liquidity sleeve to help maintain daily requirements. (GSAM has a $142 billion private credit platform.) The CIT can be used in target date funds, multi-manager bond funds and other multi-manager CIT-based products.
“This solution is designed to meet the practical needs of retirement plans,” Greg Wilson, global head of retirement at GSAM, said in a statement. “By combining our scale and long history as an innovator in private credit with our broad experience in the defined benefit and defined contribution space, we aim to deliver access to attractive investment opportunities in an accessible format for the defined contribution market.”
In concert with the announcement, Great Gray Trust Co., a CIT specialist, said it would include the GS Private Credit CIT in its Panorix Target Date Series.
Panorix will combine a custom glidepath from BlackRock that allocates across public and private markets with liquidity and cashflow management from sub-advisor Wilshire Advisors LLC, BlackRock’s index equity, index fixed income and private equity offerings, and the GS Private Credit CIT.
According to reporting earlier this year from FundFire, the glidepath would include 15% allocations to private assets during an investor’s early career stages that would shift to private credit mid-career (with an overall private asset exposure of 20%) and then dial down to 5% private asset exposure around retirement age.
“By collaborating with Goldman Sachs, BlackRock and Wilshire, we’re unlocking broader access to sophisticated strategies that were once out of reach for everyday savers—a while staying anchored to fiduciary standards and participant-first design,” Great Gray CEO Rob Barnett said in a statement.
The move comes amid a flurry of activity around the question of the inclusion of private assets in retirement accounts.
Last week, reports circulated that the Trump administration is finalizing an executive order that would pave the way for 401(k) retirement savings plans to invest in private equity. Bloomberg additionally reported that the Defined Contribution Alternatives Association, which includes Apollo Global Management, KKR and BlackRock, among its members, “is in the early stages of crafting legislation that would ensure 401(k) plan managers aren’t penalized for accessing a broader set of asset classes, including private investments.”
In addition, SEC Chairman Paul Atkins said in an interview last week that the government agency would work with the Labor Department when considering potential changes to rules for retirement plans.
Earlier in the month, retirement plan provider Empower responded to concerns raised by U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) about its move in May to form a partnership with private investment fund managers and custodians to offer investments through CITs. (The partners include firms seeking ways to expand their customer base for private investments, including Apollo, Franklin Templeton, Goldman Sachs, Neuberger Berman, PIMCO, Partners Group and Sagard.)
In addition, this year, State Street Global Advisors launched target-date funds that include exposure to private markets. The State Street Target Retirement IndexPlus Strategy includes a series of funds with 10% exposures to a blend of private assets managed by alternative asset management giant Apollo.
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