As wealth managers and allocators reflect on 2025 and position for 2026, private markets have moved decisively from the periphery to the core of portfolio construction. Few platforms have been more central to that shift than Blackstone’s Private Wealth business, which continued to scale access to alternatives across the RIA, high-net-worth, and retirement channels.  

Over the past year, the group rolled out new multi-asset solutions with Wellington and Vanguard, launched a dedicated defined contributions business, expanded its RIA leadership with the hiring of Jen Abate, Senior Managing Director at Blackstone and Head of the RIA Channel within the firm’s Private Wealth team, and grew private wealth to over $300 billion—now roughly a quarter of Blackstone’s total assets.  

Abate shares the team’s perspective on the themes that defined 2025 and the trends set to shape the next phase of private market adoption in 2026. 

CM: When you look back on 2025, what were the most important forces shaping the way individuals and advisors approached private markets?  

JA: A defining theme of 2025 was the growing recognition that individual investors remain materially underexposed to private markets relative to institutions and family offices. While institutions and ultra-high-net-worth investors allocate roughly 20% to 30% of their portfolios to private markets, most individual investors allocate less than 3%, and many have no allocation at all, despite evidence that private markets can meaningfully improve long-term portfolio outcomes.  

This gap became more pronounced as public market dynamics challenged traditional portfolio construction, increasing the demand for diversification. Equity market concentration intensified, with a small number of stocks driving an outsized share of index performance, while stock–bond correlations remained elevated, reducing the effectiveness of conventional diversification. 

Against this backdrop, both advisors and clients became increasingly focused on diversification and volatility management. Private markets – across equity, credit, real estate, and infrastructure – were and continue to be viewed to potentially reduce reliance on public market volatility, create more stable portfolio outcomes, and support long-term compounding. 

CM: What surprised you most about advisor and client adoption of private market strategies in 2025?  

JA: One of the more notable developments was how central advisors proved to be in accelerating adoption. Advisors played a critical role in helping clients understand how private markets fit into portfolios, how they align with specific objectives, and how to evaluate opportunities and risks, effectively acting as the bridge between individual investors and private market managers. 

Advisors increasingly sought structured, high-quality educational resources to deepen their understanding of private market asset classes, portfolio construction, and liquidity considerations. This focus on education has driven measurable engagement: 60% of responding advisors reported greater interest in private markets compared to the prior year in a Fall 2025 Blackstone advisor survey, citing diversification and return potential as the primary client drivers.  

With this need in mind, Blackstone Private Wealth has continued to supply educational resources through our Blackstone University program. The platform provides resources and training to advisors in digestible and tailored formats, helping the people who directly impact investment outcomes have the tools they need to succeed.  

CM: Where do you see the most competitive pressure emerging across the private wealth ecosystem?  

JA: We’ve seen this competitive pressure accelerate as traditional portfolio frameworks have come under strain. The weakening effectiveness of the 60/40 model, driven by challenges in fixed income and increasing concentration in public equities, has pushed advisors and firms to rethink how they deliver growth and diversification. Today, approximately 86% of companies with more than $250 million in revenue are privately held, limiting the opportunity set available through public markets. 

In light of these dynamics, private markets are moving closer to the core of private wealth portfolios, intensifying competition around access and outcomes. Firms are competing on their ability to help advisors navigate liquidity structures, portfolio integration, and client communication. We see that as a key point of competition, and it is trust in the manager that has become the most valuable currency in private markets. We like our positioning on that front, as Blackstone is the leading provider of private market solutions for individuals for a reason – we have a time-tested platform and the subsequent innovation/scale to help with deals and deployment that comes with true understanding of the space.  

CM: What kinds of tools, education, and practice-management support are RIAs asking for to help them better implement and explain private market allocations to clients?  

JA: Advisors play a critical role in helping clients understand how private markets fit into portfolios. To support that role, advisors are seeking resources that go beyond product detail and focus on asset class education, portfolio construction, and risk awareness.  

Education has become the bedrock of private market adoption, which is why Blackstone’s Private Wealth business partners closely with advisors and invests in structured educational platforms. Blackstone University was designed to help advisors and investors deepen their understanding of private market strategies and the potential opportunities and risks associated with them, and more than 18,000 advisors have participated in the program since launch. 

CM: Where are you seeing the most momentum in RIA adoption—specific strategy types, client segments, or portfolio use cases?  

JA: Momentum has been strongest where private markets can directly address diversification challenges in public portfolios. Advisors are seeing clients prioritize diversification amid rising concentration in public equities, with 38% of respondents citing diversification as the top portfolio objective in the Fall 2025 Blackstone advisor survey. In response, private assets have gained particular traction – for example, private equity sits as a less volatile option to public equity. In the same survey, more than half of responding advisors viewed diversification as the reason for adding private real estate (55%) and private infrastructure (58%) to client portfolios, attracted by their historically lower correlation to public markets and long-term growth potential. 

CM: Looking ahead, which private market segments are you most constructive on for 2026, and where are you more cautious? 

JA: Across private equity, real estate, and credit, momentum is building, with expanding opportunity sets, falling financing costs, and sector-specific catalysts creating a favorable backdrop in 2026. 

Looking forward, infrastructure and real assets also appear well positioned for growth as structural trends continue to shape investment opportunity. Additionally, real estate can serve as a helpful point of entry. The rapid adoption of AI is driving generational investment in data centers, power generation, and digital infrastructure, the “picks and shovels” underpinning AI’s growth. These assets can benefit from demand tied to technological and economic transformation rather than public market sentiment.  

Areas of greater caution are less about asset classes and more about execution. As private markets scale and adoption broadens, performance dispersion is expected to increase, making manager selection, sector expertise, and active ownership capabilities critical. In this environment, strategies that rely heavily on financial engineering or lack clear operational value creation may face greater challenges, reinforcing the importance of disciplined underwriting and long-term perspective.