Retailisation of private markets: Unlocking the discretionary space will be a 'game changer'

IW Alternatives Summit

The development of private markets fund structures suitable for discretionary mandates will be a “game changer” in the process of opening up the space to retail investors, experts told delegates at Investment Week's debut Alternatives Summit.

Individual investors hold roughly 50% of the estimated $275trn to $295trn of global assets under management. Yet those same investors represent just 16% of AUM held by alternative investment funds, according to Bain & Co.  Andrew Summers, head of alternative investments at Investec Wealth & Investment, said that not investing in the private markets means missing out on diversification benefits, given that 87% of companies in the US with over $100m in revenue are privately owned.  "The private markets world is so much more inefficient and the levers of value-add and the ability to cont...