Investment considerations for financial intermediaries 2026
The role of the financial intermediary has never been more complex, or more critical in our view.
As markets transition from an era of abundant liquidity and synchronised policy to one defined by higher funding costs, structural divergence, and accelerated innovation, advisers are being asked to do more than allocate capital.
They are being asked to interpret complexity, protect underlying clients, and deliver resilient outcomes in an environment where every investment decision carries both potential opportunity and operational risk.
Our long-term outlook, Themes and Opportunities 2025: Post Consensus, underscores this transformation. It highlights a market shaped by competing forces that increasingly challenge the foundational assumptions of the past few decades. Free trade, central bank independence, Western technological leadership, and the trajectory of the energy transition have all become subjects of renewed debate, each with the potential to reshape global capital flows and portfolio outcomes.
For financial intermediaries, this environment demands a recalibration of approach: balancing long-term conviction with operational discipline and an unwavering focus on underlying client protection.
Over the next year, we believe that the emphasis for intermediaries will be on mastering the balance between opportunity and oversight, innovation and prudence. Those who embed operational excellence alongside strategic insight are likely to be strategically positioned to navigate an era defined by divergence, complexity, and change.
The top considerations for financial intermediaries, in this environment, focus on five key areas:
- Protecting Clients in an Evolving Private Markets Landscape
- Hedge Funds: From Diversifiers to Return Enhancers in a Higher-for-Longer World
- Equity Hedging: Practical Applications for Challenging Markets
- Four potential benefits of adding Secondaries
- Private Debt 2.0: Opportunities beyond direct lending
