The Great Portfolio Shift: How Private Wealth is Driving Demand for Alts and Credit Data Solutions

Interval, evergreen, and SMA structures cater to affluent retail investors

Investors are asking for liquidity, and two-thirds of managers surveyed now have at least one vehicle offering investors some form of periodic redemption (up from around half in 2023) via interval funds and BDFs.^viii Investors, particularly individuals, do not want to be tied up for 10 years without seeing returns, fueling interest in funds that offer some level of liquidity. Most of the marquee asset managers have launched semi-liquid evergreen funds, which have continuous capital raising and redemption features and can have widely diversified portfolios across vintage year, transaction type, industries, manager, asset classes, and geography.

Treasury managers need to harmonize heterogeneous datasets and valuation methodologies from these diversified portfolios. Moreover, they are often sourced from multiple administrators or sub-advisors, adding another level of complexity. To accomplish this, their data platform must offer real-time integration of performance, liquidity, and exposure data for up-to-date NAVs and other investor reports. High-end investors expect detailed insights into current returns, capital balances, and outstanding commitments.

UHNW investors and managers have also been embracing SMAs, for greater customizability of portfolio strategies and offsetting tax liabilities, since they offer direct ownership instead of being part of pooled vehicles. Hedge funds recorded a ~50% increase in investor requests for investment via SMAs in 2024 alone.^ix Recently, managers have been launching their own hedge funds on the backs of three or four SMAs — or even a single SMA from a single client. This structure captures the desirable HNW investors, while also freeing up cash and preserving better liquidity.^x Firms that want to capitalize on this trend among wealthy investors would install centralized data architectures capable of unifying valuations, positions, and risk metrics across bespoke account structures.

All of these different funds require unique datasets to satisfy retail investor reporting requests, with timely and precise reporting.

Private credit retail boom and data challenges within

Despite the sounding of systemic risk alarms by prominent industry mouthpieces, the private credit democratization boom continues, filling the lending gap with direct, floating-rate structures, and attractive risk-adjusted returns. Retail investors are gaining exposure to the asset class by way of various structures, including ETFs, open-ended private credit/real estate funds, and feeder funds. Asset-based finance (ABF) is ruling the private debt roost right now, representing an estimated $25 trillion ABF market that is showing no signs of slowing. According to SIFMA, asset-backed securities issuance and trading grew almost 17% year over year in both months of September and October 2025.^xi However, ABF’s large pools of loans mean that firms scaling ABF portfolios often run into difficulties bringing new loan tapes into their systems, ingesting and normalizing disparate data and from many sources dealing with tens or hundreds of thousands of borrowers and data for the underlying collateral. Sound loan tape management is the prerequisite to managers’ seamless monitoring of portfolio health, calculating daily NAV, ensuring accurate forecasts, compliance, and investor trust.