Is the stock market still the best way to build wealth? Investors are split

Most Americans believe the country's most lucrative private investment opportunities are being deliberately kept out of their reach and new data reveals a significant dissatisfaction with public markets.

A national survey of more than 2,000 adults, conducted by Propeller Insights on behalf of DealMaker, an investment technology platform that allows retail investors to invest directly in private companies, found that 66% of Americans believe everyday people are being consciously held back from the country's highest-growth private investments.

The research, published September 15, 2026, arrives as federal legislators and regulators move to overhaul who is permitted entry into private capital markets in the first place and for financial advisors working with non-accredited clients, the findings underscore a widening gap between investor appetite and access.

Public markets losing the room

More than half of respondents (51%) said the stock market was no longer the best place to build wealth in America.

That figure would have been remarkable at any point in the past generation; coming in 2026, it reflects a public that has watched private valuations surge while the pipeline of public offerings has thinned considerably.

According to Securities and Exchange Commission data, the number of U.S.-listed domestic public companies declined by more than half between 1996 and 2025, while private companies now account for a significant and growing share of capital formation.

Sixty percent of survey respondents said that when they think about building an investment portfolio, they feel like the cards are stacked against them. That sentiment is compounded by a striking erosion of institutional trust: just 14% said they trust traditional financial institutions completely to manage their money and give good advice.

Rebecca Kacaba, co-founder and CEO of DealMaker, based in New York, framed the results as a structural indictment rather than passing sentiment.

"Our new survey shows how many Americans have noticed that access to the best investment opportunities in America has quietly become a two-tiered system," Kacaba said. "Thanks to accredited investor rules and companies staying private longer, Americans are starting to lose confidence in the market, with a growing belief it's not tailored for them to succeed."

Advisors who counsel clients on portfolio construction are navigating this shift in real time. As InvestmentNews has reported on the growing advisor appetite for private market strategies, the structural case for adding alternatives is well established, but the regulatory and access barriers remain unresolved for most retail clients.

Accredited investor rules draw bipartisan skepticism

The DealMaker survey probed attitudes toward the accredited investor framework directly, the regulatory designation, established by the SEC, that restricts participation in high-growth private deals to individuals meeting defined income or net worth thresholds, or those with qualifying professional credentials.

More than half of respondents (55%) said those rules are not a fair way to allocate access to private markets. The House passed the bipartisan INVEST Act in December 2025, now before the Senate, directing the SEC to modernize the accredited investor definition with inflation-adjusted thresholds and new criteria based on education and experience.

Separately, the SEC plans to publish a notice of proposed rulemaking in October 2026 to expand retail exposure to private markets through registered investment companies; a move that could significantly reshape the products advisors are able to offer non-accredited clients.

InvestmentNews has covered the regulatory debate around private market democratization in depth. The pace of change is now picking up on multiple fronts simultaneously.

Awareness, not just appetite, is the problem

The DealMaker data points to an advisor opportunity that goes beyond portfolio construction.

While 54% of respondents said they would be interested in investing in private companies if given the chance, 64% were not aware that retail investors can legally invest in private companies before an IPO at all. Even after being informed that the option exists, 71% said they still would not know where to start.

That education gap is where advisors and planners can add immediate value, regardless of how the regulatory landscape evolves. Clients who feel excluded from wealth-building systems (and two-thirds of the DealMaker sample did) are actively receptive to guidance. Nearly two-thirds of respondents (66%) said the country needs more options to access and manage different types of investments.

"People aren't walking away from private investing because they've decided it's not for them. They don't know it exists, and when they find out, they don't know how to get in," Kacaba said. "You don't fix that by asking Americans to trust a system most of them already believe is stacked against them. You fix it by opening the door."

As the SEC's proposed rulemaking moves toward a public comment period this fall, financial planners and investment advisors will want to monitor how changes to interval fund structures and the accredited investor definition may reshape what they can legally recommend and to whom.

InvestmentNews will continue tracking regulatory developments affecting advisor access to private markets as the October 2026 SEC rulemaking notice nears.

The DealMaker survey was fielded July 11–20, 2026, by Propeller Insights. It is the second in a planned three-part series. Full results are expected to be published October 6, 2026.