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Retail access to private markets has exploded in recent years. Yet new research shows these products aren’t the safe diversifiers they appear. Hidden behind the glossy brochures are smoothed returns, conditional liquidity, and fees of 4–5% a year. Worse still, the evidence suggests that wealthier investors are offered higher-quality funds, while mass-market buyers are left with weaker versions.

Private equity firms are dangling incentives that would have been unthinkable a few years ago. Management fee cuts, rebates on deal...

Private equity in 401(k)s has been hailed as a breakthrough for American savers. But while the headlines promise fast change, the reality is slower, costlier and far riskier. History shows high failure rates, heavy fees and poor outcomes for investors. The winners may be asset managers, not workers.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves' Leeds Reforms promise growth through financial deregulation, but they risk repeating pre-2008 mistakes. Pension funds face pressure to invest in expensive private equity, consumer protections are being quietly eroded, and banking safeguards dismantled. It's regulatory amnesia in action - and ordinary savers will pay the price.

The private equity industry promises profound pension improvements for retail investors, but Oxford professor Ludovic Phalippou's research reveals a different reality. Like Alice in Wonderland, investors risk falling down a rabbit hole where fund managers capture £1 trillion in fees while delivering returns barely better than simple index funds.

Private equity firms use IRR manipulation to claim impossible returns. KKR boasts 25.5% annually since 1976, Apollo claims 39%. But if KKR's first £31m fund truly compounded at 26%, it would be worth £2.6 trillion today. As Professor Phalippou explains, "IRR has become the theatre of private equity performance." With retail investors increasingly targeted, UK regulators must stop this deception.