President Trump’s recent executive order on alternative assets and 401(k)-style retirement plans has drawn fresh attention to the rapid growth of private markets, including private equity, credit, real estate and infrastructure.
We cannot fully understand this growth, or its impact on global finance, without considering how the shift to private assets has intersected with other key investment trends — most notably, the expansion of the wealth-management industry.
For perspective: Global assets under management (AUM) in the wealth market reached $159 trillion in 2024, after growing by 20% over the prior five years, according to the Natixis Wealth Industry Survey.
As for private assets specifically, PitchBook has projected that AUM held by general partners (GPs) will increase from $18.7 trillion in 2024 to $24.1 trillion by the end of 2029.
These two trends have been driven by different factors, but they have also overlapped with each other in meaningful ways.
Indeed, wealth management has begun to support the expansion of private assets, and vice versa, although wealth managers and GPs still need additional tools and transparency to maximize their alignment.
In a recent MSCI Wealth survey, for example, 82% of wealth managers globally said they expected to make larger allocations to private assets over the next three years.
Wealth managers have been attracted to private credit, in particular, because it can allow them to diversify portfolios within fixed income while offering a potential premium over traditional fixed income. (Private credit has historically shown a low correlation with stocks and bonds.)
The floating-rate structure of private-credit funds can also support hedging strategies, especially during a period of rising inflation or rising interest rates.
More broadly, wealth managers must deliver highly personalized portfolios for their clients, and private credit allows for significant customization around investment goals and borrowing terms, including interest rates and amortization schedules.
To that end, new private investment vehicles can help wealth managers provide their clients with greater accessibility and liquidity.
Yet wealth managers also recognize that this private-credit revolution will not happen without a higher level of transparency from GPs on liquidity and risk.
In the 2025 MSCI General Partner Survey, 57% of small GPs reported struggling with data accuracy and credibility problems, while 94% of all GPs said that portfolio-management solutions were at least somewhat important to their operations.
Since private companies and funds do not face the same disclosure requirements as listed firms, investors tend to have less information about their financial structure, business activities, and operational performance. These gaps have long hindered the growth of private assets in investor portfolios.
However, over the past decade, both the accessibility and the quality of private-market data have steadily increased, thanks to advanced technology and models, and investors now have more clarity around private assets than they did in years past.
Yet challenges persist, because private markets remain inherently opaque.
Above all, wealth managers and other investors need objective risk evaluations of private credit along the lines of what they have for public equities.
Such independent risk assessments would help promote greater confidence in the asset class, especially given its illiquid nature.
They would also help promote accurate valuations of private credit so that shares of the underlying funds could trade credibly.
Reliable, standardized pricing would be a critical breakthrough that could accelerate the growth of private credit across regions.
For now, despite a slowdown in private-market fundraising last year, so-called dry powder for private credit — capital that has been committed but not yet allocated — “held relatively steady,” according to MSCI research.
Put it all together, and the larger story is that wealth managers and GPs are rewriting the rules for how money moves around the world.
By expanding the universe of investable assets while unlocking new opportunities for personalization at scale, they are fueling a surge of innovation that has reverberated throughout the global financial system.
The opinions expressed in Fortune.com commentary pieces are solely the views of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of Fortune.
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