Participants in the survey represented 800 institutions managing $19 trillion in assets, Nuveen stated. The survey examined “how evolving perspectives on market, geopolitical and climate-related issues influence asset allocation decisions.”
It revealed that investors are looking for long-term growth opportunities in real estate and infrastructure that provide attractive returns and effective inflation hedges, in the midst of concerns about deficits, trade policy and the risk of structural inflation.
Allocations to private infrastructure rose from 35% to 50% and to private real estate from 24% to 37% between 2024 and 2025. German and EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) investors are especially interested in private real estate.
At the same time, investors are being selective and focusing on specific high-growth areas like data centers and government initiatives aimed at modernization and sustainability. Some 65% of investors plan to invest more in real estate focused on digital infrastructure, and more than 30% who want to increase private fixed income assets are considering energy infrastructure credits.
“Private market flows remain resilient, with funding sourced from public asset outflows, cash reserves, and new capital. Even those adjusting allocations within private markets are largely reallocating rather than exiting,” said Harriet Steel, Nuveen’s global head of institutional.
The greatest increase in investment is likely to be in private equity. The survey also found a trend toward higher-yield, higher-risk fixed income, especially private income. “Nearly half of respondents are exploring new niche areas within private credit, such as energy infrastructure credit and fund finance (e.g., NAV [net asset value] lending),” the survey noted. “As allocations to alternatives grow, nearly 40% of institutions are expanding their roster of asset managers to navigate increasing complexity and specialization.” Many are using dedicated teams to manage their investments in alternatives.
Insurers appear to be shrugging off some of their concerns about political risk and market volatility. Many are shifting toward strategic growth and specialization, looking beyond short-term risks, with 69% planning increases in private market allocations over the next five years.
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“Private credit remains a particular area of focus, with insurers not only boosting allocations to private real estate debt (45%) but also broadening their exposure to niche opportunities, including energy infrastructure credit (46%), private asset-backed securities (34%) and fund finance (26%). These shifts underscore a growing appetite for complexity and yield-enhancing strategies within insurance portfolios,” the report said.
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Insurers are also modifying their approach to responsible investing, emphasizing positive impact metrics and benchmarking to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Some 93% are either already or planning to incorporate environmental and social factors into their investment strategies through measurable, outcome-driven approaches. The share of insurers “managing a separate sleeve in their portfolio for impact investments” doubled to 55% compared to 2023.
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“Insurers are demonstrating an increasingly confident and sophisticated approach to portfolio construction,” Steel noted.
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At the same time, there is a growing realization that both traditional and renewable energy will be needed to supply the world’s energy needs. In 2022, 79% of investors viewed the low-carbon transition as inevitable. That share fell to 61% in 2025.
However, the survey found the commitment to clean energy remained strong: clean energy and carbon reduction were still prioritized, either as part of net-zero goals or to capture risk-return opportunities. Along the way, more than half of institutions have set interim 2030 targets to reach net zero.
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For investors focused on preventing or remediating nature loss, “79% are seeking strategies that go beyond sustainability to proactively mitigate environmental degradation. Sectors such as water and waste management, pollution reduction and recycling are emerging as key opportunities, offering a dual benefit of environmental risk mitigation and attractive return potential,” the survey found.
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