According to Bain & Company's Global Private Equity Report 2015, long-term returns from private equity have improved, but the industry is not large enough to absorb huge amounts of pension money. Buy-outs totalled $252 billion in 2014; American public-sector pension funds have assets of $3.2 trillion. Investing in alternative assets may be a sensible way of reducing risk, but it is unlikely to boost overall returns by much.