Incumbent Brokers Insourcing Private Markets

The real risk is that private markets can become a native brokerage feature, not a partner category. Monark helps brokerages plug private assets into the same account, cash balance, reporting, and compliance workflow investors already use, but that also shows large incumbents exactly what they may want to own themselves. Once private investing is important enough to drive account growth and restore commission economics, the biggest platforms have strong reason to internalize more of the stack.

• Monark is not just a deal feed. It handles suitability checks, order processing, money movement, custody models, reporting, and secondary trading APIs. That full workflow is useful to smaller brokers that lack private market infrastructure, but it is also the exact workflow a Schwab, Fidelity, or Robinhood can justify building once volume is large enough.
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• The economics make insourcing attractive. Public stock commissions were competed down toward zero, while private deals can carry upfront loads around 3.5% to 5%, with brokerages keeping roughly 2% to 3% of dollars raised. If private assets lift AUM and wallet share, large brokers have a clear incentive to keep that revenue and customer experience in house.
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• Recent acquisitions show where the market is heading. Schwab announced its Forge deal on November 6, 2025 and completed it on March 2, 2026. Morgan Stanley said it closed its EquityZen acquisition in January 2026. Those moves suggest leading wealth platforms want direct control over private market distribution, liquidity, and servicing rather than permanent dependence on outside APIs.
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The likely end state is a split market. The largest brokerages will own more of private market access themselves, while independent RIAs, regional brokers, and newer apps still need shared infrastructure. That keeps room for Monark, but pushes it toward becoming core plumbing for the long tail, where standardization, speed, and lower operating cost matter more than exclusive distribution.