Travers Smith's Alternative Insights: Private wealth and private capital

Investment platforms like Moonfare – which offer individual investors access to a range of alternative investment funds – have proved popular.  And for good reason: countless surveys reveal that the returns achieved by institutional investors in their private capital portfolios have outperformed those from the public markets over the last decade, especially in Europe.  Individual investors want access – and, as the private markets seek to grow and diversify their sources of capital, fund managers are keen to oblige. Retailisation is coming to alternatives.

But the industry knows that it must tread carefully. Retail, in this context, does not mean everyone: alternative asset managers are currently focused on raising capital from high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs), not the retail market more broadly.