The Global Push to Open Private Markets to Mainstream Investors

For decades, private markets were reserved for institutions and the wealthy. That’s changing. A wave of retailization — the widening of access to private credit, equity, and real assets — is reshaping long-term savings. In Washington, London, and Brussels, policymakers are rewriting the rules to let ordinary retirement savers hold assets once limited to pensions, endowments, sovereign funds, and wealthy individuals.

In the US, a recent White House directive opened the door for 401(k) and other defined contribution plans to add private credit, equity, real estate — and even crypto — inside retirement funds available to ordinary investors. In the UK, the Mansion House reforms are steering workplace and local-government schemes toward a broader mix of assets. In Europe, the ELTIF (European Long-Term Investment Fund) 2.0 regime is designed to channel household savings into productive, illiquid capital.

The drivers are clear. As private markets become an ever-larger share of the investment universe, keeping them wholly separate from most investors becomes increasingly untenable. Managers want broader, stickier capital after years of dependence on large institutions. Policymakers want retirement savers to benefit from growth beyond publicly traded securities. And platforms are willing to experiment — so long as products can be monitored, operated, and explained at retail standards.

But refashioning private markets for millions of smaller accounts forces changes across the investment chain: product design (valuation cadence, redemption rules, disclosures), operations (daily cutoffs, error handling, participant interfaces), and distribution (the gatekeepers are platforms, not chief information officers).

And all of this is happening without settled rules. Legal duties, platform bandwidth, and political scrutiny make this a live strategic uncertainty for managers and sponsors. Moving early brings a distribution advantage. Moving carelessly risks litigation, reputational damage, and political backlash. Until the regulatory regime settles, even carefully constructed retail products risk retroactive second-guessing.

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