Private Markets and PPB Capital Partners: Your Questions Answered
September 21, 2026
As private markets move to the center of modern portfolio construction, financial advisors and their clients are asking sharper, more specific questions about how to access alternative investments, who to trust, and why these important asset classes matter. This resource addresses the questions our advisor partners ask most and the questions they are increasingly hearing from their clients. Every answer reflects PPB Capital Partners’ two decades of experience as one of the industry’s earliest and most trusted private markets providers.
Understanding Private Markets
What are private markets, and how are they different from public markets?
Private markets refer to investments in companies, assets, and strategies that are not listed or traded on public exchanges. In the United States, 99% of companies are privately owned, and 87% of large U.S. companies – those with more than $100 million in revenue – are private. Public market portfolios, by definition, miss the majority of the economy. Private markets are commonly included within the broader category of alternative investments and give advisors and their clients access to a wider opportunity set: private equity, private credit, real estate, infrastructure, and specialty strategies that behave differently from publicly traded securities and can offer meaningful portfolio diversification.
Why are private markets more relevant now than ever for financial advisors?
Private markets are expanding from traditional high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth audiences into the broader private wealth market. Today’s investors understand that traditional 60/40 portfolios have structural limitations, and they expect their advisors to offer solutions that go beyond public equities and bonds. Private markets align clients with one of the primary engines of modern economic growth: private enterprise. Advisors who can speak confidently about private markets and deploy them effectively can strengthen their ability to retain and attract sophisticated clients.
Are private markets the same as “alternative investments”?
Private markets are often referred to as alternatives, but the distinction matters. The term “alternative investments” has become increasingly broad, covering a wide and sometimes disparate range of products. Private markets is a more precise category: it refers to direct investment in private companies, assets, and credit instruments that sit outside the public markets. PPB Capital Partners focuses specifically on private markets rather than the broader category of alternatives because private markets represent a coherent investment approach, not simply a catch-all label.
What types of private market strategies are available to advisors and their clients?
Private markets encompass a wide range of strategies, including private equity (growth capital, buyouts, and venture), private credit (direct lending, mezzanine, and specialty finance), real estate (equity and debt), infrastructure, and specialty strategies such as litigation finance, digital assets, and royalties. Through PPB Capital Partners, advisors gain access to institutional-quality strategies across these categories, including large flagship funds, world-renowned hedge fund strategies, and niche opportunities such as Pine Valley Legal Settlements available through the PPB platform.
How do private market investments behave relative to public markets during periods of volatility?
Private market investments are not subject to the daily price fluctuations of public markets, which can make them a source of portfolio stability during periods of equity market stress. Their return profiles are driven by the underlying performance of businesses, assets, and credit instruments rather than by investor sentiment and market momentum. This does not mean private markets are without risk; illiquidity and manager selection are real considerations. Their differentiated return drivers, however, can make them a valuable tool for advisors building portfolios designed to perform across different market cycles.
About PPB Capital Partners
What is PPB Capital Partners?
PPB Capital Partners is a private markets investment provider built for the modern advisor and serving the wealth management industry. As one of the early private market providers, PPB focuses on curation over accumulation, favoring intentional design and sophisticated differentiation over a broad “warehouse of managers” model. Every private market strategy exists for a reason – sized, structured, and designed around the advisor, advisory model, and intended outcome. This disciplined approach is designed to give advisors confidence as they integrate private markets into their practices.
What makes PPB Capital Partners different from other private markets platforms?
PPB’s defining difference is curation over accumulation. Many platforms operate as warehouses of managers – broad marketplaces where advisors select from large, undifferentiated catalogs. PPB rejects that model. Every strategy on the PPB platform is intentionally designed and selected by an experienced investment advisory team. PPB is also conflict-free: its decisions are guided by advisor priorities and informed by peer demand, without the investor pressure and distribution incentives that can influence larger platforms. That independence, combined with two decades of execution experience, is what earns advisors’ trust.
How long has PPB Capital Partners been operating, and what is its track record?
PPB Capital Partners has been operating for over 20 years, making it one of the industry’s earlier private markets providers from a time when the asset class was far less accessible. The firm has built its reputation through the intentional design and construction of custom white-label private market funds across numerous asset classes, comprehensive back- and middle-office support, and an exceptional service model that has consistently served as a foundation for advisor success.
Is PPB Capital Partners independent? How does that benefit advisors?
Yes. PPB’s independence is one of its most important attributes. The firm’s decisions are made in connection with advisors’ best interests and are informed by peer demand from within the advisory community. PPB is not subject to outside investor pressure, product distribution incentives, or conflicts of interest that influence many larger platforms. This means the strategies advisors access through PPB are selected to support advisors’ priorities. That independence translates directly into confidence.
What size advisory firms does PPB Capital Partners serve?
PPB serves a broad range of advisory firms. To address expanding demand for alternative investments across a wider investor base, including mass-affluent clients, PPB developed a registered private markets solution that enables more advisory practices to integrate institutional-quality private markets access. This expansion broadens PPB’s reach beyond the largest firms while maintaining the same focus on curation, customization, and service that has defined the platform for two decades.
How PPB Works: Platform, Products, and Process
What is Capital Markets Solutions (CMS), and how does it work?
Capital Markets Solutions (CMS) is PPB’s curated program of institutional-quality private market strategies, accessible exclusively through the PPB platform. CMS strategies are selected by PPB’s in-house investment advisory committee, led by Chief Investment Officer Frank Burke, CFA, through a rigorous process of manager vetting, peer collaboration, and portfolio construction analysis. CMS covers a broad spectrum of private market strategies, from large flagship funds to specialty niche opportunities, each chosen with genuine conviction. For advisors without a dedicated alternatives team, CMS functions as a true extension of their investment office.
What is PIX, and what does it do for advisors?
PIX, the Private Investments Exchange, is PPB’s technology platform for private market investing. Significantly enhanced in January 2026, PIX delivers real-time dashboards, multi-level portfolio views, automated subscription workflows, and streamlined document management. The platform is modular and configurable, meaning it adapts to the specific workflows of each advisory practice rather than requiring advisors to conform to a standardized system. The enhancements are designed to give PPB’s internal team more capacity for deeper advisor engagement, using technology to support the relationship rather than replace it.
Does PPB offer white-label fund solutions?
Yes. White-label fund construction is one of PPB’s core capabilities and a significant differentiator. PPB designs and operates customizable white-label private market funds that reflect the advisor’s brand and differentiation, allowing advisory practices to offer clients a proprietary private markets program without the operational infrastructure required to build one independently. PPB provides comprehensive back- and middle-office support, including compliance, for these funds, managing the full operational burden so advisors can focus on client relationships and portfolio strategy.
Can PPB assume GP (general partner) responsibilities for a fund?
Yes. For firms looking to reduce the operational complexity associated with private market structures, PPB offers a service to assume general partner responsibilities. This is a significant offering for advisory practices that want to access the economics and positioning of a GP structure without the regulatory, operational, and fiduciary burden that comes with it. It represents another dimension of PPB’s full-service model: providing advisors with institutional-grade infrastructure so they can focus on what they do best – serving their clients.
What is PPB’s registered product, and who is it designed for?
PPB’s registered private markets solution is a more streamlined vehicle designed for a broader investor base. It provides a more accessible entry point into institutional-quality private market strategies, particularly for advisory practices that serve clients who may not qualify for traditional private market vehicles. The registered solution expands PPB’s reach, broadening access to its curated private markets strategies across a wider range of advisory practices and client segments.
Private Markets Portfolio Construction
How much of a client’s portfolio should be allocated to private markets?
There is no universal answer. The right private markets allocation is highly client-specific and depends on liquidity needs, time horizon, income requirements, risk tolerance, and existing portfolio composition. PPB’s philosophy is that every private market strategy should exist for a reason – sized, structured, and designed for the individual advisor, advisory model, and client outcome. The goal is not to maximize private markets exposure, but to deploy it in a balanced, durable, and thoughtful way that enhances the overall portfolio.
How should advisors explain private market investments to clients who are unfamiliar with them?
The most effective framing is also the most accurate: private markets give clients access to the part of the economy that public markets miss. In the U.S., 99% of companies are privately owned. When a client’s portfolio only holds public equities and bonds, they are invested in less than 1% of the available opportunity set. Private markets offer access to private enterprise, one of the primary engines of modern economic growth, along with return streams that behave differently from public market portfolios. Advisors who can communicate this clearly position themselves as the thought leaders their clients increasingly expect them to be.
What private market asset classes can offer the most meaningful diversification benefit?
The most effective diversifiers are strategies with return drivers that are genuinely independent of public market performance. Private credit, particularly direct lending and specialty finance, generates income from loan performance rather than market sentiment. Infrastructure can produce cash flows tied to long-term contractual obligations. Specialty strategies such as litigation finance, royalties, and certain real asset categories can have return profiles that are less connected to equity market cycles. PPB’s approach is to curate access across this spectrum so advisors can build private markets allocations that provide meaningful diversification, not simply a different label on a correlated asset.
Getting Started With PPB Capital Partners
How does an advisory firm get started with PPB Capital Partners?
The first step is a conversation. PPB’s team works directly with advisory practices to understand their investment objectives, client base, operational model, and current private markets experience. From there, PPB identifies the right entry point to meet advisors’ priorities and help them execute their private markets vision. The process is designed to be straightforward and highly personalized. To connect with the PPB team, visit ppbcapitalpartners.com.
What does the onboarding process look like for a new advisory firm?
PPB pairs every advisory firm with a dedicated team that brings together investment, operational, and technology expertise. Onboarding covers the full scope of the private markets program: strategy selection and portfolio construction guidance, technology setup and workflow integration through PIX, and operational support for subscriptions, reporting, and compliance documentation. PPB’s process is designed to be predictable and repeatable, providing advisors with a clear, structured path from initial engagement to active private markets deployment, regardless of where they are starting from.
How does PPB Capital Partners support advisors after onboarding?
PPB’s support model is ongoing, not transactional. The team provides continuous manager oversight, portfolio construction guidance, and direct access to investment expertise as market conditions evolve and new strategies come to market. PPB is committed to continual learning and identifying new and better ways to serve advisors, including proactively bringing solutions to advisory practices. That support also includes technology infrastructure designed to reduce operational burden and improve the advisor experience over time.
Why do advisory practices choose PPB Capital Partners?
Advisory practices choose PPB for its curated approach to private markets, purpose-built technology, high-touch service, and ability to support both investment access and operational execution. Rather than operating as a broad marketplace, PPB is designed to work as an extension of the advisory investment office, helping firms integrate private markets in a way that aligns with their model and client needs. To learn more, visit ppbcapitalpartners.com.
