Why Alternative Investments Are Generating Interest Now

There’s a big shift underway. Alternative investments — private equity, Pre-IPO company shares, real estate, private credit, digital assets,  and more — are moving from the margins toward the mainstream, especially among next-gen investors.¹ Integrating an alternative investments platform can help attract and maintain these clients and support AUM growth.

Next-Gen Investors Are Driving Demand

Millennials and Gen Z are redefining the traditional investment portfolio. Several recent studies show that these younger investors are far less content sticking with the industry standard 60/40 mix of stocks and bonds.

• A Bank of America Private Bank survey found that 72% of younger investors aged 21–42 don’t believe traditional portfolio structures can deliver above-average returns²
• The same Bank of America Private Bank survey reported that these younger investors are holding portfolios with less than half invested in stocks and bonds²
• In the HSBC USA “Affluent Investor Snapshot 2025,” affluent investors doubled their allocations to alternatives over the past year; nearly half plan to own alternatives within the next 12 months³
• Among Gen Z and Millennials, there’s been a sharp drop in cash holdings, from 31% to 17%, as they seek more growth, diversification, and exposure to non-traditional assets³

These shifts reflect a changing mindset in the search for higher returns outside of public markets: Younger investors are more willing to accept complexity, higher risk, longer time horizons, and less liquidity in exchange for exposure to companies and assets that might grow faster or offer diversification beyond publicly traded securities.

And it’s not just the young. Goldman Sachs found that high net worth (HNW) households are increasing adoption with 63% of those with $5–10 million and 91% with over $20 million holding alternative investments in their portfolios.⁴ These trends show what was once a strategy for a select few is now a key portfolio consideration for investors at every stage of their financial journey.

The Big Opportunity: A $29T+ Addressable Market

The alts market is growing fast. Global alternatives assets under management are forecast to hit $29.2 trillion by 2029, nearly doubling from approximately $16.8 trillion in 2023.⁵ During this time, private equity is expected to be one of the fastest-growing segments, alongside private debt.⁶

Additionally, an executive order signed in August 2025 (Democratizing Access to Alternative Assets for 401(k) Investors) directs the Department of Labor and the SEC to reexamine guidance around offering alternative assets in defined contribution retirement plans.⁷ This could open access to alts for tens of millions of retirement savers who previously did not have access to these securities.

All told, the opportunity for financial advisors, broker-dealers, fintech platforms, and other service providers is huge. Demand is rising and investors — especially younger ones — are pushing for new asset classes and diversification tools.

Why Aren’t You Offering Alternative Investments?

What’s holding firms back from taking hold of this opportunity? For many advisors and platforms, the problem isn’t interest, it’s infrastructure. The legacy alternatives ecosystem is fragmented, manual, and complex.

Key pain points often include:

• Complex onboarding: Subscription documents, fund agreements, and the verification needed for an accredited investor platform still lack a seamless digital subscription workflow
• Operational inefficiencies: Each asset or fund has its own rules, liquidity limitations, timelines, and reporting formats, making it hard to scale
• Limited transparency: Data and performance reporting have been slower than traditional markets, creating frustration for both advisors and investors
• Custody and integration hurdles: Multiple custodians and integrations, manual reconciliation, and disconnected systems create unnecessary friction, highlighting the complexity of alternative investments custody
• Oversight and reporting complexity: Envisioning and integrating new due diligence and oversight workflows for these types of assets can be manually cumbersome

Together, these challenges have made it difficult for firms to offer alts efficiently at scale, even as client demand accelerates. But that’s starting to change. New alternative investments platform solutions are emerging to close these gaps and make alts as seamless to access and manage traditional investments — Apex Alts does this through a unified brokerage account, streamlined workflows, a comprehensive marketplace, and cloud-native, real-time custodial and trading infrastructure.

What Kinds of Alternatives Are Investors Seeking?

Alternative investments cover a wide spectrum, and not all asset classes are created equal in terms of access, liquidity, or investor familiarity.⁸ But several categories are gaining the most traction among both retail and accredited investor platform users:

• Private equity: Opportunities to invest in high-growth private companies
• Pre-IPO Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs): Offer exposure to private or not publicly held companies
• Private debt or credit: Income-focused exposure to private loans, with returns uncorrelated to public markets
• Real estate: Non-traded REITs can offer income potential and diversification
• Digital assets and infrastructure: Expanding your cryptocurrency offering into blockchain infrastructure, tokenized assets, and related technologies
• Collectibles and art: A niche but growing interest area as investors look for non-traditional stores of value
• Hedge funds and funds-of-funds: Broader access to active management and sophisticated strategies once reserved for institutions

As interest grows, platforms that can simplify access, management, and reporting for these asset types stand to attract — and retain — the next generation of investors.

Apex Alts: Your Alternative Investments Platform Solution

The momentum around alternative investments isn’t slowing down. Firms that act now have the opportunity to strengthen client relationships, attract new AUM, and stay ahead of shifting market expectations. Apex Alts helps solve the infrastructure challenges that hold firms back, turning:

• Complex onboarding into a simplified investor experience: Move beyond paper with automated and digital subscription workflows, streamlined investor accreditation checks, and seamless fund agreements
• Operational inefficiencies into scalable, unified operations: View asset and fund rules, liquidity limitations, timelines, and reporting formats all on a single screen, making it easier to scale your alternative offerings
• Limited transparency into data and insights: Get access to pricing data, limit order books, and market data feeds, complemented by robust reporting and analytics for both advisors and investors
• Custody and integration hurdles into a seamless platform integration: Reduce manual reconciliation and the friction of multiple custodians and vendors with alternative investments custody built into a unified brokerage account
• Oversight and reporting complexity into streamlined processes: Apex integrations and APIs help simplify how firms manage due diligence and regulatory workflows for alts

Ready to Take the Next Step?

Before you choose an alternative investments platform provider, use our checklist to benchmark what an ideal provider should deliver across investor onboarding, custody, reporting, and integration.

Read our checklist: How to find the best alternative investments platform for your needs

When you’re ready to explore how Apex Alts can help you offer a unified, modern experience for both investors and advisors, our team is here to talk.