Private market access has expanded rapidly for high-net-worth clients – but with that access comes complexity. According to Brendan McCurdy, Head of Marketing & Research within Ares Wealth Management Solutions, the real challenge isn’t just entry – it’s education: helping advisors understand what they’re buying, how it fits into diversified portfolios, and how to manage liquidity and risk appropriately.
“There’s a much larger group that are really just coming into these for the first time,” McCurdy said.
With family offices and advisors facing a steep learning curve, questions often begin with fundamentals. “Which asset classes should we think about?” is common, and McCurdy’s response consistently centers on four key asset classes: private equity, private credit, private real estate, and private infrastructure.
Understanding behavior through market cycles is a top priority. Advisors can’t rely on public market charts or traditional benchmarks. But data is improving. “There’s actually great data on these asset classes going back several decades, many times,” McCurdy said.
That historical context allows advisors to better assess correlation with public holdings and simulate allocation shifts – key for making informed funding decisions from liquid assets.
Not all private market segments are equally understood or adopted. Two forces are shaping what gets attention: media exposure and platform availability. “Media is talking about these asset classes much more commonly now than they ever did before,” McCurdy said.
That visibility feeds demand. Meanwhile, platform innovation is removing barriers. Newer structures – once the domain of institutional allocators – are now accessible to advisors through vehicles with entry points between $10,000 and $50,000.
“Private real estate and private credit are two of the first that tend to get added to portfolios,” he said. “Private equity follows, with private infrastructure… really just starting to come onto the scene.”
Much of the advisor interest is flowing into perpetual semi-liquid funds – a category McCurdy said is often misunderstood. “Evergreen or perpetual means the fund remains open and doesn’t close… and semi-liquid means that you have some optionality,” he said.
These vehicles typically offer limited quarterly redemptions, typically around 5% of NAV – not full liquidity, but enough to manage occasional client needs.
Still, McCurdy urged caution around how liquidity is framed. “This is not where people typically first turn to for liquidity,” he said. “These are long-term vehicles.”
That usage aligns with design. McCurdy notes that average hold times for these funds often stretch seven to eight years – comparable to traditional drawdown vehicles with decade-long lockups.
A persistent misconception is that perpetual structures inherently produce lower returns. McCurdy disputed that. “Sometimes there can be a perception that there's a return drag,” he said.
That’s often due to mismatched benchmarks. Evergreen funds report time-weighted returns, while drawdown funds use IRRs. Ares created a comparison model based on multiple on committed capital – the question: how much does your investment grow over a decade? “Very similar between the two,” he said. “Same content, the same deals are going into both… we try and make the fees exactly the same.”
As client demand for alternatives accelerates, McCurdy said advisors need more than product access – they need fluency in how these investments fit together.
“It’s around the way we talk about diversification, and the mindset you want to have,” he said. That means setting expectations around liquidity, understanding performance metrics, and guiding long-term allocation.
For Ares, the goal isn’t just distribution – it’s helping advisors scale consistent private market access across diverse client bases. McCurdy sees perpetual structures as especially well-aligned with the push for scalable, repeatable models. “You’re not sacrificing access to high-quality private investments,” he said. “You’re building with intent.”
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