Opto Investments, a non-public markets wealth tech platform, has added EP Wealth Advisors, a nationwide RIA with $26.2 billion in AUM, as a person, bringing the whole variety of RIA corporations the platform works with to over 250.
In line with Jake Miller, Opto’s co-founder and chief options officer, that represents development of roughly 133% over the previous 12 months,. There at the moment are near 1,000 monetary advisors utilizing the platform, which went reside two years in the past, Miller stated.
EP Wealth Advisors will use Opto’s customized funds—white-label fund methods starting from personal credit score and enterprise capital to infrastructure—to supply personal markets publicity to its high- and ultra-high-net-worth shoppers. The minimal funding for shoppers to enroll with EP Wealth is $500,000. The agency employs over 400 monetary advisors and has greater than 36 places of work across the nation.
“We’re tremendous excited in regards to the EP Wealth partnership, given their measurement, their strategy to markets and their long-term plans for constructing out the EP personal markets program,” stated Miller. “It’s simply one other nice instance and a mirrored image of the final momentum that we’ve had within the wealth neighborhood this yr.”
In contrast to a few of its friends within the various funding house, Opto foregoes evergreen funds in favor of conventional illiquid drawdown fund constructions which are higher suited to RIAs serving traders with certified purchaser and certified shopper standing than these working with accredited traders. Certified purchasers and shoppers can sometimes afford the illiquidity premiums that include extra conventional forms of fund constructions, the place a non-public credit score fund might need a five-year horizon for returns and a enterprise capital fund may be available in the market for over 10 years, in keeping with Miller.
“The place we focus with our shoppers is the nonetheless truly personal a part of personal markets the place the highest household places of work, sovereign wealth funds and endowments are looking for one of the best managers, have distinctive entry and distinctive info they will leverage into strong and uncorrelated returns,” he stated.
“Differentiation [in the alternative investments space] has gotten tougher. Entry alone is not sufficient. If I simply need to entry personal markets, there are even issues I can do as a person, I don’t even have to undergo a fiduciary. So how does an RIA set themselves aside as entry will increase? It is advisable to work with a associate that’s centered on discovering these distinctive alternatives vs. the mass market ones. And these items correlate with efficiency as effectively. The biggest funds are inclined to look extra like beta options.”
On the identical time, RIAs with high- and ultra-high-net-worth clientele, like EP Wealth, can nonetheless use the platform to decrease their shoppers’ funding thresholds. By way of the Opto partnership, the minimal funding quantity for EP Wealth shoppers will whole $100,000 for entry to 12 underlying development managers. These managers would sometimes require funding minimums of $1 million to $5 million every, Miller famous.
“When introducing personal market methods to shopper portfolios, a one-size-fits-all strategy merely doesn’t work,” stated Adam Phillips, managing director of investments at EP Wealth Advisors, in an announcement. “Opto’s fiduciary-first strategy helps us construct customized portfolios that meet the distinctive wants of our shoppers, whereas offering entry to institutional-grade investments from an unlimited array of managers.”
