Great Gray Trust Company, a leading provider of collective investment trusts for retirement plans, has selected iCapital as its preferred partner for private markets due diligence, portfolio construction, and manager evaluation in a move that signals the industry's accelerating push to bring institutional-grade alternatives into 401(k) plans.
The two firms announced Monday (September 14) that they will work together to develop a suite of asset-class-specific collective investment trusts, or CITs, spanning private equity, private credit, and private real assets.
Great Gray will serve as trustee and retain ultimate fiduciary authority over the funds, while iCapital will supply private markets research, manager selection support, liquidity management, and education resources for plan sponsors and advisors.
The partnership extends Great Gray's flexPATH framework, a multi-manager, specialized glidepath platform that held more than $130 billion in assets (as of June 30, 2026) into private markets territory. Great Gray reported $371.8 billion in total fund assets as of the same date, according to the company.
"The conversation has evolved from whether alternative investments should play a role in retirement plans to how they can be implemented responsibly to deliver greater investment choice, improved diversification, and simplified adoption within retirement portfolios," said Rob Barnett, President and Chief Executive Officer of Great Gray Group. "We selected iCapital because of its extensive private markets expertise, market-leading technology, and a commitment to education for plan sponsors and advisors."
The announcement lands as the defined contribution industry wrestles with a fundamental structural shift. Private capital allocations within 401(k) and 403(b) plans could reach 6% of total plan assets by 2030, translating to more than $1 trillion, according to projections from the Deloitte Center for Financial Services.
However, less than 1% of the $14 trillion currently held in the defined contribution retirement system is invested in private markets, compared with approximately 24% for U.S. public pension funds and 17% for private pension funds as of 2023.
The regulatory backdrop has also shifted meaningfully. In March 2026, the Department of Labor introduced a proposed rule with a process-based safe harbor that allows plan fiduciaries to evaluate private capital alongside conventional investment options — a development that removed what had long been the decisive deterrent for plan sponsors: fiduciary liability.
For advisors already tracking this space through InvestmentNews' coverage of the DOL's landmark 401(k) private markets proposal, the Great Gray–iCapital deal represents one of the more concrete product responses to that regulatory opening.
Lawrence Calcano, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of iCapital, framed the partnership in terms of equity for retirement savers.
"Across the investment landscape, we're seeing increasing demand for broader diversification, greater access to private markets, and more sophisticated portfolio construction," he said. "Retirement investors should be able to benefit from these same advances through solutions that are scalable, professionally managed, and aligned with the needs of plan sponsors and participants."
iCapital reported $1.2 trillion in assets serviced globally on its platform as of June 30, 2026, including $327 billion in alternative platform assets. The firm serves nearly 3,900 wealth management firms and 144,000 active financial professionals across 18 offices worldwide.
The CIT structure is central to the partnership's design. Unlike mutual funds, CITs are exempt from registration under the Investment Company Act of 1940 and are available exclusively to qualified retirement plans. As of January 2025, CITs held $2.02 trillion in target date fund assets, overtaking mutual funds at $1.95 trillion — a milestone that reflects growing preference for the vehicle among plan advisors and consultants.
The new private markets CITs will integrate manager selection, portfolio construction, liquidity management, and ongoing oversight within the fund structure itself. That approach, embedding governance into the product rather than leaving it to individual plan sponsors, is consistent with how practitioners in the space believe private assets will gain traction in defined contribution plans. Speakers at the 2026 PLANSPONSOR National Conference emphasized that private market allocations must deliver a net-of-fee benefit and cannot receive a "free pass" into a retirement portfolio.
Advisors navigating this shift can find additional context in InvestmentNews' coverage of private capital's $1 trillion bet on American retirement accounts, which examines how the DOL rule is reshaping product development across the industry.
Great Gray and iCapital said they will prioritize plan sponsor and advisor education as a core deliverable of the partnership — a recognition that product availability alone will not determine adoption rates for private markets in defined contribution plans.
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