Private Markets: Building Better Portfolios with Private Equity, Private Credit, and Private Real Estate

by Tony Davidow

288 pages, Hardcover

Published February 11, 2025

Reviews

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Start here if you are a beginner in the world of alternative investments. Tony‘s book is clear, concise, and readable. This is not a technical book. It is a high-level book to help investors understand pieces of the investment pie that they may have previously thought were reserved for a different level or type of investor. The book explores three basic types of alternative investments at a high-level. These include private credit, private real estate, and private equity. Later in the book starting at Chapter 8, Tony begins to put these three building blocks together in terms of a portfolio approach that he describes as the total portfolio approach or TPA which is a layer on top of Modern Portfolio Theory. The book is not a product book and there are certainly no discussions or recommendations of any investment products to implement any of these somewhat new investment strategies. I believe that Tony would suggest that you reach out to a skilled and experienced investment advisor. For that more specific information. I believe that Tony‘s book is well timed and taps into the new political discussion that President Trump has introduced into the investment oriented parts of the Federal government, including the Department of Labor and the SEC. At one point, Tony comfortably predicts that alternative investments will enter the 401(k) investment product space within 10 years or less. The book is not about bitcoin, cryptocurrency, Blockchain, or any of those other new, hard to see investment products. Tony told me personally that those investments are beyond the scope of this book. However, there is a table on page 183 showing that advisor uptake on Cryptocurrency is at the very low end of a list of approximately a dozen other investment strategies. This is a good book and it is useful. Use this book as a way to prepare for a more in-depth discussion with your own skilled advisor. Great job, Tony. Thank you. Jim.

[Sergio Padilla · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tony Davidow’s “Private markets” is a call to action for greater adoption of private asset classes like private equity, private credit, private real estate and other alternatives.

It stresses the need for investor education advocates for certain policy changes so that a wider array of investors can gain access and does a good job explaining the fundamental trade-offs of different types of offerings to the wealth channel like interval funds, tender offer funds, business development companies and closed end funds.

However, I feel as if something was missing. I think Tony could have gone into more detail on both the asset classes themselves and done a better job on how they work as well as giving very brief descriptions of these vehicles to access those asset classes in case any investors happen to be reading this book and are not previously familiar with how they work.

I also feel like some sections were just repeating themselves and often the author is just filling page space with things that have already been said numerous times throughout multiple paragraphs in the chapter.

I also spotted two spelling errors, and there was one sentence towards the end of the book that abruptly ends. It was clear the author meant for there to be a comma where there instead was a period. Hopefully the editor of this book will catch these mistakes in future additions.

[Logan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good discussion on the pros and cons of private market investments, the development and future of the asset class(es), and strategies for incorporating into client portfolios.