In good years, everyone loves their private markets allocations. In challenging years, investors start asking harder questions: Why this strategy? Why this manager? What’s our real exposure?
A resilient private markets program isn’t just about “getting into alts.” It’s about designing a framework that can withstand changing cycles, liquidity conditions, and client expectations.
For RIAs and wealth professionals, that means rethinking how you source managers, build portfolios, and manage the operational backbone behind it all.
Private Markets Behave Differently—By Design
Unlike public markets, private investments:
- Are less liquid and typically involve multi-year commitments
- Use capital call structures, not simple “buy/sell” orders
- Have valuation methodologies that don’t update tick-by-tick
- Often carry strategy-specific risks that require deeper understanding
Those characteristics can be powerful tools for portfolio construction—but only if they’re handled with intention.
The Pillars of a Resilient Private Markets Program
A program that can survive multiple cycles usually rests on a few key pillars:
1. Diversification Across Strategies and Vintages
Putting all your alts allocation into a single strategy, vintage year, or theme is effectively making a concentrated bet. More resilient programs:
- Combine strategies (e.g., private equity, private credit, real assets, secondaries)
- Stagger commitments over time to avoid vintage risk
- Balance growth, income, and defensive characteristics
2. Manager Quality Over Hype
The difference between top-quartile and bottom-quartile managers in private markets can be enormous. A resilient program:
- Focuses on specialist managers with clear edge and repeatable processes
- Evaluates team stability, alignment, and governance, not just performance charts
- Looks through marketing narratives to the underlying drivers of returns
3. Operational Readiness
Even the best allocation design can be undermined by weak operations. RIAs need to ask:
- How are we tracking capital calls and distributions?
- Is our team relying on spreadsheets and inbox searches to manage commitments?
- Can we easily answer client questions about cash flows, exposures, and performance?
If the answers are uncomfortable, the solution isn’t to avoid alts—it’s to strengthen the infrastructure that supports them.
How Technology Supports Cycle-Resilient Strategies
This is where platforms like EnduranceX come in. A technology layer built for private markets can:
- Centralize manager access so you’re not starting from scratch each time
- Standardize data and documents across managers and strategies
- Give you visibility into commitments, cash flows, and exposures in one place
- Support better communication with clients around expectations and timelines
Instead of patching together multiple portals, trackers, and PDFs, RIAs can operate from a more coherent system—one that’s designed for private markets’ realities.
Practical Steps for RIAs
If you’re building or refining your private markets program, consider:
- Define the role of alts in your firm’s investment philosophy. Are they for diversification, return enhancement, income, or all of the above?
- Clarify your client fit. Which segments of your client base are truly appropriate for private markets, given their time horizons and liquidity needs?
- Document a manager selection and review framework. Make it repeatable, not ad hoc.
- Invest in infrastructure. Use platforms and tools that reduce friction instead of adding it.
- Educate your team and clients. Clear communication is part of risk management.
Looking Forward
Private markets will continue to evolve—new structures, new strategies, new managers. The firms that thrive won’t be the ones who “dabble” in alts; they’ll be the ones who build a real, repeatable private markets capability.
EnduranceX exists to support that journey: connecting RIAs and wealth professionals with specialist alts managers and providing the technology infrastructure to keep them ahead of the curve.
For informational purposes only. Not investment advice. For professional investors and wealth management firms.