A burden-of-proof test for private-market access.

Opening private markets and alternative assets to individual investors is now a major project in the financial industry. The pitch made to investors and regulators rests on a real concern: public markets may give individuals too narrow a view of the economy. The industry promises return enhancement, diversification, and market completion. The central worry is that the access chain captures the economics before individual investors do.

Any private-market access point must move the hard problems of private investing — illiquidity, costly intermediation, valuation, manager selection, and preserving active-ownership economics — into the product itself. This book equips the gatekeepers, fiduciaries, and regulators who decide whether to present these products, with tests that stay useful as the access points evolve. The recurring question is whether an access point offers fair entry, a usable exit, and preserved economics.

The book takes a skeptical stance. Access has happened and is unlikely to reverse; the argument is that any access point should be rejected by default until it can show that the gains outweigh the costs.

The author

Michael Ewens is a Professor of Finance at Columbia Business School, where his research covers private equity, venture capital, and entrepreneurship. Full biography, research, and contact details are at michaelewens.com.