Takeways from IPEM Wealth 2026

Another conference complete! A fascinating few days at IPEM Wealth in Cannes, where the conversation shifted from weathering the private markets storm to architecting the new normal.

As we look toward 2026 and beyond, here are the key takeaways that defined the Summit:

The new liquidity challenge is now a permanent challenge
In the venture space, the growth-stage liquidity crunch isn’t a phase; it’s a structural shift. The consensus? Combatting this requires a toolkit of alternative finance. If you aren’t talking about venture debt, private credit, and secondaries, you aren’t solving the problem. A few years ago, the Secondaries market was a peripheral topic. Today, it is front and center. It has evolved into the primary engine for providing liquidity in an era where traditional exit windows remain unpredictable.

The defense pivot: sin to virtue
The speed at which Defense investing has shed its “sin stock” label is staggering. However, a new challenge arises: Track records. How do fund managers prove they can navigate this complex, high-stakes sector with no historical data? It’s a “watch this space” moment for GP credibility.

Evergreens: The buzzword with a warning
Evergreen funds (open-ended structures) were the talk of the town as wealth platforms seek to democratise private assets. While they offer a wider door for investors, they are not a silver bullet for liquidity.

Survival of the Fittest (and the Biggest)
The recent wave of mega-firms acquiring private-market boutiques isn’t just about scale – it’s about survival. As public markets face fee compression and the rise of indexing, traditional asset managers are pivoting to private markets because they offer what public markets no longer can: alpha and margin.

The Regulatory Silver Lining
It was encouraging to hear about the collaborative shift from the FCA and Treasury. The “sandbox” approach – specifically the new PISCES platform (Private Intermittent Securities and Capital Exchange System) – is a game-changer for secondary trading. The next hurdle? Seamless cross-border collaboration (UK/EU/US) to cut the duplicative red tape that still hampers evergreen strategies.

War-Time Budgets (Without the War?)
We are living with public debt levels rarely seen outside of global conflict. This sparked a heavy debate: At what point does sovereign debt become a systemic issue for private markets? With government borrowing increasingly crowding out capital, this will be the defining macro-debate of 2026.

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