Placement agent Reach Capital targets private wealth with new fund distribution service
Reach Capital, a placement agent and advisory firm, has launched a new service for the private wealth market.
The offering, which had a soft launch at the start of this year, structures local funds and distributes them to independent wealth managers. It is currently being rolled out in France before being expanded to other European countries.
“You hear a lot of noise around the democratisation of private markets,” William Barrett, Reach’s co-founder, told Alternative Credit Investor.
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“Big firms such as Blackstone and KKR have raised a lot of money from private wealth.
“In Europe, a lot of firms are looking at the wealth market but don’t know how to target it. We saw it as a great opportunity for an adviser like us to enter the market.”
Unlike the US, Europe is a fragmented market with different regulations and wealth management industries in each geography.
“The local structure of private wealth managers works in different ways,” Barrett said. “In some countries it’s concentrated around banks and in others it’s independent wealth managers. There are also different incentives.
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“Additionally, there are different regulations on what products can be sold to retail market. It’s usually local products that can be sold to retail.”
Reach’s new offering structures local French funds and distributes them to more than 300 French independent wealth managers.
“Private markets is not an easy thing to sell to non-professional investors but it feels like France is opening up to it,” Barrett said.
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Reach is currently exploring the German market to expand its private wealth service but Barrett said that it is “very early stage”.
“We’re exploring regulation, understanding the incentives and capacity to sell these products,” he added.