Forvis Mazars and other industry leaders came together for our inaugural 2026 Asset Management Virtual Symposium, where we shared insights on trending topics in the asset management industry. This half-day virtual training event included topics such as current and proposed accounting and tax updates, market trends, economic updates, and much more. Stay tuned and Save the Date for our 2027 Asset Management Virtual Symposium!
Key Takeaways: 2026 Asset Management Virtual Symposium
- Economic growth remains uneven across industries and income groups. Some sectors are experiencing strong growth while others face significant challenges from tariffs, geopolitical instability, labor shortages, and inflation. Consumer spending remains a major economic driver, but spending patterns vary substantially by income level.
- Inflation is being influenced more by external factors than traditional demand. The factors include oil market disruptions, geopolitical conflicts, and trade policies as major inflation drivers, making inflation trends difficult to predict and limiting the effectiveness of traditional interest-rate tools.
- Tax developments may affect asset managers and fund structures. Recent court decisions have increased scrutiny of self-employment tax exemptions for limited partners, reinforcing the importance of evaluating actual management and control activities rather than relying solely on partnership form.
- Multiple tax law changes create planning opportunities and compliance requirements. These changes include Qualified Small Business Stock (QSBS) rules, Section 163(j) interest limitation calculations, digital asset reporting requirements, and evolving state tax sourcing and pass-through entity tax rules.
- Labor shortages and demographic shifts remain long-term economic concerns. Aging workforce trends, retirements, and skill shortages, particularly in sectors such as manufacturing, construction, healthcare, and skilled trades, are expected to continue affecting economic performance and workforce availability.
- Data centers and AI-related infrastructure are still driving substantial investment activity. Across economic, construction, corporate spending, private equity, and infrastructure discussions, data centers, digital infrastructure, and energy projects supporting AI are major sources of growth and capital deployment.
- A new accounting standard will change how investment companies value restricted equity securities. ASU 2026-03 requires investment companies to incorporate contractual sale restrictions, such as lock-up agreements, into fair value measurements, which may reduce reported valuations and require updates to valuation policies, governance, and disclosures.
- SEC enforcement remains active. Enforcement priorities continue to focus on investor protection, particularly around conflicts of interest, valuation practices, trade allocations, custody issues, regulatory reporting, and procedural compliance.
- Private markets continue to attract capital, but investor scrutiny is increasing. Institutional and wealth investors remain committed to private equity, private credit, and infrastructure, although concerns about performance, liquidity, concentration risk, valuations, and manager selection have grown.
- Private credit remains popular, but risks are receiving greater attention. Investors continue to value private credit for income generation, yet concerns about portfolio quality, underwriting standards, concentration risk, funding competition, and AI-related business exposure are increasing.
Presenters
Chris Kuehl
Managing Director at Armada Corporate Intelligence
Nicholas Mairone
VP of Private Credit and Regulation at Preqin