If you don’t like change, you’re going to like irrelevance even less
As private markets migrate from the institutional core to the mainstream of wealth portfolios, the industry faces a structural inflection point where success depends on transparency, strong distribution partnerships and operational evolution.
Private markets are moving from the institutional core into the mainstream of wealth portfolios at the same moment that the rules of portfolio construction are being rewritten.
Correlations between stocks and bonds have risen, return compression has intensified, and dispersion between managers has widened, making access to private markets increasingly critical to long-term outcomes.
This shift coincides with a generational wealth transfer and a paradox in investor behaviour: younger investors are more comfortable with private markets conceptually, yet place a higher premium on liquidity and simplicity, while older investors are more tolerant of long-duration capital.
At the same time, companies are staying private far longer. Without exposure to private assets, wealth investors risk competing with a structurally diminished opportunity set.
Speaking at IPEM Wealth, Alisa Wood, Co-CEO, KKR London said that institutional investors figured out decades ago “that having private markets as part of their toolkit in driving returns was really important. When you think about this wealth transfer, why should wealth investors have any fewer ways to win in driving those returns?”
Photo: Alisa Wood, co-CEO of KKR Private Equity on stage at IPEM Wealth 2026.
Responding to this change requires more than new products. It demands new approaches to education, communication, and portfolio design. Institutional content must be translated without being diluted, using formats that reflect how different generations consume information, while maintaining clarity and avoiding short-termism.
The number one platform for education for those 30 years old or younger is Youtube. And yet anything over five minutes long results in engagement falling off a cliff. Which begs the question: how do you make content digestible for younger people to watch on their smart phone, while at the same time ensuring short cuts aren’t being taken and messaging is being too diluted? It is a fine balance for GPs to have to contend with.
What is not in doubt is that for the next generation of wealth investors, evergreen structures are likely to increasingly forming the core of private market allocations, with closed-ended funds playing a complementary, satellite role.
Panel: Global view from Blackstone, Carlyle, Goldman Sachs and Permira, interviewed by Bloomberg.
For advisers, success will depend on selecting managers equipped to handle the operational and liquidity risks these vehicles entail. Critically, evergreen investing requires a different scorecard: consistent deal flow, disciplined cash and liquidity management, and alignment with institutional-quality investments. As portfolios become more modular and allocative, banks, advisors, and GPs must invest in education at every level to ensure a shared understanding of risks, expectations, and outcomes.
Managers who adapt - operationally, structurally, and culturally - will define the next phase of private markets growth; those who do not will quickly fall behind.
On the panel discussion “What the evergreen era means for the mutualisation of private markets”, the point was made that private markets are at a structural inflection point where growth is increasingly driven not by institutions, but by private wealth.
The allure of evergreen structures is that they function as a one-stop shop: investors decide when to access the asset class and when to redeem, within a framework that prioritises flexibility rather than full liquidity. For private clients, this simplicity matters.
Regulation has been a key catalyst. The ELTIF regime has fundamentally changed what is possible in Europe by opening access to asset classes that were previously the domain of institutional investors and accredited investors. With ELTIF 2.0, the wave of adoption is expected to continue, offering a credible and scalable route into private markets for retail investors.
Designing Evergreen Portfolios: Discipline Over Promise
However, product design is absolutely critical to this.
Panellists noted that liquidity is not a marketing feature but a design challenge.
Edouard Boscher, Head of Private Equity at Carmignac, commented: “To provide liquidity means that you need to be extremely disciplined. And the way you can achieve the liquidity mechanism is by investing in short duration investments. Our goal was to get access to the secondary market to allow a very mature portfolio.”
Two additional principles were highlighted. First, alignment: evergreen vehicles should draw from the same underlying investments as closed-ended funds. Second, transparency: more frequent reporting (typically monthly) is essential to maintaining investor confidence in perpetual structures.
Not that industry experts expect evergreens to displace closed-ended private equity funds. Instead, the two structures will coexist. Closed-ended vehicles will remain central for institutional capital, while evergreens will broaden participation across both institutional and private wealth channels.
That said, perpetual vehicles require a different mindset. Portfolio coherence must be maintained as capital flows in and out, and traditional firms must rethink how they allocate deal flow between closed-ended and open-ended structures. IFAs will be watching closely.
“What will be key for us is to really watch these portfolios. Our role is to advise our clients to get in to products but also to get out when it is time to take liquidity,” said Benjamin Brochet, Deputy CEO of Crystal, France’s leading IFA with EUR28 billion in AUM.
Photo: Benjamin Brochet, Deputy CEO of Crystal
Joint education efforts with distributors, co-developed marketing materials, and continuous adviser engagement are essential, as wider adoption develops within private wealth.
However, while visibility and reporting help investors understand what they own, evergreen funds should not be positioned as short-term solutions. Panelists on Day 1 of IPEM Wealth emphasised that these vehicles are best understood as medium-term investments - typically four to five years - to avoid mismatched expectations. Above all, liquidity mechanisms must protect existing investors and never become detrimental to the portfolio.
And as was stressed, these should not be referred to as ‘semi-liquids’. They are semi-illiquids!
The key point made throughout the sessions was this: Evergreen funds are not a passing innovation. They represent a durable expansion of the private markets toolkit; one that increases flexibility, broadens access, and integrates private assets more deeply into the wealth management ecosystem, while also preserving the discipline required for long-term investing.
Success will depend on close alliances
As private markets continue to expand into the wealth channel, distribution partnerships have become a critical determinant of success.
When considering what makes a good partnership, operational connectivity is the primary non-negotiable criterion. Regardless of product quality or brand strength, distribution cannot function without seamless integration across custody, settlement, reporting, inflows, outflows, and reinvestment.
Panelists generally converged around a small number of meaningful relationships - typically two to five per geography - allowing managers to concentrate resources where they can achieve real penetration. The approach differs by structure: closed-ended funds can still support selective exclusivity, whereas open-ended and evergreen strategies benefit from broader, non-exclusive distribution to maximise reach and scalability.
Photo: Sarah Melvin of BlackRock delivers the keynote address on the main stage.
In the wealth channel, differentiation is increasingly achieved not through exclusivity, but through breadth of offering, including access to primaries, secondaries, co-investments, and diversified evergreen portfolios that enable faster and more predictable deployment for advisers and clients.
Panelists also emphasised that aggressive economics do not compensate for weak operations, limited brand credibility, or poor investor experience. Crucially, incentives are increasingly directed toward end clients, and total fee loads must remain coherent with the strategy to preserve net performance.
The clarion call to the IPEM Wealth audience when thinking about distribution partnerships was: “Spend time, listen to your advisers, understand what the end client needs and then deliver the right investment experience.”
Navigating the Macro Currents
Political and macro developments continue to shape market sentiment. Macroeconomic and geopolitical volatility was framed not as an anomaly, but as a permanent feature of markets. Panelists emphasised that the core responsibility of private market managers is to cut through noise, look beyond short-term headlines, and enable long-term compounding of capital across cycles
From an asset class perspective, it was noted that global infrastructure investment is at a structural inflection point, marking what participants describe as a “CapEx Super Cycle.” Rising energy demand across Europe and the United States, coupled with priorities around energy security and independence, is driving record levels of capital expenditure within utilities and critical infrastructure systems.
Photo: Panellists discuss the investment outlook for 2026.
This acceleration is taking place in an extended late cycle environment where yields remain below long term averages and credit quality is increasingly uneven. Within private credit markets, investors observe growing stress among lower quality borrowers as liquidity tightens and refinancing risks rise. And while the cycle remains supported by large scale investment in artificial intelligence and accommodative monetary policy, both also create dispersion in credit risk and pricing across sectors.
David Hirschmann, Co-CEO of Permira Credit, said it would require disciplined portfolio construction as investors concentrate on non cyclical sectors such as business services, healthcare, and technology:
“It's about sector selection and asset selection, portfolio monitoring, and also having some restructuring and turnaround capacity,” Hirschmann remarked.
Photo: Major distributors debate how many products you need on your shelf.
Looking further ahead towards 2030, regulatory developments are providing a powerful tailwind to even greater private markets adoption among wealth investors.
In the U.S., the administration’s support for incorporating private markets into defined contribution and 401(k) frameworks represents a significant structural opportunity, mirrored by reforms across Europe and Asia. However, panelists were unequivocal that this is a three-to-five-year journey. The opportunity is substantial, but the operating environment is complex and highly litigious, requiring careful sequencing, robust infrastructure, and disciplined execution rather than rapid expansion.
Large, diversified managers are expected to be structurally better positioned to expand into private wealth, while more specialised firms remain selective, ensuring that distribution breadth does not dilute investment focus, impact their heritage, or create conflicts with existing investors.
The next five years are expected to be uneven and volatile.
If private markets are to ride the private wealth wave, success will ultimately depend on disciplined growth, thoughtful product design, institutional-grade execution, and deeper collaboration with distribution partners.
