Banks and Broker Dealers

At Morgan Stanley, the head of the alternative platform is Jeremy Beal. Jeremy and his team are going to be the gatekeepers to the broader platform within Morgan Stanley. That includes Graystone, the institutional consulting group within the broader system, PWM and, obviously, the financial advisors that make up the entire Morgan Stanley system. There is about $85 billion in assets on the alternative platform. They do about $15 billion in gross flows in a given year and are working hard to trend those numbers up. Typically, they are going to be offering 40 to 50 strategies per year. That is going to cover hedge funds, hedge fund of funds, private equity, real estate, private credit, etc. There is a process by which the central research group is going to conduct the initial due diligence, go to the investment committee, and then to a separate operational and a firm risk committee as well. So, expect a four to six month process. It is sometimes tough for first time funds to make their way through the Morgan Stanley system. They also typically ask for capacity north of $100 million. Dan Maccarrone runs the private equity and private credit and co investments part of the group. Erin Berry runs all of the real estate part. Jane Ellis runs hedge funds within the group under both Jeremy Beal and one of his direct reports, Jim Bruno, is another good point of contact in managing the alternative investment team and platform. read less

UBS on the alternatives side is broadly broken down into two groups, the Hedge Fund Solutions Group and the Real Estate and Private Markets Group. UBS has their Real Estate & Private Markets team, where they overlook $100B globally, but the opportunity lies within their Multi-Manager team where they offer indirect real asset investment solutions via fund of fund structures for real estate, infrastructure and private equity Đ all under one roof. The combined business has a track record of 20 years and manages investments around USD 25 billion globally, with a team of around 70 investment professionals operating out of eight offices across the globe. Multi-Managers Real Estate (MM-RE): In six locations across the globe, and with a track record of close to 10 years with over 100 fund investments and significant presence in major regions, MM-RE provides product offerings from core to opportunistic, from developed to emerging markets, and from customized segregated mandates to commingled funds. David Kozlicki is the head of this program and he is located in Chicago. Multi-Managers Infrastructure (MM-Infra): Established in 2004, MM-Infra includes closed-end private funds, customized investment structures as well as individually managed accounts, with a focus on operational infrastructure assets in OECD countries. The experienced MM-Infra team looks back at a solid track record, with commitments in over 60 infrastructure funds to date. Sullivan Healy is a good person to reach out to who is located in New York. Multi-Managers Private Equity (MM-PE): Established in 1997, MM-PE look at all types of PE funds including VC, growth, buyout and special situations where Nicola Goll is a director for the team, and she is located in New York. UBS Hedge Fund Solutions has two components. First is UBS O'Conner, which is the in-house hedge fund management group (Private Credit, Multi-Strategy, Merger Arbitrage). Second is UBS Hedge Fund Solutions which manages roughly $40B and is a dedicated team that sources external managers on behalf of institutional clients or through their bespoke commingled hedge fund of funds program. Kevin Zychowski, located in New York is a good contact. read less

A number of key divisions now roll up under the Goldman Sachs umbrella. The Private Wealth Management Group which is their ultra-high net worth and family office group with over $200 billion in assets. The old Ayco rolls up under Goldman Sachs as well. As does United Capital, which was more recently acquired, and Rocaton which is now their institutional consulting group. All of these teams feed off of a singular research team, AIMS, their Alternative Investment and Manager Selection team. They are providing a curated list of hedge funds, private equity, real estate, credit, and traditional long only. The team is now combined - the traditional AIMS team with the Rocaton team. They now operate, the combined groups under a single rating structure, a single investment committee, and they have aligned asset class coverage and managers with a single point of contact to both Rocaton and Goldman Sachs. On the private funds side, a little bit of a joint effort there to combine legacy Goldman Sachs and Rocaton. A couple of contacts to make mention of would be Joseph Brazzi and Claire DeWalt. read less

Key benefits of working with iCapital for allocators include: Operational leverage - consolidated reporting (statements and K-1s) and analytics, and a simplified subscription process (e-sign etc), Lower minimums - because iCapital is doing all the sub-accounting minimums are typically $100k which is substantially lower than most funds - especially on the PE side Key benefits of working with iCapital for funds, Distribution through iCapitals sales force. They have two key offerings: “shelf offering” - Market Access Platform (MAP), and curated menu of investment offerings which consists of: 16 hedge funds (evergreen) across multi-strategy, event/credit, hedged equity, and global macro/CTA, 8-12 (per year) private funds across buy/out growth, private credit, distressed/special situations, venture, and real assets. These “shelves” are offered to iCapital clients at a fee of typically 50bps plus the underlying manager fee Customized Solutions. Custom Vehicles - clients that use the capital shelf offering to create FOFs based on the client’s target allocations (this can be shelf or other). White label solutions - this is available for firms that already have a shelf e.g. PNC and just want to use iCapital for streamlined fund subscription, reporting, and administration and research services. These can be bundled or bundled - e.g. research only or technology solution only. read less

CAIS has an open architecture platform. Investments have to be approved by Mercer B+/A-. Once that is done, then it’s just a matter of if it’s a fit or not (is it a strategy in an attractive over the next 6-12 months?). They like smaller lock up periods of 3-6 years. They are unlikely to add strategies that would cannibalize their current offerings, so timing is important. They typically invest $50-$100m. read less