Panel
Multi-Asset Management Across Public and Private Markets | Global Conference 2026
Milken InstituteRomaine Bostick, Michael Brandmeyer, Shikha Gupta, Nabeel Qadir, Rohit Sipahimalani, David Steinbach
- Private Wealth Surge: Private wealth allocations to real assets are projected to double from approximately 25% of total capital raised last year to 50% this year, driven by demands for inflation protection and supply shock resilience.
- Total Portfolio Approach: Institutional investors (e.g., Future Fund) are increasingly moving away from siloed asset class allocation toward holistic "total portfolio" strategies that prioritize underlying risk drivers and portfolio role over asset category labels.
- Illiquidity Premium Expansion: Due to heightened uncertainty and unpredictable market cycles (3–5 year horizons), the expected premium for illiquid assets is projected to be significantly higher than historical baselines.
- Private Equity Return Convergence: The historical 500 basis point return premium of private equity over private credit and infrastructure is expected to compress to 100–150 basis points over the next five years, prompting a shift in cross-asset allocation.
- Diversification Strategy Shift: Portfolio construction is pivoting to prioritize uncorrelated return drivers (industry, geographic, and capital structure) rather than simple market diversification to mitigate the effects of macro regime changes.
- Liquidity as Resilience: With 75–80% of some portfolios now held in liquid assets, liquidity is being prioritized as the primary source of portfolio resilience, enabling active management and the ability to survive shocks without forced selling.
- AI Investment Strategy: Investors plan to double exposure to AI beneficiaries by 2030, focusing on infrastructure (data centers, energy) and foundational models in the private space, while utilizing public equities for shorter-duration tech exposure.
- Real Estate Recovery Outlook: Real assets are viewed as being in the "early innings" of a recovery following a 500 basis point rate hike reset in 2022, with supply shocks and deglobalization driving new demand corridors for housing, energy, and defense infrastructure.
- Manager Selection Evolution: Due to a widening gap between TBPIs (booked capital) and DPIs (distributed capital), manager selection is shifting toward identifying firms with proven operating value creation and "hard asset" capabilities rather than those relying solely on financial engineering.
- Credit Market Disruption: Private credit fundraising has declined 28% since 2021, with real estate and venture sectors facing stress; senior and mezzanine credit are increasingly valued for immediate yield generation to mitigate J-curves.
- Portfolio Stress Points: Managers face a "show me" moment where execution capabilities and active asset management are scrutinized more heavily, as the era of easy beta generation and multiple expansion has ended.
- Asset-Based Finance Growth: Allocations to asset-based finance (ABF) are increasing to access higher complexity premiums and diversify away from "vanilla" corporate direct lending, which is suffering from tight spreads.
- Scenario Planning for Regime Change: Investors are building portfolios using scenario testing for fragmentation, inflation, and volatility, explicitly rejecting historical correlations in favor of strategies that perform across multiple economic regimes.
- Geographic Diversification: Strategic shifts include favoring investments in geoeconomic spheres with domestic self-sufficiency (e.g., hospitals in India, consumer brands in China) to mitigate geopolitical supply chain risks.
- Secondary Market Expansion: The private market secondary market is projected to grow from $250 billion in transactions last year to $500 billion over the next four to five years, increasing portfolio flexibility.
- Product Innovation: The shrinking number of public listings (halved since 2008) relative to global wealth doubling is driving innovation in multi-asset and hybrid structures (e.g., real estate credit, evergreen funds) to fill the liquidity void.
- Risk Budgeting Discipline: Investors emphasize maintaining absolute return objectives over relative benchmarks, requiring clear alignment between risk appetite and return goals to avoid "whiplash" from tactical market reactions.
- Recency Bias Warning: Panelists warn against letting past market frameworks dictate current strategies, urging a focus on the "new investment order" characterized by higher volatility, inflation, and fragmentation.
- Public/Private Merger: The distinction between public and private markets is expected to blur further due to sophisticated data analytics, AI-driven risk management, and the creation of flexible, multi-liquidity products.