Milton Berlinski, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Reverence Capital Partners, joined Keith Black, Managing Director of RIA Channel, at the CAIS Summit, to discuss the evolution of the financial services business and alternative investments.
After 26 years at Goldman Sachs, including roles in strategy and buyouts, Berlinski founded Reverence Capital Partners in 2013. The experience of Berlinski and his partners is now used to help middle market and upper middle market companies in the buyout process. Reverence has $13 billion in AUM, invested across private equity, opportunistic credit, and stressed real estate.
The financial services private equity fund invests in depositories and finance, asset and wealth management, insurance services, capital markets, and fintech/payments. Scale is becoming increasingly important in the financial services sector which allows each company to afford the substantial regulatory and technology costs.
Mass affluent investors historically had a difficult time investing in alternatives due to minimum investment sizes as high as $5 million and funds that may only have been offered to investors in the general partner’s prior funds. Reverence is an investor in CAIS because the firm is overcoming these barriers and making alternative investments accessible to mass affluent investors. While many advisors are educated about alternative investments, they still need more education on product characteristics, liquidity features, and fund duration before designing portfolios for their clients. A key consideration is the limited liquidity of alternative investments, many of which must be held for years. Growth in the secondary markets can enhance liquidity for investors in long-term alternative investment vehicles.
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