Welcome to the 20th episode of the Alts Pulse, a collaboration between iCapital x Alt Goes Mainstream.
In the latest episode of the Alts Pulse, we were live from iCapital Connect. iCapital Managing Director, Head of Private Asset Research & Model Portfolios, Kunal Shah, and I had a conversation about how to marry an institutional allocator’s mindset with the nuances of serving wealth clients.
Kunal brings an institutional allocator’s mindset to the wealth channel. At iCapital, he’s focused on the identification, selection, and due diligence of private equity funds offered on the Flagship Platform. Prior to iCapital, Kunal was a Principal in the private markets group at Meketa Investment Group, a leading global investment consultant serving pension funds, endowments and foundations, and family offices. In that role, Kunal was responsible for leading and managing private equity fund investments. He joined Meketa in 2006 and invested globally, covering buyouts, venture capital, private debt, natural resources, and infrastructure investments. He also developed and led Meketa’s secondary funds purchase practice. Kunal has also served on various LP advisory boards. Prior to Meketa, Kunal was an analyst at The Vanguard Group.
Kunal and I finally turned all those hallway conversations we had at iCapital’s old office at 441 Lexington into a podcast! We had a fascinating discussion about how to evaluate alternative asset managers and what makes a great manager. We covered:
How should wealth managers approach private markets?
Why it’s important to “always be committed” rather than try to time vintages.
Are evergreen structures a “game changer” for the wealth channel and a foundational piece for model portfolios?
What features does a GP need to run an evergreen fund structure?
What does the centralization of the CIO function and OCIO consolidation in the wealth channel mean for GPs?
Thanks, Kunal, for sharing your passion, wisdom, and expertise at the intersection of private markets and private wealth, and for a great conversation that tied together how private markets and private wealth are changing as new product structures and product innovation take shape.
Show Notes
00:00 Live From iCapital Connect with Kunal Shah and Michael Sidgmore
00:27 Kunal Shah’s Background
01:11 Institution vs Wealth Allocations
01:57 Discipline and Vintage Timing
03:05 Evergreen Model Portfolios
03:57 Evergreen Deployment Risks
04:35 Big vs Small Manager Access
06:36 GP Business Model Shift
08:17 Wealth Platform Consolidation
10:44 Proprietary Products and Seeding
11:29 Product Innovation Outlook
12:43 Serving Wealth Channel
13:40 Finding Manager Edge
15:39 Best Diligence Questions
17:14 ABC – Always Be Committed
18:21 Closing
