Private wealth is no longer a side channel for private markets.
It is fast becoming the primary current driving expansion. Private-market assets are projected to rise from around $22tn to $37tn by 2030.
Crucially, wealth investors are expected to supply roughly 60% of net new capital, despite holding only a quarter of AUM today. However, private banks and wealth platforms cannot safely or efficiently absorb these assets without entirely new operational, technological, and regulatory infrastructure.
The firms that survive will not be those who simply tweak their product menus, they will be the ones who rebuild the grid and re-engineer how the traditional GP/private wealth distribution partnership operates. 'Rewiring Wealth' will be the defining theme for IPEM Wealth, 2nd to 4th February.
The need for distribution at scale marks a pivotal moment.
The traditional boundaries separating private wealth platforms, retail capital, and institutional private market GPs are being permanently dismantled and rebuilt. The old pipes cannot carry the new volume. “Rewiring Wealth” seeks to directly address this infrastructural shift.
Private banks and wealth platforms are forming deeper partnerships with fewer managers, and both sides increasingly shape product design together, from asset mix and liquidity to minimums, reporting and adviser education.
There are numerous reasons why the long-term success of these strategic partnerships will require a comprehensive rewiring of the infrastructure:
• The Growth Engine Has Shifted: Global AUM growth is stalling on a net-new-flow basis; 80% of recent expansion was pure market beta.
• The Revenue Oasis: By 2030, private markets will command a massive 39% of all asset management revenues, despite holding just 15% of total AUM.
• The Retail Fuel Tank: Individual wealth channels are projected to provide 60% of all net new investor flows into private markets through 2030.
IPEM Wealth 2027 is the definitive forum to set the agenda as the industry faces this unique inflection point.
By bringing together asset managers, private banks, wealth platforms, family offices, advisers, technology providers and regulators, Cannes will be the focal point for many of the industry’s pre-eminent leaders to debate, challenge, and ultimately rethink how private markets and private wealth work together.
What steps do firms take to ensure distribution channels are built to support access at scale? And create an architecture that goes beyond evergreen fund or semi-liquid funds to accommodate every type of wealth investor, from retail to the most sophisticated family office, from drawdown funds to UMAs, multi-duration funds (look at Partners Group’s latest innovation creating the “Compounding” and “Distributing” sub-funds under a single umbrella), to single and multi-strategy evergreens.
There are already examples of industry developments to illustrate what this updated architecture will look like:
1. Replacing bespoke feeders with standardised open-architecture rails
To successfully scale, the wealth industry needs to transition to a standardized connectivity model, rather than rely on highly manual customized feeder funds. Wealth platforms are beginning to shift toward centralized clearing systems to handle unlisted securities.
2. Bespoke model portfolios
Expanding on the point above, wealth platforms are integrating client data into centralized systems that use predictive AI. Rather than treating public equities, bonds, and alternatives as separate asset sleeves, unified software automatically calculates a client’s total exposure, risk profile, and exact liquidity budget. According to the Broadridge 2026 Model Portfolios Quarterly Trends Report, model portfolios already account for roughly a third of all retail intermediary assets, with the overall model portfolio industry projected to reach a staggering $18.6bn by 2030.
The Cerulli Report—U.S. Asset Allocation Model Portfolios 2026 illustrates that asset managers are physically rewiring their product development to fit these models. The report finds that 57% of model providers now cite incorporating semi-liquid or illiquid alternative investments into their models as a top-three product development priority.
3. Unified backend infrastructure for semi-liquid funds
Global custodians and fund administrators are merging their previously separate service silos for public and private markets into a single, unified technology infrastructure. This allows backend systems to support evergreen funds’ ongoing subscriptions and capped quarterly redemptions. By running accounting, valuations, and investor services through a single integrated team, platforms can offer private markets strategies to retail wealth clients without causing operational or liquidity friction.
We live in an age of great uncertainty.
However, one thing is certain.
The next phase of private markets cannot be built only around the traditional GP–institutional LP relationship.
It will depend upon a Distribution 2.0 model where the emphasis shifts from fund selection to winning distribution partnerships, with the GP and the private bank/wealth platform collaborating on portfolio construction to drive the best outcomes for wealth clients.
Join us by registering now to play your part in re-wiring the next generation of private wealth.