Spear’s Review

[We are] laser-focused on the opportunity to bring private markets to the professional – but also non-professional segment – of the wealth market,’ says Fabio Osta, head of BlackRock’s alternatives team in EMEA. This includes connecting UHNWs to the full spectrum of BlackRock’s global alternative investment capabilities.

Osta tells Spear’s that private markets are a large area of opportunity for individual UHNWs, who have traditionally put very little money into these kinds of investments. ‘We are entering a new era of growth in private markets. Industry estimates project expansion from $13 trillion today to over $20 trillion by 2030,’ Osta says. ‘While allocations in wealth management remain in their infancy – just 1 to 2 per cent for individual investors and nearly zero for defined contribution systems – even modest increases will drive significant growth.’

He adds: ‘Industry consolidation is accelerating, and scale can be a real differentiator.  We are seeing investors shift towards working with a smaller set of branded, scaled, multi-product providers which can deliver solutions across their whole portfolio.’