The release of this year’s survey comes on the heels of the 3rd annual KKR RIA Forum and RIA Advisory Board meeting, hosted at KKR’s New York Headquarters in October 2025. The KKR RIA Advisory Board consists of top executives and decision-makers from leading RIA firms who provide strategic guidance, industry insights, and thought leadership to KKR, while networking and sharing ideas amongst each other. A wider group of clients, primarily including CIOs, Directors of Research, and other key decision-makers from leading RIAs across the United States, attended the Forum.

“In more and more of our conversations with RIAs, they recognize that they need solutions beyond what is available in public markets to achieve their clients’ goals,” said Doug Krupa, Head of Global Wealth Solutions in the Americas at KKR. “For many of these advisors, the most common question we get now is not, ‘if,’ but how – how to educate clients, how to integrate private markets in portfolios, and how to deal with common implementation issues.”

The enthusiasm we captured isn’t an isolated signal— it aligns with the prevailing trend emerging across the RIA market. According to recent survey data from Cerulli, the average allocation to private markets was just 2.3% across RIA portfolios, yet 28.7% of RIAs anticipated increasing their allocations by 2026.¹ While Cerulli’s survey captured a broad cross-section of the RIA market overall, KKR’s RIA survey focused more narrowly on current private market allocators—mostly those already engaging with or actively considering private investment opportunities. Together, the two data sets illustrate both the broader industry trajectory and the perspective of RIAs at the forefront of private market adoption.

The survey took a closer look at where RIAs see the greatest potential in private markets. Compared with our 2024 results, significantly more respondents plan to increase allocations to private infrastructure, private equity, private credit, and private real estate (Exhibit 2), while fewer expect to just maintain or reduce their allocations.

Private infrastructure registered the largest jump, with the share of respondents planning to increase allocations rising from 32% to 76%. Investors are gravitating toward the asset class based on three historical strengths: capital preservation, inflation protection, and the potential for asset appreciation supported by operational improvements.

Beyond investor interest, private infrastructure has emerged as a distinct and rapidly expanding asset class as global demand for modernized essential systems increasingly exceeds the capacity of public funding sources. As KKR Global Head of Macro & Asset Allocation Henry McVey noted in September 2024, “More traditional suppliers of infrastructure funding, such as governments and corporations, have recently become hindered by their excessive debt loads.” He also noted that, “those economic areas experiencing explosive growth of late, such as data and the energy transition, are increasingly being backed through private sources, not government entities.” The GMAA team forecast that $3.7 trillion a year in infrastructure investment will be needed through 2035 to meet global GDP needs.

Private equity followed a similar trajectory, with the proportion of those intending to increase allocations moving from 45% in 2024 to 74% in 2025. Alisa Amarosa Wood, a Partner and leader on KKR’s evergreen Private Equity strategies, and Paula Campbell Roberts, KKR’s Chief Investment Strategist for Global Wealth, highlighted the appeal of private equity for individual investors in a recent article, noting, “For investors seeking stronger long-term returns and greater resilience, incorporating private equity into a diversified portfolio, alongside other private markets investments, can enhance performance, broaden opportunity, and better navigate market uncertainty relative to a traditional 60/40 allocation.”

This upward momentum carried through to private credit and real estate. The percentage of RIAs planning to increase allocations to private credit climbed from 15% to 53%, while those intending to boost exposure to private real estate rose from just 8% in 2024 to 42% in 2025. This trend aligns with what Julia Butler, CEO of KKR’s evergreen real estate strategy, highlighted at the RIA Forum: sentiment in real estate markets has been more positive in recent months due to the combination of steadier pricing, the tax-efficiency of real estate income, attractive entry points, and solid supply-demand dynamics in many regions and sectors.

EXHIBIT 2A: Percentage of RIAs Planning to Increase their Allocation to Private Markets over the Next 12 Months (2024 vs. 2025)