Retirement Plan Trends, Market Timing and the Role of Alternative Assets with Danny Resnick and Abe Puerto 1-20-26

Summary

Becker Business Podcast Episode Summary

Title: Retirement Plan Trends, Market Timing and the Role of Alternative Assets
Guest(s): Danny Resnick (J.P. Morgan Wealth Management, Chicago), Abe Porto (J.P. Morgan, Head of Defined Contribution Consulting, US)
Host: Scott Becker
Date: January 20, 2026

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Overview

This episode focuses on the evolving landscape of employer-sponsored retirement plans. Scott Becker is joined by Danny Resnick and Abe Porto from J.P. Morgan to discuss current trends for plan participants and sponsors, the increasing role of alternative assets in retirement plans, best practices for fund and record keeper selection, and the crucial issue of market timing vs. long-term investing.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Introductions & Structure

• [01:37] Danny Resnick introduces the Resnick Group, a four-person Chicago-based wealth management team managing $1.3 billion, with a focus on employer-sponsored retirement plans.
• [02:10] Abe Porto shares his 25 years of experience in retirement plan consulting, emphasizing ERISA fiduciary services for institutional clients.

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2. Trends & Issues for Retirement Plan Participants

Market Performance and “Timing the Market”

• [03:06] Recent years saw strong equity market returns, making some participants question if a pullback is coming.
• Danny Resnick:
  “Are markets overdue for a meaningful pullback? And I think the answer is a definitive maybe ... timing pullbacks is a very difficult sport to play and that's because investors need to be right twice.” [03:30]
• Historical J.P. Morgan research: Investing at all-time highs has not disadvantaged long-term investors when compared with investing at lower points, across multiple timeframes since 1970 ([03:48]).
• “For long-term investors, time in the market is better than timing the market.” — Danny Resnick [04:16]

Asset Allocation, Drift & Rebalancing

• Due to market strength, many portfolios’ equity portions may now exceed targets.
  • DIY investors should consider rebalancing if allocations have drifted.
  • Those in target date funds get automatic professional rebalancing.
• Target Date Funds Explained:
  “Globally diversified multi-asset funds whose risk level declines on a glide path as plan participants approach their projected retirement date.” — Danny Resnick [05:41]
• Rebalancing Strategies:
  • Either do it all at once or incrementally (“in a couple different tranches over a month or two”), depending on preference and drift magnitude ([06:18]).

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3. Alternative Assets in Retirement Plans

• [07:20] Abe discusses alternative investments (private equity, hedge funds, real estate) gradually entering the 401(k) space.
• “We do expect the industry to dip its toe in slowly. Broader adoption likely starts with a small allocation inside those target date funds...” — Abe Porto [07:28]
• Discussion about “evergreen fund structures” being more suitable for 401(k) menus than “drawdown funds” thanks to immediate deployment of capital and enhanced liquidity ([08:05]).

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4. Key Issues for Plan Sponsors

A. Fund Selection and Fiduciary Responsibility

• [09:38] The responsibility of fund selection falls on the plan fiduciary (could be business owner for small plans, or an investment committee for larger ones).
• “We employ an experienced group of subject matter experts ... and we meticulously assess both passive and active strategies ... with a combination of qualitative and quantitative diligence.” — Abe Porto [10:20]
• Considerations incorporate both historical performance (quantitative) and other qualitative factors before recommendations ([10:50]).

B. Record Keeper Evaluation

• Similar review process as fund selection:
  • Scrutiny of operational infrastructure, business practices, service levels, and pricing ([10:56]).
• “Benchmarking by itself, whether it’s the fund evaluation or the record keeper evaluation, it’s critical ... and plan fiduciaries should be doing [it] every couple of years to mitigate risk.” — Abe Porto [11:36]

C. Fiduciary Balance & Change Management

• [12:16] Danny notes fiduciaries “could have a fine fiduciary line to walk,” especially as market and participant pressure to include alternative assets increases.
• They recommend a “crawl, walk, run” approach to changes:
  • Incremental adoption and regular review for both new asset types and service providers.
  • “We think it’s good fiduciary hygiene to take what we call a crawl, walk, run approach ... and that crawl, walk, run approach has definitely been resonating with our clients.” — Danny Resnick [13:27]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Market Timing Wisdom
  “If you’re trying to time the market, you’ve gotta be right twice – when you buy and when you sell.” — Scott Becker [05:54]

• Alternatives in Retirement
  “Broader adoption likely starts with a small allocation inside those target date funds that Danny was just talking about.” — Abe Porto [07:28]

• Plan Sponsor Caution
  “Fiduciaries are often wearing multiple hats ... and because they’re wearing multiple hats, we think it’s good fiduciary hygiene to take ... a crawl, walk, run approach to making changes...” — Danny Resnick [13:17]

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• 01:37 — Danny Resnick introduction & firm overview
• 02:10 — Abe Porto background & business focus
• 03:06 — Market timing, equity allocation, participant trends
• 05:41 — Target date funds explained
• 06:18 — Rebalancing: all at once vs. incrementally
• 07:20 — Alternatives in retirement plans: current outlook
• 09:38 — Plan sponsor responsibilities; fund selection
• 10:56 — Record keeper evaluation & importance of benchmarking
• 12:16 — Fiduciary challenges, crawl-walk-run approach to change

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Takeaways

• Long-term time in the market outperforms attempts to time the market.
• Rebalancing is increasingly important after multi-year market rallies, with a shift toward professional options like target date funds.
• Alternatives (private equity, real estate, etc.) are gaining attention in retirement plans but will likely see a slow, cautious rollout.
• Plan sponsors bear significant fiduciary responsibility and should regularly benchmark both fund choices and service providers, embracing incremental change.
• The ‘crawl, walk, run’ mindset is a prudent way to test and implement new retirement plan features, particularly alternative investment options.

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For listeners and readers, this episode provides timely insights and practical guidance on navigating today’s rapidly evolving retirement plan environment — with candid perspectives from industry experts on timing, diversification, and prudent fiduciary stewardship.

Transcript

[A]

This is Scott Becker with the Becker Business and the Becker Private Equity Podcast. We are thrilled today to be joined by two brilliant leaders from JP Morgan Chase and Company. We're joined today by Danny Resnick and Abe Porto. They're going to talk to us about sort of the retirement consulting program, that retirement consulting practice. And we'll talk about topical issues for plan participants, alternative assets in retirement plans, as well as what's topical for plan sponsors. Before I go further, I'm going to read a quick verbal disclosure from the J.P. morgan team. And here it goes. J.P. morgan Wealth Management is a business of J.P. morgan Chase Co. Which offers investment products and services through J.P. morgan Securities LLC, a registered broker, dealer and investment advisor member FINRA and sipc. The Defined Contribution Consulting Program is an advisory program. This is a paid media appearance. The speaker's opinions belong to them and may differ from opinions of J.P. morgan Securities LLC and its affiliates. Investing involves market risk, including possible loss of principal. And there is no guarantee that investment objectives will be achieved. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Alternative assets involve higher risks than traditional investments and are only for eligible sophisticated investors who have capacity to bear the risks. Danny, Daniel and Abe, can I ask you to take a moment to introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about the retirement plan consulting practice?

[B]

Absolutely. Scott, this is Danny Resnick. Happy New Year, everybody. Thanks so much for having us. So for the last 17 years I've led the Resnick Group at JPMorgan Wealth Management. We are a four person wealth management team based in Chicago, overseeing over 1.3 billion in assets. Today's topic is employer sponsored retirement plans. And consulting on these plans is a core focus of my team, which is a natural segue for me to hand it off to my colleague Abe to introduce himself.

[C]

Thank you Danny and Scott. Thanks for having me on and Happy New Year. I'm Abe puerto. I lead JP Morgan's defined contribution consulting business here in the U.S. i've been in the retirement plan business for about 25 years, have experience with a large national record keeper, as well as running retirement plan and institutional consulting businesses for some of the largest financial services firms in the industry. Here at J.P. morgan, I lead a team of sales and investment professionals who deliver ERISA fiduciary advice and support to the firm's institutional clients.

[A]

Thank you. And we're going to talk really about three or four things. What issues are topical for plan participants? How alternative assets are starting to play into retirement plans. And finally, the issues that are topical for topical for plan sponsors. Danny, let me ask you to kick off what are the key issues that are topical currently for plan participants?

[B]

Yeah, absolutely Scott. So I think a lot of conversations that we're having with investors, Tom, revolve around the equity market strength that we've seen for three straight years now since we've, we've turned the page on 20, 25. So and as, as we speak here, the S P 500 coming off three strong years like I said, and basically sitting right, right around an all time high. So the question is, are markets overdue for a meaningful pullback? And I think the answer is a definitive maybe timing pullbacks is a very difficult sport to play and that's because investors need to be right twice, right. If you're going to quote, unquote, time the market, you have to sell at the right time and you have to buy at the right time. And so an interesting anecdote, Scott. We've as a firm published research showing that since 1970, investors have not been any worse off investing in the S&P 500 at an all time high compared to investing at a non all time high. And this has held true on average over 3, 6, 12 and 24 month time horizons. So our conclusion from that data is is that for long term investors, time in the market is better than timing the market. Now Scott, that being said, because equity markets have performed so well, many, many retirement plan portfolios now have an equity weighting that has drifted higher than the intended target. So some retirement plan participants build their own portfolios. We call this the do it myself plan participant. These plan participants might consider rebalancing their portfolio back to their target allocation if their equity weighting has drifted meaningfully above their intended target because of the strength that we've seen over over the last several years. Now alternatively, those who plan participants who've been choosing the increasingly popular do it for me option of target date funds, they have a portfolio management team making that rebalancing decision on their behalf. And so Scott, for listeners who aren't familiar, target date funds are globally diversified multi asset funds whose risk level declines on a glide path as plan participants approach their projected retirement date.

[A]

Thank you very very much. And I love this concept of if you're trying to time the market, you've gotta be right twice when you buy and when you sell or when you sell when you high. Talk a little bit about rebalancing. Does it happen incrementally at one time? How do people look at rebalancing when their equity percentage might have floated up higher than their target percentage currently. How do people look at that if you're a plan participant or if you're an investor?

[B]

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And some of this comes down to personal preferences, Scott. But I think in general, depending upon the magnitude of the overweight or the drift, investors can rebalance either all at once or perhaps they can do it incrementally in a couple different tranches over a month or two. And again, I think I would just reiterate that every investor's financial situation is unique to themselves to help make that decision.

[A]

Thank you. And Abe, let me turn to you. We're on the Becker Business and Private Equity podcast. We should discuss the potential, the movement towards alternative investment options such as private equity, hedge funds, real estate and 401k plans. Give us a sense of what you're seeing here. These investments traditionally have only been available to accredited investors. How are 401k plans and retirement plans starting to look at this alternative asset universe?

[C]

Thanks, Scott. This has been a topic du jour lately and you know, there has been some uncertainty around like when and if alternative investments will enter the 401k plan menus. And I think the answer is we do expect the industry to dip its toe in slowly. Broader adoption likely starts with a small allocation inside those target date funds that Danny was just talking about. What we don't know is if the target date fund suites will create new funds to hold an allocation to alternatives or if alternatives will be included in existing funds. Also, I think that we expect evergreen fund structures may be More suitable for 401k plan menus as opposed to more traditional drawdown funds. And this is because investor capital gets invested right away, limiting cash drag and then they tend to offer more flexible liquidity terms than drawdown funds as well.

[A]

Thank you. And to follow up on this in terms of sort of alternative investing using alternative investments in retirement plans, we've talked already about plan participants, sort of topical issues for them and part of that's rebalancing, timing the market, investing in all time highs. We've talked about alternative investing in plans and that's obviously a topical issue for everybody trying to see how that evolves, whether it becomes widely available or still a little bit more narrow or what that looks like and how people approach that. Danny or Abe? Danny and Abe, we've talked about the issues that are topical for plan participants. We've also talked about these evolving world of alternative investing and alternative assets in retirement plans. Abe, talk to us about what are the most topical issues for plan sponsors and also as Part of that, you know, who will make the decisions around. If we're looking at alternative assets, we're looking at funds, which funds go into. Line up and talk a little bit about the process of evaluating funds and record keeping for funds, because I know those are key issues for plan sponsors. Talk a bit about the topical issues for plan sponsors.

[C]

Absolutely. So when you think about who's making the decisions on which funds go into the plan, the responsibility for selecting the funds offered to the employees really falls on the plan fiduciary. Now, for smaller businesses, that could just be the business owner, and for larger companies, they might actually have an investment committee. In either event, this is where JP Morgan comes in and helps make that plan fiduciary's life a little bit easier. When we think about fund evaluation and record keeper evaluation. So when we think about fund evaluation, we employ an experienced group of subject matter experts here from various disciplines across asset classes. And we meticulously assess both passive and active strategies that might be in these fund lineups with a combination of qualitative and quantitative diligence. And the punchline really is we start to look at these funds in the plans, we evaluate them and we'll look at things like historical performance and then we'll make recommendations based upon what the client is looking for.

[A]

Thank you so much. And talk about, just for a moment, about record keeper evaluation and how you deal with that.

[C]

Sure. An important part of the entire 401 process is the record keeper. So not that different from how we look at funding funds. So based on the unique needs of each institutional client that we work with, we'll conduct a comprehensive review of the record keepers business practices, their operational infrastructure, their client service operations, and then we'll do an analysis based on that. And the punchline again here is similar to the investments. We want to make sure that the level of service is appropriate for the company and it's meeting expectations. And we're also going to want to keep an eye on the price comparable to plans of a similar size. So benchmarking by itself, whether it's the fund evaluation or the record keeper evaluation, it's critical. And it's something that plan fiduciaries should be doing every couple of years to help mitigate risk.

[A]

Thank you. And then one final question. In terms of plan sponsors walking this fiduciary line between trying to include funds and balance risks, any thoughts around that? And then the approach that you'll take with clients in terms of the speed and the pace at which you'll start to include Alternatives. How do you think about those things for plan sponsors, Abe or Danny?

[B]

Yeah, Scott, great, great question. Really very topical. We do think that that plan sponsors could have a fine fiduciary line to walk, especially if they, if they start to feel a little pressure from plan participants to include alternatives in fun menus. If this topic continues to receive, you know, the kind of media attention that it has. And it's really balancing, on the one hand, the potential benefit of including alternatives in fun menus. And on the other hand, there's, there's risk that something goes wrong if and when alternatives start to be included in fun menus. And I think, you know, one of the themes that we've had during this conversation, Scott, has been incremental change and that, that can be the rebalancing decision at the plan participant level and the process of record keepers and plan sponsors potentially adding alternative investment vehicles and fund menus. And plan fiduciaries are often wearing multiple hats. You know, whether it's the owner of a business, the cfo, the head of hr, these are the types of people who tend to be in that fiduciary role as a plan sponsor. And because they're wearing multiple hats, we think it's good fiduciary hygiene to take what we call a crawl walk run approach to making changes, whether that's fund menu changes or whether that's evaluating record keepers. And that that crawl walk run approach has definitely been resonating with our, with our clients, given the ever evolving landscape here.

[A]

Thank you very, very much. Danny Resnick, Abe Porto, JP Morgan Chase. I want to thank the both of you for joining us today on the Becker Business and the Becker Private Equity Podcast. Again, we've had a wide ranging discussion of thoughts for plan participants, alternative asset investing in retirement plans, and thoughts for plan sponsors. I want to thank both of you for joining us on the Becker Business, the Becker Private Equity podcast. Thank you very, very much.

[B]

Thank you.

[C]

Thank you.

[D]

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