Morgan Stanley on EquityZen deal: Private markets are growing at an incredible clip

Deal Rationale & Market Trends - Private markets are experiencing significant growth, with the average company staying private for 14 years, a substantial increase from 5 years 20 years ago [2] - This trend presents challenges for average investors, limiting their access to wealth creation opportunities primarily available to institutional investors and VCs [3] - Morgan Stanley's acquisition of Equity Zen aims to address the challenges of illiquidity for employees and limited access for average investors in private markets [4] - Other firms are also expanding their reach into private markets through exchanges or data collection, indicating a growing trend [9] Morgan Stanley & Equity Zen Synergies - Morgan Stanley possesses significant demand with $7 trillion in assets and 20 million clients, along with supply through its cap table management of thousands of private market companies and its partnership with Carta [5] - Equity Zen bridges the gap between Morgan Stanley's demand and supply in the private market [6] - The integration of Equity Zen will improve investor protections by professionalizing the private market part of the ecosystem and fitting it into Morgan Stanley's overall risk management framework [8] Investor Protection & Risk Management - Morgan Stanley takes investor protection seriously, leveraging its AML policies, KYC procedures, risk tolerance framework, and asset allocation framework [7] - Integrating private market shares into a holistic asset allocation will address risk, with private market investments not recommended to be 100% of a portfolio [11] - Morgan Stanley is working with its global investment team to ensure that every client participating in the private market does so in a risk-managed fashion [12] Client Demand & Portfolio Allocation - Morgan Stanley has seen "off the charts" demand from clients for private market access [12] - The firm aims to extend access beyond its highest net worth clients to its entire 20 million clients and Equity Zen's nearly 1 million clients [13] - The overall allocation towards alternative investments (alts) in a portfolio is around 10-15%, and private market investments would fit into this category [15]