Bluerock<\/a>, a New York alts asset manager that has more than $18 billion in acquired and managed assets, agreed to take a minority interest in Townsend, a provider of global real estate and real asset investment advisory services, as part of a strategic partnership. Townsend is being bought by the Riverside Company, a private investment firm, and Bluerock, along with other institutional investors, are co-investors in the acquisition. Bluerock said the strategic alliance will expand Townsend’s distribution to the U.S. private wealth channel.<\/p>\n“We believe that our partnership with Townsend\u2026will deepen our collective intellectual capital base and allow us to develop innovative new investment solutions that will serve the growing needs of retail investors,\u201d Ramin Kamfar, Bluerock’s CEO, said in a statement in the release.<\/p>\n
Emergence of Interval Funds<\/h4>\n Partnerships are proliferating as the industry sees increased demand for multimanager products that make alternative assets more accessible to clients and mass-affluent investors, according to Cerulli.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Interval funds, for example, which allow investors to redeem shares if needed, held $75 billion in assets last year and posted a five-year compound annual rate of 22%, according to Cerulli.<\/p>\n
\u201cInvestors are looking for simple-access solutions to alternatives where one ticket can get them access to the broader alternatives universe or access to multiple exposures within one alternatives sub-asset class,\u201d Shapiro said in a statement. \u201cAdvisors using such products are likely to be helping their clients take initial steps of allocating to alternative investments.”<\/p>\n
Jim Gold, CEO and a founding partner of Steward Partners, a New York City employee-owned RIA with $37 billion AUM, has seen a \u201cnoticeable\u201d bump in client interest in alts over the years, but he noted that alts as a percentage of his firm\u2019s revenue sits at a \u201cvery nominal\u201d 5% or 6%.<\/p>\n
Gold said that access to alts for a wider variety of investors has been boosted by \u201cnumerous, terrific\u201d platforms created by technology and the breadth of alts offerings.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Beware Culture Clashes<\/h4>\n In its report, Cerulli cautioned that the path to retail assets is potholed with challenges. Some of the risks to partnerships include culture clashes, overestimating partners\u2019 distribution capabilities, and the hurdle of making offerings that resonate with advisors.<\/p>\n
Indeed, for these strategic alliances to work, more advisors must embrace the asset class, the research firm said. The firm recently found that 51% of advisors surveyed don\u2019t use alts, according to Brendan Powers, director of product development at Cerulli.<\/p>\n
The research firm cited a lack of advisor understanding of alternative products and low allocations through home offices as key industry challenges. In addition, 55% of the advisors in a Cerulli survey said the lack of liquidity with alternative investments isn\u2019t suitable for their clients.<\/p>\n
Todd R. Walsh, CEO and chief technical analyst at Alpha Cubed Investments, an independent investment advisory firm in Irvine, Calif., said the illiquidity of the asset class is a key turnoff.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe won\u2019t do anything except plain, vanilla individual stocks and bonds where we can get our money back quickly when we need it,\u201d the 38-year industry veteran said. \u201cWe typically avoid anything that doesn\u2019t have daily liquidity.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Alternatives providers and asset managers are increasingly forming strategic partnerships to access a potential $1 trillion in retail assets, leveraging complementary strengths to reach new client segments, according to Cerulli Associates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3870,"featured_media":333489,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3010,2842,2851,2939,3007,3653,2973,2976],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-384564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asset-manager-news","category-bluerock","category-cerulli","category-commercial-real-estate","category-industry-news","category-partnership","category-technology","category-wealth-advisors"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Alts Providers Partnering Up To Capture $1 Trillion In Assets, Cerulli Says - Blue Vault<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n