Over three-in-five (61%) respondents said they intended to increase allocations to developed, non-US markets.
Nearly 90% of wealth managers stated they held concerns regarding tariffs issued over the last year and the resulting global uncertainty.
According to MSCI's Wealth Trends 2026 - How Advisers Are Repositioning for a Volatile World report, the vast majority of wealth managers polled were significantly more likely to decrease US equity allocations and look to private markets due to the current geopolitical and economic landscape.
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Over three-in-five (61%) said they were planning to increase allocations to developed, non-US markets, but around a third predicted they would increase US equity exposure.
Diversification beyond the US was also in the spotlight, as 48% sought to boost their emerging market exposure.
Hassan Suffyan, head of wealth for EMEA and APAC at MSCI, said: "Outside the US, wealth managers told us that market concentration is pushing their clients to look to a wide range of developed and emerging markets for resilience and new sources of growth.
"While US advisers remain more anchored to domestic equities, their peers in EMEA and APAC are reallocating more decisively toward non-US markets, reflecting different risk perceptions, client expectations and emerging regional opportunities," he added.
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Almost three quarters of respondents (71%) saw themselves increasing allocations to private and alternative assets, while 83% of wealth managers said offering a variety of private market solutions was becoming "essential".
In terms of net increase in allocations, private assets came out on top, growing by 60% in 2025, compared to 57% growth in digital assets and 34% in other alternatives.
Advisers were increasingly amalgamating private assets with ETFs to maintain liquidity, according to the report, and 73% noted that ETFs will become more common in client portfolios.
"The movement into non-US and private market assets appears more strategic than defensive. Advisers are using global diversification to hedge geopolitical concentration risk while pursuing opportunities in markets traditionally underrepresented in client portfolios," the report found.
