%0 Journal Article %A David Kupperman %A Scott Kilgallen %T The Case for Liquid Alternatives in Defined-Contribution Plans %D 2014 %R 10.3905/jai.2014.17.3.059 %J The Journal of Alternative Investments %P 59-66 %V 17 %N 3 %X Defined-contribution plans are rapidly becoming the primary retirement saving vehicle for most U.S. employees. Currently, 69% of private-sector workers have access to defined-contribution plans but only 7% have access to defined-benefit plans. Yet, defined-contribution plans have not kept up with defined-benefit plans when it comes to investing in alternative investment strategies, such as hedge funds, private equity, and infrastructure. Such allocations have played an important role in improving the risk–return characteristics of defined-benefit portfolios and have contributed to their outperformance of defined-contribution plans.TOPICS: Real assets/alternative investments/private equity, mutual funds/passive investing/indexing, retirement, portfolio construction %U https://jai.pm-research.com/content/iijaltinv/17/3/59.full.pdf