Wall Street is being flooded by a new generation of investors

Wall Street is being flooded by a new generation of investors who don’t trust the traditional system and are making it clear they’re not sticking with stocks and bonds.

Millennials and Gen Z, mostly under 43 and holding real money, are steering their wealth into crypto, real estate, pre-IPO startups, collectibles, and other alternative assets.

They’ve seen crashes, bailouts, and inflation destroy portfolios, and they’ve had enough. Their money is going where the old playbook doesn’t reach.

According to Bloomberg, Bank of America has seen the number of its retail clients holding alternatives more than double since 2020. The bank adds around 50 new alternative funds every year. A large study by BofA last year showed that 73% of wealthy investors under 43 don’t believe a traditional stock-and-bond mix will make them rich. About 93% said they plan to pour more cash into alternatives going forward.

Investment firms create retail versions of elite products

The change is forcing big names to rebuild how they package investment products. Firms like Blackstone and Apollo are rolling out ETFs and semi-liquid funds that look retail-friendly but were once only for institutions.

These funds are now available through private banks and fintech apps. Forge Global Holdings dropped the minimum investment threshold to $5,000, which led to a spike in daily signups. Many of the new users were chasing early access to companies like OpenAI, trying to grab a piece before any IPO.

These new investors see the 60/40 portfolio as broken. That model, which used to split 60% into stocks and 40% into bonds, completely failed in 2022 when inflation pushed both assets down at the same time.

Morgan Stanley recently filed to launch a fund that gives access to everything from private debt to real estate and infrastructure. A survey by CAIS revealed that 80% of alternative managers are planning to launch retail products, nearly double the figure from three years ago. The demand is growing, and Wall Street is adjusting fast.

High-risk products gain traction despite warnings

These new investments aren’t simple. Many are expensive, complex, and illiquid — and yet, people are still buying in. Blackstone’s real estate investment trust had to limit withdrawals in 2022 after interest rates spiked.

Despite that, investors kept coming. Strategists at JPMorgan have told clients to lower exposure to private credit and equity because they’re lagging behind public markets again this year. One academic paper called alternatives “costly and wasteful,” and Moody’s warned that bringing retail investors into private markets adds serious liquidity risk to the system.

Still, none of that has slowed demand. On TikTok and Reddit, the get-rich-quick mindset is spreading fast. The move isn’t just limited to Gen Z or millennials though. Chad Blackburn, a 45-year-old accountant in Nashville, started buying equities as a teen but now puts most of his cash into Bitcoin and startups.

“The dotcom bubble and the great financial crisis forced me to think more deeply about my investments,” Chad said. “Why would I limit myself to just stocks and bonds, especially when a lot of this stuff is not nearly as diversified as you think?”

Real estate, crypto, and private equity are the top picks for these investors. There’s a psychological angle too. Many believe traditional markets are rigged or too fragile. Owen Lamont, a portfolio manager at Acadian Asset Management, said, “They think the system is rigged against me. I have to do something out of the box in order to get rich.”

The push from retail investors is also tied to exhaustion from institutional clients. Pensions, endowments, and insurers already allocate about 20% of their portfolios to alternatives. But individuals? Just 7%. That gap is huge, and Wall Street is chasing it.

Chris Toomey, managing director at Morgan Stanley Private Wealth Management, explained the difference. Older investors prefer infrastructure and steady returns. The younger crowd leans into private equity. “They are at a point in their investment cycle where they have the ability to take on that risk,” Chris said. “They’re early investors and they’ve got a much longer time horizon.”

But it’s not every young person. Vanguard says thousands of Gen Z and millennial savers are sitting on piles of cash in default IRAs instead of putting money into diversified portfolios. For every alt-hunter, there’s someone just hoarding dollars in money markets.

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