Growth in alternatives is accelerating. But for firms running complex alternative strategies, the story of 2026 isn’t just about growth—it’s about evolution.
In The Future of Alternatives 2029, research firm Preqin projects that the global alternatives market will grow at an annualized rate of 9.7 percent from 2023 to 2029, expanding from $16.8 trillion at the end of 2023 to $29.2 trillion by 2029. Private equity AUM is forecast to nearly double over the same period, rising from $5.8 trillion to $12.0 trillion.
In this post, we explore the trends shaping the market and outline how alternative firms must adapt to meet evolving investor expectations, navigate sustained fee pressure, and address the regulatory and operational demands that accompany this expansion.
A Time of Evolution: 5 Top Trends Alternative Managers Face in 2026
2026 will be a time of evolution in complex alternatives. Here are the trends driving that shift:
Operational Modernization is the New Investor Mandate
According to the 2025 EY Global Alternative Fund Survey – AI Simulation Edition1, investor priorities have shifted. In 2024, only 2 percent of institutional investors prioritized back-office technology during due diligence.
Today, that figure has climbed to 16 percent, with an additional 20 percent explicitly demanding better investor reporting and greater transparency. This increase signals a meaningful change in due diligence criteria.
Performance is no longer the only metric; operational resilience is now a prerequisite for capital allocation. As scrutiny intensifies, fund managers are increasingly being evaluated on operational maturity, infrastructure readiness, and their ability to scale with control and clarity.
The Acceleration of Asset Class Innovation
Innovation is reshaping private markets. As EY’s research points out, we are seeing a surge in retail-oriented evergreen vehicles and secondaries.
While these investments offer flexibility, they also introduce valuation friction—especially as continuation funds become more common. This shift is driving greater scrutiny from regulators and investors, who increasingly expect consistent valuation practices and stronger governance frameworks.
Retail-oriented evergreen structures introduce greater complexity across onboarding, transaction processing, reporting, and investor servicing, requiring more scalable and resilient infrastructure.
Meanwhile, the growing use of secondaries—including continuation vehicles—has raised the bar for transparency, governance, and valuation discipline. As these transactions can involve conflicts of interest and subjective pricing, investors and regulators expect clearer disclosures, independent valuations, documented decision‑making, and robust oversight to ensure fair outcomes.
Managers who can demonstrate strong operational discipline and clear investor alignment will be best positioned to sustain trust and compete in an increasingly scrutinized market.
Expanded Client Segmentation Toward Private Wealth
Private wealth accelerated in 2024. Now, EY notes, it is dominating.
As a result, alternative fund managers are increasingly pivoting toward wealthy retail investors, reshaping both distribution strategies and product design.
This shift marks a deliberate move away from reliance on traditional institutional channels and toward a broader, more diversified investor base. Thirty-one percent of managers now cite private wealth as their top priority, while 58 percent prioritize investor base diversification overall.
Looking ahead, 37 percent expect to significantly increase engagement with high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth clients.
While demand for retail alternatives continues to grow, capturing this opportunity introduces meaningful operational complexity. Scaling from an institutional to a retail distribution model requires more than expanded reach—it demands an operational infrastructure capable of supporting volume, ensuring compliance, and delivering a seamless investor experience.
Fee Pressure and Rising Service Demands
Fee pressure continues to be a defining reality for alternatives managers.
EY research reports that 76 percent of institutional investors remain focused on cost efficiency, pushing back on both management and incentive fees. While historically higher fees have been justified by performance and illiquidity premiums, investors are increasingly demanding demonstrable value.
At the same time, as more alternative managers expand into the retail and private‑wealth channels, service expectations are rising.
PwC notes that as firms move into retail distribution, alternative managers must clearly define how they deliver a more “white‑glove” client experience, raising the bar for reporting, access, and responsiveness.
As a result, firms are being pushed to rethink their operating models—modernizing cost structures through automation, outsourcing, and scalable infrastructure, while continuing to balance product differentiation and performance expectations.
Regulatory Scrutiny Intensifies as AI‑Washing Comes into Focus
A new—and fast‑growing—area of regulatory attention is AI‑washing, where firms exaggerate or misstate their AI capabilities in marketing, disclosures, or investor materials.
Regulators now expect AI‑related claims to be accurate, supportable, and aligned with actual operational practices. Compliance is no longer a checklist exercise; it requires a defensible, data‑driven disclosure strategy able to withstand heightened examination.
In the US, the SEC’s Division of Examinations (DivEx) is sharpening its focus on fiduciary duty, conflicts of interest, fee transparency, retail investor protection, and cybersecurity—priorities that will shape examination activity in 2026.
For managers, this means compliance programs must be both robust and audit‑ready, with disclosures that reflect real‑world practices, particularly in complex, higher‑cost, or less‑liquid strategies.
Expectations are also rising around protections for vulnerable investors, along with stronger controls in data privacy, third‑party oversight, and cyber preparedness—areas now viewed as central to a firm’s overall governance and operational resilience.
Globally, regulators including the G20’s Financial Stability Board are advancing modernized frameworks to keep pace with evolving products, distribution models, and cross‑border capital flows. The direction is clear: a more coordinated supervisory environment demanding consistent reporting, stronger governance, and proactive risk management.
As alternatives continue to scale and democratize, regulators expect firms to demonstrate higher compliance maturity—through stronger oversight, transparent reporting, and substantiated operational and technological claims.
Geneva® The Foundation for 2026 and Beyond
As the alternatives market evolves, the technology that supports it must evolve as well.
To meet the demands of 2026 and beyond, alternative investment firms need to move beyond highly specialized, fragmented systems toward an end-to-end operating foundation—platforms capable of supporting a broader range of asset classes, structures, and investor expectations with consistency and control.
SS&C Advent’s Geneva® platform was built with that evolution in mind.
Powered by modern RESTful APIs, the platform brings together two flagship technologies—Eze OEMS and Geneva—into a best-in-class investment and operations environment. This enables complex alternative managers to adapt more quickly to new products, structures, and market opportunities without adding unnecessary operational complexity.
With Geneva, firms gain the flexibility to confidently expand into new strategies and markets, supported by infrastructure designed to reduce reliance on manual processes and disconnected systems.
Streamlined Front- and Middle-Office Workflows
In the front and middle office, the platform leverages Eze OEMS to streamline trading, modeling, analytics, and compliance within a single, coordinated workflow. The result is enhanced efficiency and stronger accuracy.
Controlled, Precise Back Office
On the back end, Geneva delivers the institutional-grade accounting, data integrity, and operational rigor required to support increasingly complex asset classes and fund structures. Its depth and flexibility provide a foundation for growth while reinforcing accuracy, transparency, and control.
Managed Services: Scale with Intention
Managed services extend this model further, enabling firms to scale without increasing internal overhead in proportion. With support for core operational functions, firms can reallocate internal resources toward strategy, performance, and client outcomes—while strengthening resilience and cost discipline.
Is your technology foundation ready for the near-$30-trillion market?
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1Note on research:
To prepare this research, Earnst and Young Partners with Aaru, an AI simulation startup, to model directional shifts from 2024 to 2025. This simulation offers a forward-looking lens into how private markets are evolving, revealing the dual imperative to capture emerging opportunities while scaling operations in an environment of rising costs and transparency pressures.
