Broadening Access to Private Markets

The report argues that while private markets offer retail investors potential for enhanced returns and diversification, significant barriers—including high investment minimums, illiquidity, and regulatory restrictions—persist. It proposes a multistakeholder approach involving tailored product design, increased financial education for both investors and advisers, and the adoption of technology to streamline the investor journey and improve data transparency.

• Private markets, comprising private equity, private credit, infrastructure, and real estate, reached a total value of $9.6 trillion as of March 31, 2022, with 56% domiciled in North America, 24% in Europe, and 18% in Asia.
• Retail investors may benefit from private markets through enhanced risk-adjusted returns, income generation via dividends or rental income, and portfolio diversification from traditional bonds and equities.
• Broadening access introduces significant risks for retail investors, including the inherent complexity of assets, long lock-up periods causing illiquidity, limited transparency compared to public companies, and adverse selection risk due to information asymmetry.
• Current barriers to entry vary by wealth tier; mass affluent and affluent investors are identified as having the most opportunity for participation if education and product innovation are improved, while wealthier investors are often limited by a lack of appropriate products that meet investor protection constraints.
• Regulatory hurdles include restrictive accredited investor definitions; for example, in the US, access is generally prevented for those earning under $200,000 annually, while the EU's MiFID professional regime requires a portfolio of at least €500,000 and one year of professional experience.
• The report suggests that the 'on-ramp' and 'off-ramp' processes are major pain points, with high minimum investments (averaging $250,000-500,000 per deal) and cumbersome manual onboarding and tax reporting processes.
• To responsibly expand access, the report recommends developing 'managed solutions' for lower net worth investors—such as pension funds or curated third-party products—while reserving bespoke direct investments for high-net-worth individuals.
• A mature secondary market is viewed as a potential solution to illiquidity, though it is currently limited to institutions; a retail-ready version would require transparent pricing, standardized transaction costs, and regulatory updates to allow multilateral trading facilities.
• Technology is identified as a critical enabler to scale the investor journey, with the report noting that most necessary tools—such as those for KYC/AML onboarding and portfolio monitoring—already exist in public markets and digital asset sectors.
• The report calls for the creation of industry consortiums to standardize language, reporting, and data sharing to reduce the burden on managers and improve comparability for retail investors.

APA

World Economic Forum (2023). Broadening Access to Private Markets. https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Broadening_Access_to_Private_Markets_2023.pdf

Chicago

World Economic Forum. Broadening Access to Private Markets. 2023. https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Broadening_Access_to_Private_Markets_2023.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Economic Forum |title=Broadening Access to Private Markets |date=2023 |url=https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Broadening_Access_to_Private_Markets_2023.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldeconomicforum2023broadening, author = {{World Economic Forum}}, title = {{Broadening Access to Private Markets}}, institution = {World Economic Forum}, year = {2023}, url = {https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Broadening_Access_to_Private_Markets_2023.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }