AGM Alts & Wealth Weekly News Roundup | 1.16.26

The news of the week in private markets and wealth management

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AGM News Roundup

🏦 Wealth Management

Blackstone to Offer Private Investments in Empower 401(k)s | Preeti Singh | Bloomberg | Blackstone is partnering with retirement plan administrator Empower, which will provide Empower’s private market partnership program the ability to offer customers access to Blackstone’s funds via collective trusts (CITs).

Coutts in talks with Apollo and Ares over private markets funds for rich clients | Alexandra Heal and Emma Dunkley | Financial Times | Coutts, the centuries-old bank to Britain’s elite, is working on plans to enable its HNW clients to invest in evergreen funds managed by Apollo and Ares. Coutts has also held talks with KKR. The bank has reportedly not yet signed agreements with any of the firms.

Managed Assets in Retail Channel Returning to Parity With Institutional | Alex Ortolani | Wealth Management | A Cerulli report found that the retail channel for professionally managed assets in the US returned to parity with the institutional channel. Cerulli found that retail client channels held $36.6T in assets, while the institutional channel was just slightly ahead with $37.1T. The combined $73.7T represented an all-time high for professionally managed assets in the U.S.

Raymond James to Acquire $46B Asset Manager Clark Capital | Alex Ortolani | Wealth Management | Raymond James Investment Management, the asset management subsidiary of Raymond James, is acquiring a $46B asset manager as the seventh firm in its boutique asset management division. Clark Capital Management Group offers multi-asset class investments, model portfolios, and mutual funds.

SEC: RIAs with $14bn and up manage 86% of industry assets | Sam Bojarski | Citywire | Data published by the SEC paints a picture of a top-heavy RIA industry. RIAs in the 95th to 100th percentile of client assets manage over 86% of industry assets, meaning that RIAs managing over $14B are responsible for the lion’s share of the industry’s assets.

$2.7bn Angeles Wealth makes deal debut, launches family office arm | Alec Rich | Citywire | California RIA Angeles Wealth Management has made its first-ever deal, buying a family office to anchor its newly formed affiliate, Angeles Family Office. Angeles acquired XO Capital, a boutique firm launched in 2021.

Creative Planning acquires $1bn Swiss wealth manager | Andrew Foerch | Citywire | Creative Planning has made its first completed acquisition of a European wealth manager, acquiring Switzerland-based $1B AUM Baseline Wealth Management.

🌲 Evergreen Funds

Evergreen fund launches to fuel 5-year growth spurt | Laura Dew | Money Management | Wealth-focused evergreens are set to grow at 11% annually by 2029 as wealth managers turn a focus towards private credit. Data from Franklin Templeton’s 2026 Private Markets Outlook finds that wealth-focused offerings will outpace those with institutional evergreen vehicles.

JPM alts selection boss: ‘We favour restrictions on evergreen liquidity’ | John Schaffer | Citywire | JP Morgan Head of Alternative Investments for EMEA Mark Hempstead said that large liquidity buffers in evergreen funds defeat the point of investing in private markets. Some evergreen funds can have liquidity buffers approaching 40%, either made up of cash-like products or public markets equivalents. However, liquidity buckets of this size tend to be in the early years of a fund, and a more typical level ranges between the 10-15% mark.

Oaktree launches asset-backed credit interval fund | Sergio Padilla | Private Debt Investor | Brookfield Asset Management has launched its first credit interval fund dedicated to asset-backed finance. Brookfield’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Oaktree Capital Management, will manage the fund.

🛠️ Private Markets Infrastructure

Blackstone Ties Up With Clearstream in Latest Europe Wealth Push | Meg Short | Bloomberg | Blackstone has inked a distribution deal with Deutsche Bank’s post-trade business, Clearstream, which provides settlement services and order routing for around €340B ($397B) in private and alternatives funds. The agreement will help Blackstone tap into Clearstream’s network of over 300 distribution partners with a strong presence in Europe and Asia.

💸 Private Equity

CD&R Looks to Raise $26 Billion for Latest Private Equity Fund | Preeti Singh | Bloomberg | Clayton Dubilier & Rice is aiming to raise at least $26B for its latest flagship private equity fund. A fund of this size would rank as one of the industry’s largest fundraises. If the firm hits the $28B target, it would place it among the largest private equity fundraises ever. European private equity firm CVC raised a $29.2B fund in 2023. Last year, Thoma Bravo raised $24.3B for its largest flagship fund.

Bain Capital names David Gross as sole managing partner | Antoine Gara | Financial Times | Bain Capital has named David Gross as its sole managing partner as part of a full succession of the leadership team for the $215B AUM alternative asset manager.

Private Equity Firms Circle Volkswagen’s €6 Billion Everllence Unit | Dinesh Nair, Eyk Henning, Aaron Kirchfeld and Swetha Gopinath | Bloomberg | A majority stake in Volkswagen’s heavy diesel engine unit Everllence SE is attracting interest from a number of private equity firms. Reportedly, EQT has been considering making a bid together with Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC. CVC, Advent, Bain Capital, KPS Capital Partners, and CD&R are also among potential bidders for the asset.

💳 Private Credit

Carlyle CEO plays down private credit fears, cautions on cyber risks | Alex Steger | Citywire | Carlyle CEO Harvey Schwartz does not believe the private credit market will be the cause of the next major financial crisis. In a conversation with New York Times and CNBC journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin this Wednesday, Schwartz played down concerns around private credit posing a systemic risk.

KKR Asia Credit Fund Draws 75% New Investors as Decoupling Rises | Cathy Chan | Bloomberg | KKR raised three-quarters of its $2.5B Asia private credit fund from new investors.

Private Credit Drops Safeguard to Win Deals on Wall Street Terms | Francesca Veronesi and Kat Hidalgo | Bloomberg | Private credit firms are adopting “covenant-lite” terms, according to Eversheds Sutherland Partner and Head of Private Credit Ben Davis.

🏠 Real Estate

Canadians Are Furious After Real Estate Funds Lock Up Their Money | Paula Sambo | Bloomberg | According to an article by Bloomberg, Canadian investors are unhappy with private real estate funds gating their investments, with about C$30B locked up.

Bridges closes sixth property fund above target | Charles Avery | New Private Markets | British impact firm Bridges Fund Management closed its sixth property alternatives fund on £440M ($592M).

Multifamily CLO Lending Surges Amid Volatile Market | Jordan Berger | CRE Daily | Bisnow reports that the multifamily market has driven a wave of CLO activity in 2025, reaching $19.7B in volume, according to Moody’s.

🥈 Secondaries

Hg announces new GP-led secondaries team | Hg Capital | Hg announced the formation of a new team to focus on GP-led secondaries transactions within Hg’s core software and technology-enabled services sectors. The team will expand Hg’s existing strategy into single-asset secondary investments. The initiative will be led by Dusy Sivanithy, who joins Hg from CPP, where he spent over seven years leading the secondaries business as well as launching the firm’s single asset programme.

Wellington Hires Hamilton Lane’s Alex Behm for Secondaries Push | Loukia Gyftopoulou | Bloomberg | Wellington Management hired Hamilton Lane’s Alex Behm to build and manage secondaries strategies for Wellington’s evergreen private markets business.

Insight Partners Hires VC Veteran Malayery for Secondaries Push | Preeti Singh | Bloomberg | $90B tech-focused alternative asset manager Insight Partners is expanding into secondaries, bringing on Industry Ventures veteran Amir Malayery to lead the strategy as the theme in private markets, and certainly in tech investing, that private companies are staying private longer.

Private equity backers offload record amount of old fund stakes | Alexandra Heal and Antoine Gara | Financial Times | Private markets investors offloaded a record amount of stakes last year. David Atterbury of HarbourVest estimated that there was more than $110B in LP-led secondary deals in 2025. Coller Capital’s Founder Jeremy Coller said that 2026 could be another big year for secondaries, noting “we could see the record tumble again in 2026, perhaps pushing $300B on its way to becoming an asset class in its own right.”

Apollo to Open Trading on Private Chip Loan for Musk’s xAI | Carmen Arroyo and Ellen DiMauro | Bloomberg | Apollo is trying to open up trading on a private debt deal supporting xAI.

🛠️ Infrastructure

Infra Manager AIP Raises €2 Billion at First Close of New Fund | Swetha Gopinath | Bloomberg | AIP Management, an energy transition and infrastructure manager, has raised €2B ($2.3B) at the first close of its latest flagship fund. The fund will invest in “boring,” stable, long-term infrastructure assets in Europe and North America, according to CEO Kasper Hansen.

Distress Is Rising Rapidly in Europe’s Infrastructure Sector | Edward Clark | Bloomberg | The infrastructure, utilities, and power sector in Europe is expected to become the third most distressed sector in 2026, according to Weil’s European Distress Index.

🥩 GP Stakes

CAZ Investments Expands Market Leadership Through New Relationship with Blackstone Strategic Partners | CAZ Investments via PR Newswire | CAZ Investments announced a partnership with Blackstone’s GP Stakes strategy.

General Partner Stakes: Why Investors Are Buying Into the Business of Private Equity | Christopher Zook, CAZ in Kiplinger | CAZ’s Christopher Zook wrote an op-ed about GP Stakes in Kiplinger, sharing perspectives as to why investors are allocating to GP Stakes strategies.

Park Square secures second investment from Bonaccord Capital | Sergio Barreto | Alternatives Watch | Bonaccord has increased its minority stake in the London-based private credit manager Park Square Capital.

🔬 Private Markets Research

Blackstone 2026 Investment Perspectives | Office of the CIO | Blackstone | Blackstone shared its 2026 investment perspectives, gleaning data and proprietary insights from its 270+ portfolio companies, ~13,000 real estate assets, and 5,000 corporate borrowing relationships

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