NEW YORK, Oct 9 (Reuters) - A rush of retail money into

private markets will likely push money managers to calculate the

value of their portfolios with unprecedented frequency, KKR's

head of client services said.

Private market firms' portfolio valuations have come under

broad scrutiny in the past year as their struggles to sell

assets hampered returning cash to investors who are

predominantly large institutions.

Now that KKR and other asset managers, backed by U.S.

President Donald Trump, are working to funnel more of the

roughly $12 trillion held in 401(k) retirement plans into

alternative assets, which also include real estate and

cryptocurrency, the demand for disclosure is likely to

intensify.

Unlike the publicly traded stock and bond funds where that

money traditionally sits, private equity assets are usually

locked up for longer and their price is determined monthly or

quarterly, which can mask volatility. As a result they have

tended to be the preserve of bigger, more expert investors who

accept slower payouts and less immediate price information.

The market for defined-contribution (DC) plans, which give

no guarantee of a payout when a saver retires, "have all been

built on a chassis that's really created for public markets and

daily pricing and daily liquidity," KKR's Eric Mogelof told

former hedge fund executive Ted Seides on his "Capital

Allocators" podcast.

Assigning a price each day, which could be necessary for the

more frequent transactions those investors want to do, is "the

bigger challenge," Mogelof said.

"Either the chassis in 401(k) needs to change and you

restrict transactions to a monthly basis. What's more likely is

we over time as an industry work on daily pricing all of the

various different private markets."

Funds use comparisons with other companies and transactions

or metrics like discounted cash flow to arrive at valuations, in

a process known as marking.

Most alternative asset managers have said large-scale

participation from 401(k) savers will take time.

"There's no doubt in my mind, in a decade from now, we will

see very meaningful allocations within that DC market to private

markets," Mogelof said.