While private markets aren’t just for the largest investors anymore, not everyone is ready to put their money into the more opaque products offered there.

Alternative investments are expected to reach $30 trillion in assets by 2030, up from $10 trillion a decade ago, per data from BlackRock. At the same time, companies are staying private longer, according to S&P Capital IQ, with 84% of those generating $100 million in revenue remaining private. Such trends are increasing interest in opportunities beyond public markets, resulting in a wave of product announcements from big wirehouse firms and breakaway RIA platforms alike. Morgan Stanley Wealth Management opened its private markets fund to a wider pool of investors last week, by removing the accredited investor requirement and lowering investment minimums.

Advisors need to educate themselves (and their clients) about the unique risk and return opportunities that alternatives bring to the table before adoption will really pick up, but all signs are that the alternatives party may just be getting started. “Alternative investments are no longer a nice-to-have or a niche offering,” said Ed Swenson, president of RFG Advisory. “Wealthy investors are demanding them.”

A Supply Side Story

Financial advisors on the ground are telling more of a mixed story about alternatives, with most seeing more “supply side activity” than organic client demand. Vincent DeCrow, advisor at Rise Investments, is not experiencing much client demand for private equity or more traditional private credit, such as direct private commercial lending. “There have been a series of valuation and related concerns in those two categories that have been keeping a lot of potential new investors on the sidelines for the time being,” he said.

That doesn’t mean alternatives aren’t important, most agreed, but they require careful consideration. “The doors have opened on alternatives and I am welcoming my clients in,” said Mitzie Wilson, wealth advisor at Farther. “The 60/40 model now has competition and is changing to 50/30/20, with the goal reaching 20% alternatives over time.”

Benjamin Bolen, head of wealth management for University Investment Services, agreed, noting customers aren’t asking for alts, but they are asking for what alts can provide. “2022 broke standard rules about stocks and bond correlation, because both went down, which isn’t supposed to happen,” Bolen said. “Investors are looking for greater stability and lower correlation. Alts provide this, and now they’re accessible to retail investors.”

Open Up. Earlier this month, RFG partnered with iCapital to give its advisors access to vetted alternatives managers across private equity, private credit, hedge funds and structured investments. “The vetted funds are important, but iCapital also brings solid educational tools that are going to be an important part of expanding the use of alternatives,” Swenson said. “Today, this is very much an 80-20 issue, where 20% of advisors and clients are doing 80% of the investing into alts.”

Swenson expects that dynamic to change as firms make vetted alternatives easier to access and advisors educate their clients.

Laid-off journalists aren’t the only ones finding an audience on Substack.

With minimal barriers to entry, financial advisors are using the newsletter platform to market their services and reach niche audiences outside of traditional sites like LinkedIn. While conversion rates from subscriber to client can be low, it’s a growing trend and an opportunity for advisors to expand their reach and meet new clients.

“The newsletter is a great place to spark a little interest for people, where they may say: ‘Oh, wow, I’ve seen myself in a similar situation, but I don’t know this or that, let me reach out,’” said Clifford Cornell, a CFP at Bone Fide Wealth. He publishes Yield to Maturity, writing about topics related to Gen Z and finance and after 18 months on Substack, he’s reached 575 followers. That growth he attributes partly to Substack’s referral program, where writers can recommend other newsletters to subscribers. His previous platform took a year to yield 150 subscribers.

CliffsNotes for Clients

For others, Substack serves existing clients. Matt Poyner, a former emergency medicine doctor turned CFP, writes Med School Money as part of his Canadian practice, serving physicians almost exclusively. He directs existing clients to his Substack when questions exceed meeting capacity. “They can read about it and think about it, then we can talk about it at the next meeting,” Poyner said. “I only have so much capacity to work with people one on one, so it gave me another medium to get good evidence-based information out there.”

Substack itself has grown rapidly since its launch in 2017:

• The platform had more than 20 million monthly active users as of 2025. There are more than 5 million paid subscriptions as of 2026, up from 2 million in 2023, according to the company (though this doesn’t necessarily represent unique subscribers).
• The top 10 finance newsletters on Substack earn more than the top 10 newsletters in any other category, according to a data analysis from the newsletter Really Good Business Ideas.

Keeping It Real. Stoy Hall, a CFP at Black Mammoth serving women, minority and LGBTQ business owners, says Substack has more access to this target audience, and lets him write authentically. “In some of my stuff, I cuss, I’m more myself. LinkedIn doesn’t really like that from an algorithm perspective,” Hall said. “You can’t be as vibrant and as bold in those mediums as you can on Substack.”

At least you have your health … and as life expectancy increases, that might be all you have.

When it comes to how much money is expected to change hands over the course of the estimated $124 trillion Great Wealth transfer, the real number might be zero. People are not only living longer but staying healthy for longer, meaning retirement savings might be depleted to the point where leaving behind a significant inheritance won’t be the norm, according to Salvatore Capizzi, retirement industry expert and chief marketing officer at Dunham & Associates. “I call it the Great Wealth Mirage,” he told Advisor Upside. “If I’m only going to live 20-25 years after retirement, it’s probably not a big deal. But if I’m living longer, I’m depleting my assets.”

Say Cheese

When graphed out, spending in retirement tends to look like a smile, an idea credited to David Blanchett, head of retirement research at Prudential. People start splurging on travel, cars, golf and other expensive items or activities after they exit the workforce. Then they start to slow down, lacking some energy and staying close to home, so spending takes a dip. But once they’re in need of more frequent medical attention or an elder care facility, the spending skyrockets back up, especially since the median cost of a private room at a nursing home is more than $11,000 a month.

Capizzi said that the traditional smile is fading, and that initial fun spending is never going to stop. “If 3D printers begin making knees better than the ones we’re born with, will I have any money to leave my kids?” he said.

• The average life expectancy in the US is 79 years old, with 81 for females and 76 for males, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
• Meanwhile, the target for a comfortable retirement keeps increasing, with Americans saying they’ll need roughly $1.5 million in savings before they stop working.

Keep it Simple. Boomers hold more than half the nation’s wealth ($90 trillion at the end of last year), so to ensure the sandwich generations get more than just a few crumbs, the solution is a fairly old and basic one, Capizza said: buy low, sell high. The stock market trends upward overtime, but it’s not a smooth increase; there are peaks and valleys in the short term. He suggested that a rules-based investment strategy that triggers holding more equities in up markets and less in down markets should provide greater returns than traditional buy and hold plans or dollar cost averaging, he argued. “The planning we’re doing right now is a 20- or 25-year solution to a 40- or 50-year problem,” Capizza said.