From the MGD Private Pulse series
Insights for UHNW individuals and family enterprises.

Scale in private markets isn’t about being the biggest—it’s about having the policy, access, and pacing to buy quality when others can’t. For family offices and UHNW investors, this is the edge that endures through cycles.

This edition of MGD Private Pulse features insights from Stephen Furness, Chief Investment Officer at MGD Private and Director of MGD Wealth. Stephen has spent his career guiding families and private clients through the complexities of investment governance, manager selection, and strategic asset allocation—helping them build resilient portfolios that thrive across market cycles.

The perspectives shared here are informed by recent research from Global Alternative Funds, including their September 2025 white paper “Alternatives in Strategic Asset Allocation,” prepared for wholesale clients of MGD Wealth. The findings highlight how leading family offices and institutions are redefining scale—not as a measure of assets, but as a function of disciplined governance, privileged access, and programmatic deployment. In 2026, these factors are shaping the opportunity set in private markets, where quality is increasingly scarce and dispersion between managers is widening.

Scale: More Than Size

In the world of private markets, scale is often misunderstood. It is not simply a matter of having more capital to deploy. True scale is built on the foundation of robust policy, privileged access, and disciplined pacing. For family offices and UHNW investors, these elements combine to create a durable advantage—one that allows them to act decisively when opportunities arise and others are constrained.

Policy
Policy is the first lever. Families who codify governance ahead of the cycle—establishing clear targets for each asset class, setting decision rights, and defining liquidity thresholds—move from ad hoc decisions to a disciplined program. This enables them to lean into market dislocation with confidence, rather than hesitation.

Access
Access is equally critical. The dispersion between top-quartile and median outcomes has widened, and oversubscription at leading managers is now the norm. Securing allocations with managers who have demonstrated persistent outperformance requires early engagement and disciplined relationship management. In this environment, quality is increasingly scarce, and protecting seats with top managers is essential.

Pacing
Pacing is the third lever. Programmatic commitments across vintages and market regimes allow investors to deploy when quality is available—often when less prepared investors are sidelined. Smoothing commitments annually manages valuation risk and macro variability, while pre-allocating capital to strategies that thrive in periods of stress ensures readiness to act when opportunity arises. A “whole-of-portfolio” strategy that supports new commitments keeps the program self-propelling through the cycle.

The Current Landscape

Private markets are still expanding. Industry assets under management continue to grow, with projections surpassing US$29 trillion by 2029, up from US$16.3 trillion in 2023.

Private equity leads. As of December 2024, private equity represented over US$11.7 trillion in assets, remaining the largest sleeve of alternatives.

Allocations are durable. Nearly 90% of institutional investors intend to maintain or increase their allocations to private markets.

Family offices are committed allocators. On a weighted average basis, family offices globally allocate ~25% of portfolios to alternatives, reflecting their pursuit of diversification, income, and resilience.

Cycles favour discipline. Across the last two decades, private market strategies have delivered superior riskadjusted returns with lower observed volatility than listed equities—especially useful when public markets sell off.

Managing Risks with Discipline

Risks remain, and discipline is paramount. Manager concentration can magnify idiosyncratic exposures, so diversification across leading managers and geographies is prudent. Over-committing without robust cash-flow forecasting can force sales at poor prices, and private marks often lag public market moves—requiring conservative assumptions and a multi-year perspective. Governance frameworks should be refreshed annually, ensuring ranges, liquidity buffers, and risk posture remain fit for purpose.

Enduring Advantage

Ultimately, scale in private markets is the ability to act decisively—not just the permission to buy. Policy sets the rules, access secures the right partners, and pacing ensures capital is deployed when others are sidelined. In an environment where alternatives continue to grow and top managers widen their lead, disciplined scale is the advantage that endures.

Has your private markets governance kept pace with the shift in the landscape?

If you’d like to assess the strength of your private markets governance, our team is here to help. Learn more about our MGD Private team.

MGD Private Pulse is a series from MGD Private exploring the issues that matter most to ultra-high-net-worth individuals and family enterprises. MGD Private represents the specialist private-client capability within MGD Group, guiding Australia’s leading business families who continue to own and shape significant enterprises with discretion, precision and enduring care.

Reference:

This article draws on “Alternatives in Strategic Asset Allocation,” Global Alternative Funds, September 2025. For a copy of the full white paper or to discuss how these insights may apply to you, please get in touch.

Important Note:

Financial advice is provided by MGD Wealth Ltd. AFSL 222600, ABN 53 009 079 725. Stephen Furness is a Representative of MGD Wealth Ltd. Any advice included in this article is general and has been prepared without taking into account your objectives, financial situation or needs. As such, you should consider its appropriateness having regard to these factors before acting on it. Before you make any decision about whether to acquire a certain financial product, you should obtain and read the relevant product disclosure statement.

Tax advice is provided by MGD Tax, ABN 22 355 316 063.

Liability limited by a Scheme approved under Professional Standards Legislation.