Maryam Longrus, Head of Private Markets at FE fundinfo;
Credit: FE fundinfo
On Tuesday 3 November 2026, FE fundinfo published the findings of its inaugural "Private Markets Survey Report 2026", revealing a gap between wealth managers' confidence in their readiness to manage public and private assets and the data infrastructure available to support this.
According to the research, 90% of wealth managers surveyed believe they are well-equipped to manage the convergence of public and private assets, yet only 20% rate their private markets data connectivity as well connected or better, with just 6% reporting fully integrated connectivity.
Private markets are also moving higher up asset and wealth managers’ strategic and distribution agendas. Two-thirds (67%) of wealth managers ranked private markets as a high priority over the next three years, 28% were already targeting retail clients for private markets access, and 51% saw model portfolio providers as a key distribution channel. The report noted that delivering on this demand would depend on improvements to data infrastructure and platform capabilities.
The research, which surveyed 200 senior asset and wealth managers across Luxembourg, Switzerland and the UK, found that data remained a major barrier to scaling private markets. Operational complexity and data quality ranked as the top two barriers to scaling retail and high-net-worth access, with limited liquidity options third.
Among wealth managers, 46% still relied on frequent manual data reconciliation, despite 90% believing they were equipped to manage public-private convergence. Among asset managers, 83% believed they were well-equipped for public-private convergence, yet just 5% had fully integrated data connectivity. The research also found that 78% of wealth managers and 72% of asset managers said limited comparability between public and private assets was hindering their private markets strategies.
The findings also challenged some of the conventional assumptions about what was holding private markets back. While liquidity had dominated much of the industry’s debate, just 18% of respondents identified it as a major barrier to scaling access for retail and high-net-worth clients. Meanwhile, suitability and client understanding were named the single biggest portfolio-level challenge for these clients by 45% of asset managers and 36% of wealth managers.
The report also noted that firms are already beginning to respond to these challenges. Portfolio analytics was the leading capability investment priority for asset managers (65%), while 57% of wealth managers were prioritising workflow automation. Around half (49%) of wealth managers and 54% of asset managers expected specialist vendors to be the primary route to enhancing their private markets capabilities, compared with just 14% and 11% respectively planning to build solutions mostly in-house.
Maryam Longrus, Head of Private Markets at FE fundinfo, said: "If private markets are going to sit alongside public assets in more investors’ portfolios, the infrastructure needs to allow the two to work together. Making private markets data more consistent and easier to use alongside public market data is fundamental to that." She added: "Our research shows that wealth managers already see model portfolio providers as a key distribution channel for private markets, but unlocking greater adoption depends on having the infrastructure to incorporate private assets effectively alongside public investments. The focus now needs to be on closing those infrastructure gaps so that growing demand can translate into broader adoption."
Russell Andrews, Head of Wealth & Asset Management Vertical at FIS Capital Markets, commented: "Private markets cannot scale on fragmented infrastructure. The decisive enabler will be genuine interoperability, underpinned by common data standards that allow information to move consistently, securely and in real time across the ecosystem." He added: "For FIS, connecting wealth managers, asset managers, private equity firms and fund administrators is essential to eliminating manual reconciliation, strengthening control, supporting new distribution channels and accelerating product innovation. Standardised data and interoperable systems are not operational enhancements; they are the foundation for sustainable industry growth."
