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Private Market Investing
Browse all Private Markets Content
Private market investing is reshaping how capital flows and value is created. To keep up, investors and professionals need sharper skills, stronger insights, and strategies that work in real time.
At a Glance
- Private markets are reshaping modern portfolios
- Complexity and opacity are challenges across asset classes
- Independent research is critical to informed decision-making
- Investors need stronger frameworks to navigate risks and trade-offs
Private equity, private credit, venture debt, and other alternatives are no longer niche—they’re core to modern portfolios. They offer the potential for high returns and diversification, but also bring challenges: opaque structures, limited liquidity, higher fees and different governance standards.
CFA Institute Research and Policy Center provides research, learning pathways, and policy guidance to help professionals navigate this complex environment. Our global surveys and governance research highlight best practices and emerging risks. And our critical reviews of private equity and alternative credit help make clear the opportunities and the trade-offs.
Research Reports
Private Credit Funds and the Retail Shift: Structural Vulnerabilities and Policy Responses
By Cheryll-Ann Wilson, PhD, CFA
Research Report
Conflicts of Interest in Continuation Funds: Part II in a Series on Ethics in Private Markets
By Stephen Deane, CFA
Research Report
Private Credit: Market Structure, Fund Design, and Retail Access
By Cheryll-Ann Wilson, PhD, CFA
Market Integrity Insights
The DOL Pathway for Private Assets in 401(k)s — Are the Guardrails Strong Enough?
By Kurt Schacht, CFA
SEC Investor Advisory Committee Panel
Avoiding Retail Confusion Regarding Private Market Assets
Moderated by Amy McGarrity and Andrea Seidt, this 4 June 2026 SEC Investor Advisory Committee panel examined how risks are disclosed to retail investors in offering and marketing materials, how regulators review product advertising, and what steps the securities industry and regulators could take to reduce investor confusion and hardship.
The discussion featured:
- Stephen Deane, Senior Director for Capital Markets Policy at CFA Institute
- Mark Higgins of IFA Institutional
- Kevin T. Gannon of Robert A. Stanger & Co. Inc.
- Joe Sheirer of FINRA
- Jason Zweig of The Wall Street Journal.
View Video (Panelists discussion begins at 19:05.)
The full IAC meeting agenda can be found here.
Read the Bloomberg article SEC Sounds Alarm on Disclosure Bloat at Private Credit Funds (requires a subscription)
Enterprising Investor Blog
Private Credit’s Verification Problem
By Saad Muhayyodin Maan
Research Foundation
Alternative Credit: The Rise of Consumer Lending
By Patrizia Lando, and Alfonso Ricciardelli, CFA
Research Report
Continuation Funds: Ethics in Private Markets, Part I
By Stephen Deane, CFA, and Ken Robinson, CFA, CIPM
Comment Letter
Comment Letter to FAF on the Review of the Private Company Council
By CFA Institute
Research Report
Capital Formation in Africa: A Case for Private Markets
By Olivier Fines, CFA, and Phoebe Chan
Survey Report
Private Markets: Governance Issues Rise to the Fore
By Stephen Deane, CFA
Research Foundation
An Introduction to Alternative Credit
By Alfonso Ricciardelli, CFA and Philip Clements, CFA
Research Foundation
The Economics of Private Equity: A Critical Review
By Alexander Ljungqvist
On-Demand Video
Private Markets Webinar Series sponsored by PGIM
These three webinars explore key private markets issues: whether diversification still delivers, how liquidity risk affects alternative investments, and why private and public valuation methods differ — highlighting implications for portfolio construction, risk management, and investor decision-making.