Private markets are going through one of the biggest commercial transformations the industry has ever seen. The growth of private wealth as a capital source has triggered a global scramble for a new kind of talent: professionals who sit at the intersection of product knowledge, relationship management, and distribution expertise.

This is no longer a niche buildout. Wealth-focused hiring in private markets nearly doubled globally in two years, from 310 moves in 2023 to 581 in 2025 (Jensen Partners, December 2025). Capital formation is being rebuilt from the ground up, and the talent required to do that is scarce, expensive, and increasingly global.

Here are the six shifts defining how private markets firms are approaching BD and capital raising talent right now.

From Institutional Fundraising to Dual-Channel Distribution

For decades, private markets capital formation ran on a relatively contained playbook, i.e. relationships with pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, endowments, and large family offices. That model has not disappeared, but it no longer defines the only audience type, let alone where the growth is.

Individual investors currently hold around 50% of global capital, yet represent just 16% of AUM in alternative investment funds (Bain & Company, 2026). That gap is closing fast. Semi-liquid private wealth vehicles have grown at a 40% compound annual rate since 2021, and gross inflows into diversified private wealth products are now growing at 60-70% annually (UBP, 2026). The wealth channel is becoming strategically essential.

The hiring implication is also significant. Firms are no longer running separate institutional and intermediary teams. They are building unified distribution platforms with shared product strategy, consistent messaging, and compensation structures built around total capital raised, not channel-specific targets. Firms that still treat wealth as a bolt-on are falling behind.

Product Depth Has Replaced Geographic Coverage

The old model rewarded breadth, a fundraiser who could cover Europe or Asia-Pacific across multiple asset classes. That model is being replaced.

Investors today expect counterparts who genuinely understand the product in front of them, whether that is the liquidity mechanics of an evergreen fund, the structure of a continuation vehicle, or the credit quality dynamics of a direct lending portfolio. Generalist pitches are losing ground to specialists who can engage at a technical level.

Private credit is the clearest example. Investor appetite remains strong, with 81% of LPs planning to maintain or increase their credit allocations over the next 12 months (Preqin, 2026). As direct lending, asset-based finance, and insurance-aligned mandates expand, firms are competing hard for people who truly understand the product rather than simply knowing how to cover a geography.

The result is a sustained talent premium for specialists.

Firms that cling to generalist coverage models are finding themselves outmanoeuvred by competitors who have embedded real product fluency into their distribution teams.

Private Wealth BD: A Role Being Built in Real Time

For many firms, the private wealth distribution role is still being figured out. The challenge is not just finding the right people, it is working out what the right people actually look like.

The scale of the opportunity is significant. A firm like KKR has roughly 2,000 institutional clients. Its wealth channel, by contrast, serves tens of thousands of financial advisors (Morningstar, 2025). That difference in scale requires a completely different commercial infrastructure, and most firms are still building it.

The profile that tends to work combines product knowledge with what you could call advisor empathy. The ability to translate complex alternative strategies into language that resonates with wealth managers whose clients are mostly used to public markets. 

As Bain & Company noted in their 2026 Global PE Report, raising capital today looks less like a senior partner lunch and more like running a B2B sales organisation, with market segmentation, structured playbooks, and dedicated channel coverage. Most firms are not fully there yet.

Raising capital today looks less like a senior partner lunch and more like running a B2B sales organisation.

Compensation Is Shifting, and It Is Pulling in New Talent

Private markets firms have a structural advantage over traditional asset managers when competing for commercial talent: the carry model.

Carried interest, which does not exist in investment banking or conventional asset management, is increasingly being extended to senior capital formation professionals, not just investment teams. That changes the conversation entirely when it comes to attracting experienced talent from elsewhere in financial services.

This is not just about paying more. Firms are also willing to move quickly when the right person is available. As one industry compensation specialist put it to CNBC, the logic is straightforward: relative to the revenue a strong fundraiser can generate, the cost of hiring them well is easily justified. The carry model also works as a retention tool, creating long-term alignment that keeps good people in place through a fund cycle.

For candidates, this is a genuine differentiator. The economics available in private markets distribution simply do not exist in most other parts of the industry.

Distribution Is Going Global

Private equity and infrastructure are the fastest-growing segments within private wealth strategies, with collective NAV in these asset classes up 80% year-on-year (UBP, 2026). The Middle East, particularly the UAE and Saudi Arabia, has become a significant and growing source of capital. Asia, and Japan in particular, is attracting serious attention, with several of the large platforms building out local teams. Europe’s private banking infrastructure, particularly in Switzerland and the UK, remains an important channel that many US-headquartered managers are only now beginning to resource properly.

McKinsey estimates that private capital will need to help meet $106 trillion in global infrastructure investment through 2040. At that scale, distribution cannot be concentrated in a single market.

The practical outcome is hiring demand across multiple geographies at the same time. Firms are looking for senior commercial professionals in London, Dubai, Zurich/Geneva, Singapore and Tokyo, often to lead regional private wealth efforts with real autonomy. The supply of candidates who combine private markets product knowledge with regional distribution relationships is thin in all of these markets.

Capital Formation Is Becoming a Proper Commercial Function

Perhaps the most significant shift is structural. Capital formation is no longer a relationship-driven side function managed by a small IR team. It is increasingly being built as a proper commercial operation, with segmented coverage, defined playbooks, and dedicated channel leadership.

The pressure driving this is coming from investors. More than half of LPs now believe they have more leverage with GPs than they did a year ago (ILPA, 2025-26). In that environment, how well a firm raises capital depends as much on the quality of its distribution infrastructure as on the quality of its fund.

At the senior level, what distinguishes the best candidates is not just a strong network. It is the ability to build and lead a multi-channel, multi-geography team through a period of rapid change. That combination of commercial skill and genuine leadership capability is hard to find, and it is increasingly what firms are searching for.

What This Looks Like in Practice

From my own work placing private wealth BD professionals across private markets firms, a few consistent themes come up.

• Search timelines are longer than expected. The best candidates are not looking. Reaching them requires genuine market knowledge and trust built over time, not a LinkedIn message.
• Counteroffers are common. Carry participation, co-investment rights, and long-term incentive structures are being used to retain as well as attract. Candidates need to be genuinely motivated by the move, not just by the headline compensation.
• The brief is still evolving. Many firms are not yet clear on exactly what they need. Part of the value of a specialist search partner is helping to define the right profile based on what the market can actually deliver.
• International candidates are increasingly viable. As talent pools in individual markets prove insufficient, the best firms are thinking across borders. That requires a search partner with genuine international reach.

Some Final Thoughts

Private wealth is becoming the primary growth engine for capital formation across alternatives, and the talent required to execute that is in short supply everywhere. Bain estimates that private wealth and sovereign wealth funds will together account for 60% of future AUM growth in the alternatives industry. The firms building the right teams now will be well placed to capture a disproportionate share of that.

Finding the right people for these roles requires more than a database search. It requires sector expertise, an intentionally long-term relationship approach to candidates, and a clear understanding of what good actually looks like in one of the most commercially important functions in private markets today.

If you’re interested in discussion your hiring needs, or to hear more about what we’re seeing in the market, please do get in touch.