Amid the other recent headlines about his signature, you may have missed the news that President Donald Trump plans to sign an executive order in the coming days that will allow defined-contribution plans like your 401(k) to include private market investments.

If you’re not the sort of person who views a mutual fund prospectus as light beach reading, this may sound like the kind of boring story that only your crypto-obsessed brother-in-law might care about. But this is serious business that could have repercussions on your retirement—especially if you’re not paying attention.

This proposed policy could be sending us down the same bumpy road that knocked the tires off of company-sponsored pension plans, dramatically increasing retirement insecurity for most American workers. Here’s what you need to know.

The specific details of the forthcoming executive order (EO) remain hazy. But most experts agree that the president will probably use the EO as an opportunity to formalize the 2020 Pantheon Ventures/Partners Group opinion letter from the Department of Labor.

This letter, issued during Trump’s first administration, suggests that private equity investment options could be included in defined-benefit plans (e.g., 401(k) and 403(b) plans, and the like) as part of a target-dated fund or other managed fund. The letter also emphasizes that plan participants should not be able to directly access private equity investments.

It’s likely this letter may serve as a blueprint for the EO that crosses Trump’s desk in the near future.

Private equity is an investment in a privately traded company by an accredited investor or group of investors who take on a controlling........

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