For most of the past fifteen years, the story of Latin American capital in global private markets was an institutional one. Mexico’s Afores, Chile’s AFPs and Colombia’s pension funds built allocations to international private equity, infrastructure and credit, and global managers followed them with placement agents, local offices and dedicated vehicles. That first wave is far from over. But a second wave is now building alongside it, and its source is different: Latin American families, family offices and high-net-worth investors, most of them reached through private banks, broker-dealers, independent advisers and multi-family offices, many of them in Miami.
The evidence is accumulating. ION Analytics reports that references to Latin American placement agents in SEC Form D filings rose from 3 in 2010 to 274 in 2025. Cerulli Associates estimated that affluent Latin American investors put at least $1 billion into alternative products through U.S. Offshore wealth managers in 2023 and expected that figure to double, and in August 2026 described alternatives as having moved from a niche institutional product to a core component of high-net-worth portfolios in Chile, Peru and Colombia, with an implied addressable market of $60 billion to $120 billion in those three countries alone. One industry panellist estimated that Latin American family offices already allocate around 30 percent of their capital to alternatives, while the most commonly cited figure for the broader wealth channel is about 2 percent.
This paper makes four arguments. First, the shift from institutional to private wealth capital is structural, driven by the growth of Latin American wealth held abroad, the professionalisation of family offices and a product revolution in private markets aimed at individual investors. Second, the gap between family office allocations and wealth channel allocations is the opportunity, and it is large. Third, the binding constraint is not demand but distribution: private wealth is fragmented across thousands of intermediaries, small tickets, several jurisdictions and uneven levels of education, which makes it fundamentally harder to serve than a handful of pension funds. Fourth, the managers and intermediaries that succeed will be those that solve distribution through infrastructure, using the routes that fit each client, whether fund platforms or securitised notes, rather than through relationships alone.
- From 3 to 274
Form D is the notice that private funds file with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission when they raise capital under the private placement exemptions, and it lists the intermediaries paid to help. That makes it an unusually clean record of who is raising money from whom. ION Analytics, analysing those filings in April 2026, found that references to Latin American placement agents rose from 3 in 2010 to 43 in 2019, 111 in 2021 and 274 in 2025. Chilean placement agents alone were referenced 147 times in 2025, roughly five times as often as Colombian agents, with Mexico, Uruguay and Brazil following.
The first wave behind those numbers is institutional, and its scale explains why global managers have paid attention. ION reports that Mexico’s Afores held more than MXN 8.67 trillion, about $489 billion, as of February 2026; Chile’s pension system manages nearly $240 billion and is undergoing reforms that will raise contribution rates; and Colombia’s pension funds manage about $143 billion, just under half invested internationally. One placement agent cited by ION estimates the region’s combined pension and insurance assets at around $1.2 trillion. Mexico has built dedicated structures, the CKD and the CERPI, through which Afores can allocate to private markets, including international strategies.
Institutional capital will remain the anchor of global managers’ Latin American fundraising for years. But ION’s reporting also highlights a second source of demand, growing from a smaller base but with a different character: Latin American family offices, with advisers pointing to Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Brazil, seeking global diversification, driven in part by wealth historically concentrated in domestic assets, a drought in local equity markets and, in Brazil, high benchmark rates pushing investors towards higher-return asset classes. Brazil, for example, is a $2.4 trillion fund domicile invested mostly in domestic public markets, and it has not seen an initial public offering since 2021. Families who have built their wealth in operating businesses and local markets are increasingly looking abroad for private market exposure that their home markets cannot offer.
The placement agent data captures only part of this. Much of the private wealth capital flowing into global private markets does not pass through placement agents at all. It flows through private banks, broker-dealers, wealth platforms and independent advisers, often booked in the United States, and often through feeder vehicles or other structures that aggregate many small commitments into one. That is the second wave, and it is harder to measure precisely because it is so fragmented.
- The Size of the Second Wave
Start with the stock of wealth. Funds Society, drawing on estimates from Boston Consulting Group, Cerulli Associates and Latin Asset Management, put the capital that Latin Americans hold outside their countries of origin at about $1 trillion, with the United States the main destination and Miami the main hub. BCG’s Global Wealth Report 2026 places the United States fourth among the world’s cross-border wealth centres, with about $1.6 trillion of non-resident wealth at the end of 2025, projected to reach $2.1 trillion by 2030. Not all of that is Latin American, but Funds Society describes Miami as the main hub for Latin American capital held outside the region.
Now consider the flow into private markets. Cerulli Associates reported in November 2024 that affluent Latin American individuals invested at least $1 billion in alternative products sold through U.S. Offshore wealth managers in 2023, and that the figure was expected to double easily in 2024. Its researchers noted that boutique advisers, multi-family offices and broker-dealers were increasingly promoting these vehicles to their affluent clients, and that platforms widening financial advisers’ access were part of the story.
By August 2026, Cerulli’s language had changed. In its Latin American distribution research, it described alternative assets as having moved from a niche institutional product to a core component of high-net-worth portfolios in Chile, Peru and Colombia, implying a total addressable market of $60 billion to $120 billion across those three countries. Global platforms, it noted, have meaningfully lowered entry minimums: from $5 million to $10 million for direct commitments to as little as $100,000 to $250,000 through feeder structures.
The allocation gap is where the scale of the opportunity becomes clear. At a recent CAIA Florida panel in Miami, reported by Funds Society in October, one panellist estimated that Latin American family offices currently allocate about 30 percent of their capital to alternatives, with room to move towards the roughly 40 percent seen among their U.S. counterparts. In the broader wealth channel, by contrast, the most commonly cited penetration figure is about 2 percent, with only the most sophisticated investors allocating 15 to 20 percent. One panellist described the affluent channel as the next wave, a segment that, the report noted, will require local structures to reach.
These figures come from different sources, use different definitions and should not be added together. But they point in the same direction. The largest Latin American families are already significant private markets investors. The much larger population of affluent and high-net-worth families below them is only beginning. If even a modest share of the wealth channel moved from 2 percent towards the allocations that family offices already hold, the flows would dwarf what has been seen so far.
The profession is growing with the market. The same CAIA panel noted that the number of CAIA members in Latin America has grown from 326 to about 600 in roughly four years, led by Brazil and followed by Mexico, Chile, Peru and Colombia. Specialist knowledge of alternative investments, once concentrated in a few institutional teams, is spreading into the advisory firms that serve private clients.
- Why Now
Three forces explain why the second wave is building now rather than a decade ago.
The first is product. Private markets managers have spent the past several years redesigning their offerings for individual investors. Funds Society, citing Preqin data, reported that evergreen fund launches reached their highest level in a decade in 2025, with 123 new vehicles, and that assets in evergreen funds reached $530 billion by the end of the year, up more than $100 billion from 2024. Semi-liquid and open-ended structures, secondaries, continuation vehicles and co-investment programmes have all broadened the ways in which individual investors can participate. At the same CAIA panel, a senior executive at a global private equity firm described a massive opportunity for private wealth in private markets over the next five years, and noted that clients have been focusing on co-investments to reduce fees.
The second is the adviser. Hamilton Lane’s 2026 Global Private Wealth Survey of 390 wealth professionals, including registered investment advisers, broker-dealers, family offices and wirehouses, found that 86 percent plan to increase private markets allocations in 2026, citing portfolio optimisation, competitive positioning, client demand and the availability of suitable products. In the U.S. Offshore business, the adviser population is itself changing. Funds Society reported in August on a wave of advisers moving from global private banks to independent registered investment advisers and multi-family offices, mostly in Miami, driven in part by growing client demand for private credit, real estate, infrastructure and thematic strategies.
The third is the investor. Latin American families are more global than they were a generation ago, and their advisers describe a shift in how they think about private markets. One panellist at the CAIA event described the change as an allocator 2.0 mindset, in which the question is no longer simply whether a product is attractive, but how it fits into the broader portfolio. That is the language of a maturing market. It also raises the bar for managers and intermediaries, because a client who thinks in portfolio terms expects the reporting, liquidity planning and servicing that go with it.
There is a regional dimension too. A Preqin survey of alternatives professionals, conducted in late 2025 and reported in January 2026, found that 67 percent saw Latin America as offering the best opportunities over the following twelve months, with private debt, infrastructure and private equity the most favoured asset classes. Latin American investors want exposure to global private markets, but many also want exposure to private markets in their own region, through managers that know it. A complete offering for the second wave will often need both.
- The Distribution Problem
If demand is rising, products exist and advisers are willing, why is the wealth channel still at 2 percent? The answer is that private wealth is fundamentally harder to distribute to than institutional capital, and the difficulty is structural rather than temporary.
Consider the arithmetic. A global manager raising from Latin American pensions deals with a few dozen institutions, each capable of writing a large commitment, each staffed by investment professionals, each operating under a single, well-understood regulatory framework. A manager raising from Latin American private wealth deals, in principle, with tens of thousands of families, almost all of them reached through intermediaries: global private banks, wirehouses, regional banks, independent broker-dealers, registered investment advisers, multi-family offices and local wealth managers across half a dozen countries. Each intermediary has its own platform, its own due diligence process, its own product approval committee and its own operational capabilities.
The fragmentation compounds at every step. Ticket sizes are small, so the fixed cost of onboarding each investor weighs heavily. Clients live in different countries, each with its own rules on what can be offered, to whom and how. Many hold their assets through holding companies or other structures that add documentation. And education levels vary widely: Hamilton Lane’s survey found that the largest knowledge gaps among clients concern current products such as evergreen funds, cited by 61 percent of respondents, and liquidity constraints, cited by 56 percent. A manager cannot solve these problems one intermediary at a time.
The geography adds a further layer. ION’s reporting emphasises that global managers raising from Latin America still need on-the-ground presence and relationship-driven outreach, and that most first-time managers rely on placement agents to navigate regulatory, structuring and relationship barriers. That model works for institutions. It does not scale easily to thousands of advisers serving families of a few million dollars each. The relationship remains essential, but on its own it cannot carry the volume.
This is why the second wave is, above all, an infrastructure question. The managers that capture a meaningful share of Latin American private wealth will not be those with the most relationships alone, but those whose products can reach the adviser’s desk, the client’s account and the family’s reporting in a form that each intermediary can handle efficiently.
- Two Routes to the Same Destination
Two main forms of infrastructure have emerged to bridge the gap between private markets managers and the wealth channel. They solve the same problem in different ways, and the right choice depends on the client, the intermediary and the size of the allocation.
The first route is the fund platform. Alternative investment platforms have done a great deal to open private markets to wealth managers, offering access to a broad menu of funds through a single agreement, with digital subscriptions, capital call processing, consolidated reporting and education resources. Feeder funds, often made available through these platforms, aggregate many smaller commitments into a single investment in the underlying fund, which is what has allowed minimums to fall from several million dollars to the low hundreds of thousands. For many wealth managers, particularly larger firms with established alternatives programmes, platforms and feeder funds are the natural route, and they have been central to the growth of private markets in the wealth channel.
The second route is the securitised note. A note that references a private markets strategy is a security with an international securities identification number, and it can be bought, held and reported in the client’s existing brokerage or custody account alongside the rest of the portfolio, in the same way as a bond. Lynk Markets, a fintech infrastructure company built for private markets, works in this area. Its Private ETNs are issued in Ireland and settle through Euroclear and Clearstream, the international settlement infrastructure that private banks and broker-dealers serving Latin American clients already use every day. Lynk Markets’ infrastructure is designed to simplify access to private markets strategies and to empower the wealth managers and distributors who serve end clients, rather than to distribute directly.
Fund structures were built for larger, more developed markets like the U.S. and Europe, and they work very well there, where the investor base is deep, ticket sizes are large and distribution infrastructure is mature. Many Latin American financial advisers and their clients operate in a different context: smaller markets, smaller average allocations, assets held across several custodians and jurisdictions, and intermediaries whose operating model is built around securities that settle in a custody account. For many of them, a securitised note can be the more practical route for some or all of a private markets allocation.
Funds and securitised notes, such as Private ETNs, are two routes to the same destination. Both give the investor exposure to professionally managed private markets strategies. Both depend on the quality of the underlying manager and the rigour of the adviser’s due diligence. Neither changes the nature of the underlying assets, which remain illiquid regardless of the wrapper. And each comes with its own considerations: a note carries the credit and operational characteristics of its issuer and structure, which advisers and investors need to understand, and every route is subject to suitability obligations and to the offering rules of each client’s country of residence.
For managers, the practical conclusion is that a single distribution route is unlikely to reach the whole of the second wave. A manager that wants to reach both a large private bank in Miami and an independent adviser in Montevideo, Santiago or São Paulo may need more than one route to do so.
- What Success Requires
Beyond the choice of route, the experience of managers already active in the region points to several conditions for success in the Latin American wealth channel.
The first is education, delivered at scale. The knowledge gaps that Hamilton Lane identified, about products, liquidity and the underlying investments, are likely to be wider in markets where private markets are new to most advisers. Managers that invest in education for intermediaries, in Spanish and Portuguese, through digital resources as well as in-person events, build demand that outlasts any single product launch.
The second is product design that fits the client. Advisers serving Latin American families often report that clients think about their offshore portfolios in dollars and expect clarity on liquidity, a point consistent with the liquidity knowledge gap in Hamilton Lane’s survey. Advisers also report active client demand for private credit, alongside real estate and infrastructure, and the Preqin survey found private debt to be the asset class most often targeted for increased allocations, cited by 60 percent of respondents. Products whose liquidity terms are clearly explained, and whose reporting fits into the client’s existing view of the portfolio, are easier for advisers to recommend.
The third is presence. ION’s reporting is clear that on-the-ground offices and relationship-driven outreach still matter in Latin America. The cities that matter include not only Miami but the region’s own financial centres, from Mexico City and São Paulo to Santiago and Bogotá.
The fourth is partnership. Few managers can build distribution to thousands of intermediaries across half a dozen countries on their own. Platforms, infrastructure providers, placement agents and local partners each solve part of the problem. The managers that succeed will be those that choose partners whose reach matches the segment they are targeting, and that are willing to use more than one route where the client base requires it.
The fifth is servicing. A private markets position held for seven or ten years generates years of reporting, valuation updates, distributions and client questions. For an adviser serving a few dozen families, the quality of that servicing, and how easily it fits into existing systems, is often the deciding factor in whether a second allocation follows the first.
- Questions for Managers, Advisers and Family Offices
The argument of this paper reduces to a set of questions that the participants in the second wave can put to themselves.
For global private markets managers, ask what share of Latin American fundraising currently comes from institutions and what share from private wealth, and what share it should be in five years. Ask which intermediaries the firm can reach today, which it cannot, and why. Ask whether the firm’s products can be held by the clients of an independent adviser in Montevideo or Santiago as easily as by those of a large private bank in Miami.
For private banks and broker-dealers, ask how far client allocations to private markets are from the targets the firm would set if access were not a constraint, and what is causing the gap: product, education, suitability processes or operations. Ask whether the firm’s alternatives offering reaches clients below the threshold of its largest relationships.
For independent advisers and multi-family offices, ask whether the firm’s clients have the private markets exposure their portfolios call for, and if not, whether the barrier is conviction, knowledge or access. Ask which routes the firm can support operationally, and at what allocation sizes.
For family offices, ask how the private markets portfolio is built: through direct commitments, co-investments, funds or notes, and whether that mix reflects deliberate choice or the path of least resistance. Ask how the next generation of the family thinks about private markets, and whether the structure in place will serve them.
For everyone, ask how a client with $500,000 to allocate to private markets would be served today, and whether the answer would satisfy the client.
The first wave of Latin American capital in global private markets was built by institutions, and it took the better part of two decades. The second wave, built by families and their advisers, has a larger potential pool of capital behind it and a far more complex path to market. The demand is visible in the filings, the surveys and the conversations in Miami, Mexico City and São Paulo. Whether that demand becomes allocation will depend less on the appetite of Latin American investors than on the ability of managers and intermediaries to reach them. Those that solve distribution will define the second wave.
Sources
- ION Analytics (Mergermarket). «Global Private Markets Managers Ramp Up Latin American Fundraising Efforts.» April 2, 2026. https://ionanalytics.com/insights/mergermarket/global-private-markets-managers-ramp-up-latin-american-fundraising-efforts/
- Cerulli Associates. «Latin American Fund and Pension Markets Surge Past USD 3 Trillion.» Press release, August 26, 2026. https://www.cerulli.com/press-releases/latin-american-fund-and-pension-markets-surge-past-usd-3-trillion
- Cerulli Associates. «Demand for Alternative Investments Rises in Latin America and U.S. Offshore Market.» Press release, November 14, 2024. https://www.cerulli.com/press-releases/demand-for-alternative-investments-rises-in-latin-america-and-u.s.-offshore-market
- Donoso, Javiera. «Private and Institutional Capital Fuel the Surge in Alternatives in the Region» (CAIA Florida panel). Funds Society, October 7, 2026. https://www.fundssociety.com/en/news/alternatives/private-and-institutional-capital-fuel-the-surge-in-alternatives-in-the-region/
- Funds Society. «The Great Latin American Wealth Exodus: More Than $1 Trillion Seeks Refuge Outside the Region.» May 8, 2026. https://www.fundssociety.com/en/news/business/the-great-latin-american-wealth-exodus-more-than-1-trillion-seeks-refuge-outside-the-region/
- Burroughes, Tom. «US Is World’s Fourth-Largest Cross-Border Financial Center: BCG» (Boston Consulting Group, Global Wealth Report 2026). FamilyWealthReport, May 27, 2026. https://www.familywealthreport.com/printarticle.php?id=207793
- Hamilton Lane. «2026 Global Private Wealth Survey.» 2026. https://explore.hamiltonlane.com/2026-global-private-wealth-survey/home
- Donoso, Javiera. «Despite Concerns, Evergreen Funds Continue to Gain Traction» (Preqin data). Funds Society, June 1, 2026. https://www.fundssociety.com/en/news/alternatives/despite-concerns-evergreen-funds-continue-to-gain-traction/
- Donoso, Javiera. «Latin American Investors Rediscover Their Passion for the Region» (Preqin survey). Funds Society, January 27, 2026. https://www.fundssociety.com/en/news/alternatives/latin-american-investors-rediscover-their-passion-for-the-region/
- Funds Society. «Latin American Wealth Migration Triggers a ‘Wave of Advisors’ in US Offshore Business.» August 4, 2026. https://www.fundssociety.com/en/news/business/latin-american-wealth-migration-triggers-a-wave-of-advisors-in-us-offshore-business/
