Can Private Investment Vehicles Include Investments from Retirement Plans?

Private investment funds generally can accept money from benefit plan investors such as 401(k) plans, IRAs, and other retirement or pension plans. The hitch lies in whether the relative interests in the fund held by such plans trigger ERISA regulations. If ERISA is triggered, the fund manager becomes subject to additional restrictions and responsibilities as an ERISA fiduciary and/or the IRS prohibited transaction rules. To avoid ERISA requirements, the aggregate interests in a fund held by benefit plan investors must be limited to 24% or less. Benefit plan investors can still be valuable fund contributors; we simply recommend initiating appropriate strategies and monitoring from fund inception either to avoid, or to prepare for, ERISA compliant operations.