Traditional managers push into private markets, but specialists still hold the edge

Private markets specialists are no longer the only game in town. Traditional equity and fixed income managers, well funded and intent on winning share, are pressing hard into alternatives and are starting to get noticed. For now, though, institutional investors still say they prefer the returns delivered by the dedicated alts firms, according to recent research from Phronesis Partners.

Phronesis surveyed 300 institutional investors managing more than $6 trillion in assets, testing how well they knew the private market offerings of "whole-of-market" firms such as BlackRock, J.P. Morgan and Goldman Sachs, alongside established specialists like Blackstone, Apollo Global Management and KKR. Around 100 of them also answered questions about brand awareness across both types of firm.