The world’s largest alternative asset manager plans to expand its global private-wealth team to more than 450 staffers by the end of 2026—up from roughly 325 today—as it accelerates product launches, builds new U.S. hubs and deepens its reach into RIAs, broker-dealers and retirement plans. The scale would put Blackstone, which has $1.27 trillion in total assets currently, among the largest dedicated private-wealth operations in alternatives. Rival firms such as Apollo, which has $938 billion in assets under management, and KKR, with nearly $750 billion in assets, are also racing to capture individual investors but are yet to announce dedicated build outs on this scale.
Blackstone’s target is ambitious: $1 trillion in private-wealth assets alone over the coming years. Blackstone’s retail arm currently manages $302 billion—up 27% from year-end 2023 and more than five times the $58 billion it reported at its 2017 investor day, when it first set a $250 billion goal.
“We’re at an inflection point,” says Farhad Karim, Blackstone’s chief operating officer of global private wealth and former chairman and COO of Blackstone Europe. “Access to public markets democratized decades ago. We think this is that moment for private markets.”
Blackstone’s latest earnings underscore why the firm feels emboldened. The firm ended 2025 with $1.27 trillion in total assets under management and $239 billion in inflows for the year. Its perpetual capital vehicles—funds designed for ongoing access by individual investors—now account for more than $523 billion, nearly half of its fee-earning AUM.
Internally, Karim says, the firm views this next chapter as “Version 3.0” for private wealth.
Version 1.0 was giving high-net-worth investors access to traditional drawdown funds through private banks. Version 2.0 was the rise of perpetual vehicles—products like real estate and private credit funds structured with periodic liquidity. Now comes Version 3.0: multi-strategy private-market portfolios designed to look and behave more like complete asset allocations than single sleeves.
“How do you provide access to the firm’s excellence across multiple strategies in a simple way?” says Karim. “That’s what we’re completely focused on.”
Blackstone has already begun scaling those efforts. Blackstone Private Equity Strategies Fund (BXPE), launched in 2024, has grown to $18 billion in two years. Structured as an evergreen vehicle with periodic liquidity, BXPE gives qualified investors access to a diversified portfolio of Blackstone-led buyouts and PE investments. Blackstone Infrastructure Strategies (BXINFRA), introduced in 2025, raised nearly $4 billion in its first year and focuses on private infrastructure assets such as data centers, energy transition projects and transportation networks, also with limited quarterly liquidity. Blackstone’s Multi-Asset Credit and Income Fund (BMACX) is designed to bundle several of the firm’s credit strategies like direct lending and asset-based financing into a single structure. Like most alternative products, the funds charge management fees and in some cases, performance-based incentives, which vary by fund and share class.
Karim argues investor psychology has shifted. The question is no longer whether private markets belong in portfolios—but how much. “In the U.S., 80% of the investible universe is still private,” says Karim. “If you’re not participating in private transactions, you’re excluded from a lot.”
Blackstone’s pitch is diversification through packaging. Multi-strategy vehicles combine exposure to real estate, private credit, private equity and infrastructure in one structure. They promise smoother returns, less concentration risk and fewer administrative burdens for advisors.
“Investing is cyclical,” Karim says. “If you’re exposed across strategies in one place, you get diversification. And in volatile markets, that matters.”
To support that push, the firm is doubling down on the United States by building out regional hubs in San Francisco and Miami, strengthening coverage in Chicago and expanding local presence in wealth-heavy markets like Southern California, Seattle and Dallas. It has segmented distribution leadership across wirehouses, broker-dealers and RIAs, hiring former Lazard executive Jen Abate to oversee RIA growth. Karim says that while AI can streamline operations, selling complex, illiquid investments to advisors and retirement platforms requires more human capital, not less. “You can’t sit far away and not engage,” says Karim. “You have to be in these markets.”
Education remains central. The firm says more than 18,000 advisors have participated in its Blackstone University training initiatives—a multi-day education platform that includes in-person conferences, regional seminars and digital coursework designed to walk financial advisors through private market structures, portfolio construction and risk. The firm plans to expand webinars and public-facing programming in 2026. Today, roughly 300,000 U.S. individuals hold Blackstone private-wealth products through intermediaries.
“The sophistication spectrum is broad,” Karim says. “Some advisors are hyper-sophisticated. Others are newer to private markets. Our job is to meet them where they are.”
International expansion is moving in parallel. Blackstone is scaling teams in Japan—targeting roughly 50 private-wealth professionals there—while broadening distribution across Europe using the European Long-Term Investment Fund (ELTIF) structure to allow investors standardized access to private assets with lower minimum investments. Australia also saw its first on-the-ground private-wealth presence in 2025.
The most complex but perhaps most enticing opportunity remains retirement accounts. Karim notes that traditional defined benefit pension plans can hold roughly 30% in private markets, while defined contribution plans such as 401(k)s allocate closer to 1%. That gap represents trillions in potential assets. “The regulatory environment isn’t fully there yet,” Karim says. “We’re still in early innings.”
Nearly every major alternative asset manager is now chasing the same prize: individual investors. Karim argues Blackstone’s advantage is institutional continuity: “We’ve done this for institutions for 40 years,” he says. “Same teams. Same rigor. Same process. There’s no B team.”
Ultimately the metric that matters isn’t headcount or press releases—it’s adoption. Karim tracks how many advisors move from owning one Blackstone product to several, and how demand builds across regions. “If advisors are adopting multiple strategies, that tells you they’re getting a good experience,” he says.
Blackstone’s perpetual capital business has already become a core earnings driver. Now, Karim is betting that with the right packaging, staffing and education, private markets can move from niche allocation to portfolio mainstay for individual investors. “This isn’t incremental,” he says. “It’s structural.”
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