"Evergreen Funds Disrupting Private Markets as Education Gap Persists for Wealth Investors, Says Hamilton Lane's Hope"

Richard Hope, Global Co-head at Hamilton Lane, discusses the challenges facing private wealth investors entering private markets in an interview from IPEM Cannes 2025.

Key points covered include the critical need for investor education, simplified access for private wealth investors, and how evergreen funds are revolutionizing the industry. Richard also shares insights from Hamilton Lane's recent wealth survey, highlighting growing advisor interest in private market allocations and the shift toward infrastructure investments as the next frontier for private wealth portfolios.

Hamilton Lane is a private markets investment manager with more than 30 years of experience in the sector. The firm manages approximately $130 billion in discretionary assets and $900 billion in aggregate capital, making it one of the largest players in private markets investing.

Key Points from the Interview:

• Education and complexity remain major barriers: Private wealth investors face significant challenges in understanding private markets and the industry needs to provide the necessary education to support these investors. The complex legal structures, lengthy investment processes, and 10-year time horizons typical in private markets create accessibility issues for wealth clients who prefer simpler, more immediate investment options.
• Evergreen funds disrupting traditional models: Hamilton Lane views evergreen funds as industry disruptors with the potential to lower the hurdles for private wealth investors. Hamilton Lane has $9 billion in assets under management in evergreen structures and is seeing rapid growth in the space. Surprisingly, 20% of their evergreen fund capital comes from institutional investors seeking flexibility rather than waiting years for traditional funds to distribute capital.
• Seeded portfolios offer immediate deployment: Unlike closed-end funds that take five years to build portfolios, evergreen funds act like mutual funds in providingimmediate access to a portfolio of existing investments. This particularly appeals to private wealth investors who have shorter investment horizons and want to put their capital to work immediately.
• Strong advisor momentum toward private markets: Hamilton Lane's recent wealth survey revealed that 60% of wealth advisors plan to allocate at least 10% of client portfolios to private markets, with half of these targeting 20% allocations, representing a significant shift in advisor attitudes.
• Infrastructure emerging as next growth area: While early adopters focused on private equity, Hamilton Lane’s survey identified infrastructure as the major theme for 2025, with advisors looking to expand beyond initial PE allocations into the asset class, as well as into private credit.