Private assets for retail investors, what we heard at InvestOps 2026

The intersection of public and private markets sparked lots of discussion among InvestOps 2026 attendees across panels, breakout sessions and keynotes, and in our conversations with industry partners and professionals.

While growing allocations to private assets by institutional investors are a long established trend, retail demand for productized access, especially to private credit, is now top of mind for investment managers and asset servicers.

This has created new opportunities, accompanied by significant challenges, for both emerging startups and industry incumbents looking to seize first-mover advantage by creating packaged, compliant products that also incorporate some level of liquidity. From ideation to creation and investor education to product distribution, InvestOps attendees shared both success stories and cautions on what strategies are proving to be effective in offering retail access to private markets.

Striking the right balance on product liquidity, valuation frequency and navigating rapidly changing regulatory frameworks sparked a number of spirited conversations across both investment and operations professionals.

Appealing to retail investors requires redemption periods and liquidity opportunities aligned with shorter investment horizons than institutional investors and exceeding that of traditional closed-end funds. To promote greater transparency, product issuers are increasing valuation cadence to monthly and even daily.

InvestOps panelists also noted the importance of educating distributors on product suitability to ensure retail investors understand what they’re buying and what time horizon they can comfortably commit to. We expect regulators globally to step up oversight as recent redemption gates, bankruptcies and valuation markdowns have triggered investor protection concerns in the US and Europe.

Across the industry, operations teams are rising to the challenge of supporting these emerging products. New skill sets, new expertise, and new practices are being acquired and codified as firms race to gain retail market share with differentiated products. Technology, data and partnerships with trusted providers and asset services are viewed as table stakes in this transformation.

If you’re looking to accelerate your product innovation journey, please reach out to learn how we support many of the world’s leading investment firms across public and private assets and products.