Why employers may not be so quick to jump on the 401(k) bitcoin bandwagon

Why employers may not be so quick to jump on the 401(k) bitcoin bandwagon

Fidelity Investments is bitcoin to 401(k) investors. But before retirement savers get access, employers must give the green light — and that's often much more complicated than it sounds. Fidelity administered almost $2.9 trillion of 401(k) and other workplace retirement plan assets (representing over a quarter of the market) at the end of 2020, according to Cerulli Associates, serving 26 million investors in roughly 34,000 plans. The firm said Tuesday it would let employers adopt a new Fidelity-developed bitcoin fund (the Digital Assets Account) as a main 401(k) investment choice, alongside other core investments such as stock, bond and target-date funds. Administrators hadn't previously allowed this. Here's a look at other stories impacting the financial advisor business. , a publicly traded analytics firm, will be the first business to offer the cryptocurrency investment in its 401(k) plan sometime this year. Fidelity is also "having a lot of discussions" with other employers about adding the bitcoin fund, according to Dave Gray, Fidelity's head of workplace retirement platforms and offerings. Here's the challenge for businesses: They have a rigorous legal obligation when it comes to selecting and overseeing 401(k) investments available to workers. This vetting process governs all 401(k) investments, but most