Communications strategies for alternative asset managers that pass compliance muster and reach your target audiences 

Key Takeaways:

• Alternative investments are growing across the wealth and retirement channels, drawing heightened attention—and skepticism—from investors and financial media.
• To capture this interest while managing compliance and reputational risk, alts managers need clear branding, detailed process explanations, and frank discussions of liquidity and risk.
• Educational, compliance-approved content distributed via websites, social channels, and third-party publications can help reach key audiences and support advisor and allocator conversations.

To the delight of some and consternation of others, alternative investments including hedge funds, private equity and credit, real estate, and other strategies continue to grow in popularity. FUSE Research’s 2026 forecast predicts that alternative investments will grow both in the wealth channel and in 401(k)s. Financial media are focusing on alts too. Just this week, Barron’s featured two stories: “Now is the time to buy alternative funds“ by Lewis Braham and Steve Garmhausen’s round-up of recommendations from a handful of advisors in the story “Here are the alternative investments money pros like now.”

News coverage of alternatives has also included a fair amount of media skepticism. Many reporters, including the WSJ’s Jason Zweig, have cautioned investors about the risks of private credit funds in retirement accounts. And news of the restriction of investor withdrawals and asset sales by Blue Owl Capital spooked the market and led to numerous headlines.

Alts sponsors looking to capture some of this growing interest sometimes struggle to tell their stories due to worries about compliance or concerns about media criticism. In our experience, these fears can cause some to miss important opportunities to tell their stories. Here are five communications strategies for asset managers offering alternative products to help them reach their coveted audiences while avoiding compliance or reputational risks:

1. Start by identifying and investing in branding. Your core brand messages should clearly identify your distinctive advantages and should be consistently shared across all communications. To attract the right clients (high-net-worth LPs, advisors, or institutional investors), make sure your website and LinkedIn profile accurately reflect your brand and are optimized to reach your target audiences. Your thought pieces (more on that below), media messages, and social posts need to consistently represent your brand.
2. Describe your process in detail. Go deep in describing all aspects of your approach in language appropriate to your target audience. This should include your relevant experience in the market, governance structure, and valuation process. Help current and prospective clients understand what to expect in a variety of market environments.
3. Be clear about the longer-term nature of most alternative investments, who the products are designed for—and probably more importantly—who they are not. This is especially relevant for the slew of liquid alts funds, many structured as ‘40 Act interval or tender-offer funds. While these fund structures promise more liquidity and ease of use than traditional LP structures, that doesn’t mean they should be traded frequently. Be proactive in addressing concerns about risk and liquidity for all investors, but particularly retirement investors. Proactively address concerns about gating and redemptions in some funds and acknowledge media concerns about risks. Address the risk/return trade-offs head on.
4. Create a content hub with educational materials for advisors and others about how your alternative strategies can be used in portfolios, how they perform in different markets and other relevant information. This can include target allocations, case studies, scenario analyses and comparisons to traditional 60/40 portfolios. Create thought pieces that illustrate your strategy or describe what you are seeing in the current market. Most alts managers are constrained by compliance when it comes to discussing individual holdings. Instead, rich educational content can give your distribution team something to talk about and an effective way to share information about hedge fund or private equity products when you can’t discuss holdings.
5. Share your compliance-approved content on LinkedIn or try to place it in an industry publication read by your target audience. We’ve written recently about how AI engines are changing how investors find information online. What is clear is that AI engines prioritize news and journalistic sites over corporate websites. Getting your educational information onto other websites can help build awareness and get you in front of your target audiences.