Private markets growth persists amid macro risks, emphasising rigorous manager selection

According to the original report from WealthManagement, advisors and asset managers at the inaugural RIA Edge Private Markets conference in New York sought to reassure investors about private credit and private real estate, arguing that strong fundamentals, careful underwriting, manager quality and asset selection remain the most reliable defences against the sector’s headline risks.

Speakers acknowledged recent high‑profile alarms about private credit , including warnings from JPMorgan Chase chief executive Jamie Dimon that problems in the market could be contagious , but said those concerns do not by themselves amount to a systemic signal. “Really great managers are diversified, have great underwriting skills and the best ones also have workout teams,” Michael Tiedemann, chief executive of AlTi Tiedemann Global, told the conference. “When there are issues, they have resources.” He added: “There are always going to be fraud and credit‑related issues. There are always factors that can lead to bad behavior or businesses coming under stress.”

Industry participants pointed to historically low default and delinquency rates in private credit as evidence that the market has so far held up, and argued that private lenders generally match assets to liabilities more conservatively than banks. “Credit cycles historically have been linked to banks,” Tiedemann said, noting that bank funding can evaporate quickly and that excessive leverage in 2008 nearly destabilised the system. He argued that, by comparison, “on the private credit side, asset matching is better than any bank.”

Still, panellists urged rigorous due diligence and active manager selection as the first lines of defence. Several speakers warned against “leverage creep” and lax underwriting. “When we use private credit, we keep it diversified,” Monish Verma, founding partner and chief executive of Vardhan Wealth Management, said. “We won’t look at anything with leverage creep. … Our due diligence process allows us to look pretty deep and efficiently.” Verma described private debt as a firm’s “first look” when adding private markets to client portfolios, with suitable clients scaled to allocations of 15%–25% to private markets and roughly one‑quarter of that to private credit.

Panelists also flagged evolving market structures as potential opportunities and risks. Tiedemann highlighted the emergence of secondary markets for evergreen and interval funds , vehicles that historically gate redemptions , saying access to discounted positions in high‑quality managers could be an advantage for buyers. At the same time, speakers emphasised monitoring manager behaviour and terms as investor protections: stricter covenants, conservative leverage and experienced workout capabilities were singled out as differentiators.

On private real estate, the conversation shifted to asset‑class dynamics and sponsorship quality. Nick Meyer of BAM Capital, which focuses on multifamily in Midwestern markets, and Ben Paolone of Becknell Industrial, a logistics specialist, described how regional supply/demand imbalances can drive performance differentials. “There is a fundamental dynamic in the U.S. that we always need more housing, it’s just a question of where,” Meyer said, pointing to overbuilding in some Sun Belt markets such as Austin and underbuilding in many Midwestern cities. Panelists noted demographic and affordability trends , including older first‑time buyers and prolonged renting , as structural demand drivers for certain residential strategies.

Speakers urged investors to prioritise vertically integrated sponsors with deep operating capabilities, strong governance and proven track records. “Do they have a proven track record and strong governance? Do they have deep customer relationships? These are all important,” Paolone said. Dmitriy Katsnelson, deputy chief investment officer at Wealthspire Advisors, stressed concentration risk and underwriting discipline, recounting examples such as single‑asset Opportunity Zone funds that he said would not meet his firm’s standards. He added a practical caution for new entrants to the wealth channel: “Good luck to everyone getting into the RIA world… If you can say, ‘We are on this platform and we have these specific solutions you can roll into,’ … that will pique interest.”

The conference remarks sit against a backdrop of increasingly vocal scrutiny of private credit by prominent market figures. In recent months Jamie Dimon has repeatedly warned of potential instability tied to private credit and broader U.S. fiscal and monetary dynamics, urging caution about valuations and signalling support for tighter oversight and, in one public comment, even policy changes such as taxing carried interest to raise revenue for social measures. Market observers cited by Reuters and major business outlets have reported Dimon’s concerns that rising national debt and stretched valuations could unsettle bond markets, with knock‑on effects for leveraged lending, high‑yield and real‑estate financing.

While panellists at RIA Edge accepted that elevated macro risks and pockets of weak underwriting could lead to localized stress, their message was consistent: private markets are not homogenous, and outcomes depend heavily on manager selection, underwriting discipline, sponsor quality and appropriate portfolio sizing. For advisors, the prescription was pragmatic , rigorous due diligence, diversification across managers and strategies, attention to leverage and covenants, and aligning allocations with clients’ broader financial‑planning goals such as downside protection, income and growth.

According to the original report, that combination of careful manager vetting and strategy selection , rather than wholesale shunning of private credit or real estate , was presented as the most constructive route for RIAs and their clients navigating the current crosscurrents in private markets.