Great Gray Trust Company announced Monday that it will be working with iCapital to offer private market solutions for DC plan sponsors and investors.
The company, a retirement investment provider specializing in collective investment trusts, has teamed with iCapital for a new partner in private markets manager evaluation, due diligence and construction of portfolios.
The new collaboration is designed to offer private market options as diversified choices for plan sponsors and advisors, built within a professionally managed retirement solution.
“Across the investment landscape, we’re seeing an increased demand for broader diversification, greater access to private markets and more sophisticated portfolio construction.”
iCapital Chair and CEO Lawrence Calcano
Rob Barnett, President and CEO of Great Gray Group, said the growing popularization of alternative investments means it is a good time to offer private market options, provided they are implemented responsibly and can be accessed and adopted simply by advisors, providing more choices for participants.
“We selected iCapital because of its extensive private markets expertise, market-leading technology and a commitment to education for plan sponsors and advisors,” Barnett said, in a release. “Together, we are focused on developing innovative solutions that can help retirement advisors access a broader opportunity set while supporting the governance and fiduciary standards required by defined contribution plans.”
Great Gray and iCapital are now working together to develop a suite of asset-class-specific CITs across a range of private equity, private credit and private real assets. The companies said the new private markets capabilities in these trusts will support manager selection, portfolio construction, liquidity management and ongoing oversight.
“Across the investment landscape, we’re seeing an increased demand for broader diversification, greater access to private markets and more sophisticated portfolio construction,” added Lawrence Calcano, Chair and CEO of iCapital. “Retirement investors should be able to benefit from these same advances through solutions that are scalable, professionally managed and aligned with the needs of plan sponsors and participants.”
Great Gray will set up the CITs and serve as their trustee, overseeing their servicing and maintaining high-level fiduciary authority over the investments. The new collaboration will also expand Great Gray’s flexPATH capabilities, a multi-manager glidepath framework that currently holds more than $130 billion in assets.
iCapital, meanwhile, will contribute its own due diligence on private markets, including manager evaluation, portfolio construction and investment lifecycle management capabilities—plus recommendations to Great Gray on the selection of underlying private markets managers, allocation design and liquidity management, as well as education for both advisors and plan sponsors.
Great Gray’s larger CIT holdings represent nearly $372 billion in fund assets. iCapital holds nearly $1.2 trillion in assets served on its global platforms, including $327 billion in alternative platform assets and $563 billion in client assets. The company’s digital services are used by almost 4,000 wealth management firms.
SEE ALSO:
• Private Market Investments Set for $2 Trillion Growth
• Great Gray flexPATH Acquisition Strengthens CIT services