February 24, 2026 — Over the past decade, the U.S. institutional investment consulting industry has been reshaped by a series of seismic trends, including consolidation, the rise of the outsourced chief investment officer (OCIO), the entry of private equity as owners, and the integration of consulting with wealth management and RIA firms.

Today, the industry is starting to see the impact of the next big driver of change: the growth of private markets and the potential integration of public and private assets in institutional investment portfolios.

Eighty-five percent of U.S. institutional asset owners use investment consultants for help with manager selection, performance monitoring, asset allocation, OCIO, and other services. Following the global financial crisis in 2008, a wave of mergers and acquisitions has altered the universe of consultants competing for those relationships. M&A transactions have brought together some of the biggest names in the industry, bringing the capabilities and scale of institutional consultants to wealth.

“The result of this deal-making has been a steady increase in market concentration,” says Mark Buckley, Global Co-Head of Investment Management at Crisil Coalition Greenwich and author of Private markets are reshaping the U.S. investment consultant landscape. “Although asset owners continue to make use of a host of specialist and boutique consultants for narrow assignments, the top 15 consultants in the U.S. market now advise on a striking 90% of U.S. institutional tax-exempt assets.”

The Newest Variable: Private Markets 
Today, those leading consultants face a new variable as they fight to maintain relationships and woo new institutional clients. The rise of private markets is changing the composition of manager searches and the very nature of core consulting functions such as performance monitoring and asset allocation advisory. As a result, it is also changing what institutional asset owners are looking for in their consultants.

“Many asset owners, particularly those new to private assets, are less familiar with asset classes such as private equity, credit, infrastructure, and real estate, and the universe of managers available in these categories, which includes hundreds of managers in private debt and other private asset classes,” says Mark Buckley.

Institutions are relying heavily on their consultants for support and advice not only for help in narrowing down potential managers and awarding mandates, but also for assistance in valuing and monitoring opaque private assets and integrating them into their allocation frameworks.

Investment consultants of all sizes will need to build out their capabilities in these areas to compete for the growing share of mandates originating in private markets. For that reason, the need to meet institutional demand in private markets will likely be a driving force for M&A activity and the broader evolution of the investment consulting market in the decade to come.

2026 Best Investment Consultants for Institutional Investors in the U.S.
Every year, Crisil Coalition Greenwich interviews hundreds of U.S. asset owners about their investment consultants. Asset owners are asked to name the consultants they employ and to rate them in a series of categories, including investment philosophy and beliefs, understanding of the client’s goals and objectives, quality of asset allocation advice, capability of individual consultants, and the timeliness and quality of client service.

Consultants who receive ratings topping those of competitors by a statistically significant margin are named Coalition Greenwich Best Investment Consultants.

The 2026 Best Investment Consultant representing “Large Investment Consultants” in the U.S. is Graystone Consulting. The 2026 Best Investment Consultants representing “Midsize Investment Consultants” in the U.S. are Asset Consulting Group, LCG Associates, and Mariner Institutional.