Private Markets

High-profile adoptions of the Total Portfolio Approach (TPA) and the often-cited outperformance of TPA funds have generated FOMO among funds following an SAA framework. Buzzwords and vague rulesets frustrate anyone trying to learn more. We combed through the TPA literature, built practical examples, and found that many components are just best practices, repackaged. Our suggestion: look past the hype, adopt what fits, ignore what doesn't.

BCA's CoreMacro and Portfolio Construction teams combine two distinct but intersecting lenses to revisit a once heralded opportunity: India. We upgrade India across both public and private markets, but the conviction is not the same everywhere.

Beginning with this Quarterly report, The Global Asset Allocation and Private Markets teams are combining our quarterly outlooks into a single, unified framework, reflecting a more integrated approach to portfolio construction. In this joint outlook we upgrade Private Equity to overweight. Sentiment has soured, LPs are starved of distributions, flows have collapsed, valuations are trending lower, Secondaries are outperforming Primaries, and GP stocks are experiencing their worst underperformance on record. All signs of a durable bottom.

Investment risk in Private Markets differs from that in Public Markets. It unfolds over time, with today’s issues coming from yesterday’s investments. We explain why, and more importantly, why the next dollar now faces lower risk across both macro and fundamental drivers. Just do not expect a discussion about standard deviations.

M&A activity finally reaccelerated in Q4 2025—it’s just the start. Macro Hedge Funds have outperformed with top-decile performance from Discretionary Macro—but that’s towards the end. We move Macro from overweight to underweight and Event Driven from neutral to overweight.