Private equity forms new dark money group

September 4, 2025

Private equity forms new dark money group to gain access to Americans’ 401(K)s

The $22 trillion private equity industry has drawn on a familiar playbook in creating a new dark money group called the “Council for a Safe and Secure Retirement” as it seeks to capitalize on the Trump Administration’s recent Executive Order calling for greater private equity access to Americans’ 401K retirement savings.

Private equity has underperformed the stock market over the last 1, 3, 5, and 10 years[1] and private equity fundraising declined for the third straight year in 2024.[2]

The “Council” appears to be a front organization created to give the impression of public support for and put out information in support of private equity access to 401Ks. Despite poor returns in recent years, combined with high fees and illiquidity that some experts consider unsuitable for 401Ks[3], the private equity industry is pushing for the US Department of Labor (DOL) to give the industry a legal safe harbor that would limit the ability of consumers to sue if private equity managers or 401K managers or providers make recommendations that are contrary to their fiduciary duty to retirement savers.[4] Following the August 7 Executive Order, the DOL has already rescinded prior guidance that cautioned against offering private equity to 401K retirement savers.[5]

The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this week that the “Council” is planning a million-dollar advertising campaign and recently premiered its first TV ad. The group plans to spend at least seven figures in the coming months.[6]

In creating the “Council”, the private equity industry is returning to the dark money playbook that it used a few years ago to fight legislation reining in surprise medical billing by private equity-owned physician staffing companies. Private equity even appears to have turned to the same communications firm, Narrative Strategies, which is run by Ken Spain, the former head of communications and public affairs for the main private equity lobby group, the American Investment Council, where he helped defend the industry from outside criticism during the 2012 presidential campaign.[7]

In 2019 and 2020, Spain’s firm was behind a previous private equity dark money group called “Doctor Patient Unity” that ran a more than $53 million ad campaign targeting members of Congress and their constituents aimed at blocking or weakening federal legislation to limit surprise medical billing, in which patients are unexpectedly hit with exorbitant charges, often following visits to emergency rooms.[8]

Private equity firms KKR and Blackstone owned the main emergency room doctor staffing companies, Envision Healthcare and TeamHealth, which profited from surprise medical billing of emergency room patients. Spain’s wife Emily is a member of KKR’s global public affairs team.[9] Greg Blair, Narrative Strategies’ content and editorial director[10], served both as a spokesperson[11] for Doctor Patient Unity and as a member or Doctor Patient Unity’s board of directors.[12] Doctor Patient Unity’s ads depicted patients in trauma being denied care and urged viewers to contact lawmakers.[13]

“The ads are disgusting and are only meant to take advantage of vulnerable Americans,” Trump White House domestic policy adviser Joe Grogan said in 2020.[14]

“They deliberately misled the American public,” said Senator Jeanne Shaheen, a New Hampshire Democrat, in an interview with Bloomberg.[15]

“It was a dumb strategy,” said Representative Greg Walden, the top Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which was investigating Blackstone and KKR’s investments in medical-staffing companies. “All it’s done is driven a bunch of us to double down.”[16]

The “Council for a Safe and Secure Retirement” was incorporated on August 5, 2025[17], just two days before the Executive Order was issued expanding private equity and other alternative investment managers’ access to 401Ks.[18] According to its articles of incorporation, it is organized as a 501(c)4 nonprofit corporation, meaning it can conduct unlimited lobbying and limited political activities and is not required to disclose its donors.

Narrative Strategies appears to have been involved in the “Council’s” creation in early August. The metadata on multiple pdfs hosted on the Council’s website lists “Narrative” as the author.[19] The Council’s executive director is David Pasch,[20] who also serves as managing director at Narrative Strategies.[21]

Pasch himself has experience with corporate dark money campaigns like the one the private equity industry appears to be running with the “Council.” In his previous role at communications firm Targeted Victory, Pasch served as spokesperson for a dark money group called “Citizens for Truth in Drug Pricing” that STAT reported was formed by a top executive and a top lobbyist for the American Hospital Association and a political consultant for CVS Health to run social media and radio ads related to pharmaceutical pricing.[22] In 2018, Politico reported that Pasch’s car had vanity license plates that read “FAKENWS”.[23]

Resources

[1] “Private market funds lag US stocks over short and long term,” Financial Times, Jun 10, 2025.

[2] “Global private equity fundraising sinks for 3rd straight year,” S&P Global, Jan 16, 2025.

[3] “401(k)s Not the Place for Private Equity, Says Johns Hopkins Study,” PlanAdviser, Mar 20, 2025. “Private Equity Does Not Belong in 401(k) Plans,” Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, July 20, 2021.

[4] “Private Equity Firms Celebrate Trump’s Executive Order Giving Them The Keys To Retirement,” Forbes, Aug 8, 2025.

[5] “DOL Rescinds Guidance Cautioning Against Private Equity in 401(k)s,” Plan Sponsor Council of America, Aug 12, 2025.

[6] “Private Equity Ramps Up PR, Branding Efforts for 401(k) Push,” Wall Street Journal, Sept 2, 2025.

[7]“CGCN Group Expands Strategic Communications Division,” media release, Nov 8, 2016.

[8] “Blackstone-KKR Hidden Hand in Ad Blitz Unleashes Washington Fury,” Jan 8, 2020.

[9]https://www.kkr.com/about/our-people/emily-spain, accessed Aug 24, 2025.

[10]https://narrativestrategies.com/team/greg-blair, accessed Aug 24, 2025.

[11] “Blackstone-KKR Hidden Hand in Ad Blitz Unleashes Washington Fury,” Jan 8, 2020.