May 5, 2025 · 55m · capital-allocators
Michael Sidgmore – Alternatives Go Mainstream (Private Wealth 1, EP.443)
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gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions
Ted Seides interviews Michael Sidgmore of Broadhaven Ventures and 'Alt Goes Mainstream' to explore how alternative asset managers are expanding beyond traditional institutional limited partners into the massive private wealth channel. The discussion covers distribution across wirehouses and RIAs, the rise of evergreen and interval fund structures, industry consolidation, and the critical importance of brand and advisor education.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. Ted holds 25.3% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
Ted as informed peer 3.3 Guest teaching 1.8 Guest disagreement 0.0 Ted pushing back 0.0
speaking balance: gold is Ted, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 45:25 Questioning whether wealth flows are alpha in search of beta
Sidgmore playfully challenges industry rhetoric by questioning whether private wealth flows are essentially 'alpha in search of beta' as valuations expand.
Hardest push from Ted ▶ 45:05 Seides pressing on the price impact of capital flowsSeides pushes Sidgmore on what the unconstrained flood of private wealth capital is going to do to underlying asset prices across private markets.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 40:00 Survey data on ultra-high-net-worth brand confusionSidgmore educates Seides with empirical survey data showing ultra-high-net-worth investors frequently cannot name actual alternative asset managers.
Ted holds their own ▶ 38:26 Seides questioning hedge fund integration into wealthSeides leverages his deep background in the hedge fund industry to drill down on how hedge funds fit into wealth distribution alongside private equity.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | Ted as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | Ted pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Capital Allocators Premium Membership Offer | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Host intro and premium membership promo, followed by the guest providing a biographical overview of his background at Goldman, iCapital, and Broadhaven. | |
| The Inception of 'Alt Goes Mainstream' | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Sidgmore explains the origin story of the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast during COVID-19, highlighting the convergence of institutional and private wealth channels. | |
| The Evolution and Institutionalization of Private Markets | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | Sidgmore analyzes how GPs are evolving from funds into diversified firms and how wealth managers are institutionalizing through acquisitions like Pathstone buying Hall Capital. | |
| The Dominance of Mega-Cap GPs in Wealth Distribution | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | Sidgmore breaks down how the top six publicly traded asset managers dominate wealth fundraising due to massive dedicated distribution teams and branding power. | |
| Scaled Specialists, the Middle-Market Dilemma, and M&A | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | Discussion centers on scaled specialist firms like Vista and the existential dilemma for mid-market managers who lack resources to build wealth infrastructure. | |
| Technology Marketplaces and Differentiation for Wealth Platforms | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | Sidgmore details how tech marketplaces like iCapital and CAIS provide access, while large wealth platforms seek customized, differentiated products at scale. | |
| Ridgeline Sponsor Message | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | Segment includes an ad break followed by an overview of wire houses, independent broker-dealers, and self-directed retail platforms like Schwab launching alts. | |
| Private Banks, Co-Investments, and UHNW Differentiation | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | Sidgmore outlines how private banks offer co-investments and sports/direct deals to differentiate for ultra-high-net-worth clients, reviewing growth across alts asset classes. | |
| Hedge Funds in Private Wealth and the Role of Brand Power | 5 | 3 | 0 | 0 | Seides probes hedge fund positioning in wealth; Sidgmore notes that brand recognition and multi-strat models win out, citing a survey where wealth clients mostly recognized public brands. | |
| Demystifying Evergreen Structures and Interval Funds | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | Sidgmore explains the structural and fee mechanics of tender offer funds versus interval funds compared to traditional closed-end drawdown vehicles. | |
| Return Profiles and Operational Complexities of Evergreen Vehicles | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | Sidgmore discusses return hurdles, IRR dilution, and the clash between fee-generating evergreens and traditional institutional fee-free co-investments. | |
| Opportunities in Lower Middle-Market GP Stakes and Content Strategies | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Sidgmore explains his investments in lower middle-market GP stakes and the crucial role content, marketing, and brand play in fundraising. |
Statements from this episode (26)
Private markets tech is mirroring equities and fixed income evolution
“Pre-private markets infrastructure becoming the next market structure evolution, in my view, after equities fixed income derivatives, but very informative in terms of how I think about the technology evolution that's happening in private markets from pre to po…”
Broadhaven has completed $100B in financial services M&A
“He had built a financial services investment bank. It's now about 65 people, done a hundred billion or so of M&A transaction volume, all financial services focused.”
Trillions in under-allocated wealth capital is seeking private markets
“That's really the big pony here, is there's trillions of dollars in Wealth Channel Capital that is looking to flow into private markets because they're under allocated.”
Institutional and private wealth channels are converging in private markets
“The institutional world, which you've covered tremendously well with capital allocators. And the wealth worlds are kind of converging. Institutions are trying to think about how they think about private markets. The wealth channel is now starting to think abou…”
Blackstone sources roughly $250B of its $1T AUM from wealth channel
“Blackstone, about 40 years old, started with 300,000 dollars of capital under management. They're now over a trillion dollars of assets. About a fourth of that, two hundred fifty billion or so, comes from the wealth channel today.”
Asset manager consolidation forces firms to be mega-scale or niche
“If this space is going to go through consolidation because firms need to figure out who they want to be, they either need to be really big or really niche. What happens to the middle? What happens to that ten billion dollar manager, thirty billion dollar manag…”
Wealth managers are acquiring OCIOs for institutional diligence capabilities
“Wealth management as both a business and the way it's investing in private markets is institutionalizing itself. Those firms are acquiring OCIOs to Add capabilities that give them institutional quality diligence and processes to invest in private markets.”
Top six alt managers raised average $12B from wealth in 2024
“The top six firms account for the majority of market share of capital raised in private markets. On average, the top six firms, 20, 24, they raised twelve billion dollars. The top seven through 25 firms only raised 1.7 billion dollars.”
Wealth channel allocates only 1% to 3% of $145T to private markets
“I'd say roughly about, on average, one to three percent of the 145 trillion of assets that Bain talks about is actually allocated to private markets within the wealth channel.”
Blackstone, Blue Owl, KKR, and Apollo have hundreds serving wealth
“Blackstone has a team of hundreds of people. Blue Owl, hundreds of people, KKR, Apollo, hundreds of people to serve the Wealth Channel.”
High-quality niche managers will raise private wealth capital
“So I think there's room for really high quality, smaller, more niche managers. They're really good at something. They will be able to raise capital from the wealth channel.”
Wirehouses will drive largest wealth flows into private markets
“The wires, I still think will be the largest source of flows from the wealth channel into private markets.”
Mega-GPs will benefit most from wirehouse wealth distribution
“What it means is the biggest GPs Are probably best placed to cover the wires because they have the resources to actually cover all the different advisors, serve them, whether it's doing large events with them, whether it's going and meeting that advisor in the…”
Independent RIA channel is growing assets faster than wirehouses
“We're starting to see the independent channel, which is the fastest growing part of the wealth management space. It's growing faster in terms of assets than the wire houses.”
Robinhood, Revolut, and SoFi will offer private market products
“And even I think we'll get to the Robin Hoods, the Revoluts, the SoFi's, which has embedded some private markets products to the wealth channel within their complex as well.”
Private banks must offer proprietary deals as private market access commoditizes
“Those types of things I think are what private banks are trying to do to differentiate themselves because now the wealth management space is getting increasingly competitive and crowded when it comes to accessing private markets.”
PE holds $5-6T and private credit has reached $1.7T
“If you think about the different strategies within private markets, private equity, which has the largest pool of capital within the 15 trillion dollars or so of private markets assets, so it's about five or six trillion dollars of assets. Private credit is gr…”
Private credit secondaries market has grown 17x to $30B
“You have private credit secondaries, which has grown, I think, 17 times. Still a small market is like thirty billion of assets, but growing because private credit is now growing.”
Hedge funds are expanding into private credit and longer-lock vehicles
“You are starting to see some hedge funds think about private credit, and you are starting to see some hedge funds think about longer lock vehicles. So they're kind of getting into certain aspects of private markets that a larger multi-strategy alternative asse…”
Most UHNW investors cannot name three alternative asset providers
“I'll call out a Bain survey from twenty-twenty-two. Bain and company asked 418 ultra high net worth individuals. Name three firms that come to mind when you think of alternative assets and who are the providers. First answer, the biggest answer in the bubble c…”
Evergreen funds charge lower fees and carry on NAV
“Evergreen structures are generally lower fee, one 25, one 50, maybe one 75 in certain cases, lower carry, but the management fee and carry is charged on net asset value.”
Only roughly 200 evergreen funds existed in the US in late 2024
“Goldman had a report on evergreens in the fall of twenty-twenty-four, and there's really only in the U.S. At the time, there's like 200 evergreen funds. So there's not a lot of choices relative to the thousands of closed-end funds that people can invest in.”
Evergreen funds issue 1099s instead of K-1s
“Evergreens just make it easier, the capital compounds in theory, and then you get a 10 99, you don't get a K-one. So it's just easier from a operational perspective.”
Drawdown PE requires high-teens returns to match evergreen MOIC
“If you're in a drawdown fund, you have to generate high teens returns to get the same multiple uninvested capital over a ten-year period as you would if you're getting low teens IRRs in an evergreen structure.”
Insurance companies will become much larger private market allocators
“Insurance companies are going to be much bigger allocators. Lincoln recently partnered with Bain and Partners Group, these really strategic partnerships. They have hundreds of billions of dollars in the general account to invest into private markets and So the…”