"Building diversified portfolios for wealth clients using the classic drawdown structures that institutions use is almost impossible to do at scale..." - Jake Elmhurst [00:03:20]
"We used to get complaints... why is it that this foot of paperwork comes through the letter box and kills the cat every time we need to subscribe to a fund?" - Jake Elmhurst [00:05:11]
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"If you look at the checkbox of what makes a good private equity investment, farming satisfies none of them." - Jake Elmhurst [00:06:41]
"One of the hardest things to do as a GP is to find good assets... if you have the opportunity to hold a great asset longer, ride that growth cycle for longer, why wouldn't you do that?" - Jake Elmhurst [00:09:26]
"When you buy a secondary, you actually can see the assets you're buying, in contrast with when you invest in a buyout fund... it's the ultimate blind trust trade." - Jake Elmhurst [00:15:25]
"There's an undue focus on discount... We don't really think about how big is the discount or how tight is the discount. What we're doing in our investment process is analyzing and forecasting the future cash flow..." - Jake Elmhurst [00:28:37]
Speakers & Credentials
Michael Sidmore: Founder of Alt Goes Mainstream (AGM) and Co-Founder of Broad Haven Ventures. Host of the discussion, orchestrating the conversation live at the SuperReturn conference in Berlin.
Jake Elmhurst: Head of Capital Formation and Head of Wealth Solutions at Coller Capital. A 26-year veteran at UBS, where he operated within the Private Funds Group working with leading General Partners (GPs) before spearheading wealth alternative distribution initiatives.
1. Executive Summary
The private markets landscape is undergoing a structural transformation where liquidity constraints are elevating secondary market strategies from tactical trades to essential core portfolio solutions [00:08:30].
Distributing alternatives through private wealth channels remains bottlenecked by the operational friction of traditional drawdown funds, driving a necessary shift toward perpetual, semi-liquid product structures [00:03:20].
Continuation Vehicles (CVs) have emerged as a critical mechanism for GPs to retain high-conviction compounder assets without relinquishing upside, fundamentally altering secondary market volume dynamics [00:09:26].
The secondary sector requires massive balance sheet scale to efficiently underwrite complex portfolios, accelerating industry consolidation toward mega-firms while squeezing out mid-market generalists [00:13:41].
Secondary investments inherently mitigate blind-pool primary risk and accelerate cash distributions, historically delivering superior median returns with tighter dispersion bands over a 20-year horizon [00:16:18].
Sophisticated underwriting in secondaries prioritizes the acquisition of growing, cash-generative assets at fair prices rather than aggressively targeting deeply discounted, stagnant tail-end portfolios [00:18:53].
LPs are increasingly forced to utilize secondaries as an active portfolio management tool to dynamically rebalance allocations, optimize balance sheets, and navigate complex CV election decisions [00:30:56].
2. Chronological Table of Contents
[00:00:12] - Introduction & Background: 26 Years across UBS and Coller Capital
[00:03:20] - Operational Friction in Wealth Channels & The Semi-Liquid Shift
[00:25:22] - The Next Evolution: Bespoke Solutions & Credit Secondaries
[00:28:37] - Misconceptions Around NAV Discounts & Future Cash Flow Valuation
[00:30:56] - Secondaries as Active Portfolio Management Tools
3. Detailed Thematic Summary
The Wealth Channel Bottleneck & Operational Friction
Traditional closed-end drawdown fund structures create immense operational barriers when scaled across individual wealth client bases [00:03:20]. Executing manual capital calls on a scattered retail base introduces systemic error risks and administrative fatigue.
The physical friction of subscription processing historically hindered allocation; advisors reported client complaints regarding foot-thick stacks of physical paperwork capable of "killing the cat" upon delivery [00:05:11].
To unlock wealth distribution, the industry had to innovate product structures, moving toward perpetual, semi-liquid vehicles acting similarly to mutual funds (pioneered early by firms like Partners Group and Blackstone) [00:04:13].
Perpetual funds solve the episodic nature of closed-end funds, giving financial advisors a continuous tool to dynamically manage client exposure without needing to relearn new fund mandates every few months [00:04:48].
The Secondary Market as Structural Relief
A macro slowdown in distribution pacing forces LPs into difficult cash-flow management scenarios to fund outstanding capital commitments [00:08:51]. Secondaries operate as a release valve, preventing LPs from liquidating public assets to rebalance their allocations.
From the GP perspective, originating premium assets with elite management teams consumes 80% to 90% of total operational energy [00:09:39]. Rather than selling these compounders to competing buyout funds, GPs utilize Continuation Vehicles to hold the assets longer.
The secondary market has ballooned to over $200 billion in total volume, currently split equally between traditional LP-led secondary portfolio trades ($100B) and GP-led/CV structures ($100B) [00:10:11].
Despite GP enthusiasm for CVs, LPs actively enforce concentration limits; most LPs will only tolerate a "couple of assets per fund" rolling into continuation structures before demanding cash distributions [00:11:41].
Scale Dynamics and Industry Consolidation
Effectively accessing the wealth channel mimics the consolidation seen in public equity asset management—it requires massive scale, brand awareness, and heavy marketing spend that small private equity shops cannot achieve [00:13:25].
Private markets are bifurcating: mega-firms dominate multi-channel asset gathering, while boutique niche managers survive strictly by delivering hyper-specialized alpha [00:13:55]. The mid-market is structurally compromised.
Scale is paramount for secondary buyers to remove execution risk. Sellers of massive portfolios prefer a single buyer offering a holistic solution rather than attempting to assemble a mosaic of smaller buyers to clear a transaction [00:27:43].
This scale requirement has catalyzed explosive growth in adjacent solutions, such as credit secondaries, which Michael Sidmore notes have seen roughly 30x growth over the last 5 years [00:25:29].
Underwriting Nuance & Constructing the Evergreen Portfolio
Secondaries inherently bypass the blind-pool risk of primary funds; buyers underwrite fully transparent, maturing portfolio companies [00:15:25]. This visibility has driven a 20-year history of secondary median returns outstripping primary buyout performance with tighter dispersion bands [00:16:18].
Michael Sidmore points out that optimal secondary opportunities often arise from forced sellers—such as endowments like Yale or Harvard—who must offload high-quality assets due to external liquidity pressures rather than asset degradation [00:18:35].
The industry fixates heavily on NAV discounts, but underwriting deep discounts often leads to adverse selection of low-growth tail-end assets [00:19:36]. Proper valuation focuses on discounting forecasted future cash flows against the firm's cost of capital [00:29:08].
In evergreen fund construction, blending strategies is vital. Diversified LP-led portfolios deliver highly predictable, accelerated cash flows, while concentrated GP-led assets—which generally carry a 5-year expected hold period—are layered in sequentially to act as return-enhancing kickers [00:23:27].
The Reference Vault
4. Data & Figures
Data Point
Value
Context
Timestamp
Professional Tenure at UBS
26 years
Jake Elmhurst's career duration navigating private funds and wealth solutions before joining Coller Capital.
The Blind-Pool vs. Known-Asset Dichotomy [00:15:25]
Primary private equity commitments rely on a classic blind pool where LPs delegate uncalled capital to be deployed into unknown future deals over a multi-year horizon. Secondary investing radically inverts this trust paradigm into a precise, granular valuation exercise on existing portfolio companies. By underwriting mature assets with visible EBITDA trends, operating histories, and established management execution, secondary buyers effectively eliminate initial ramp-up risk, leading directly to structurally tighter return dispersion bands relative to primary venture or buyout funds.
Underwriting Asset Growth vs. Discount Capture [00:18:53]
Retail and institutional investors alike frequently harbor the misconception that the fundamental engine of secondary returns is purchasing assets at deep NAV discounts. Elmhurst dismantles this fallacy, noting that steep discounts often signal distressed, stagnant, or "tail-end" assets where exit liquidity is highly unpredictable. The superior framework prioritizes purchasing robust enterprise growth at fair valuations. If a high-growth asset's exit timeline slips by 12 to 24 months, the underlying operational expansion protects the underwritten IRR, whereas a stagnant discounted asset suffers severe return degradation from the delay.
Evergreen Liquidity Laddering [00:23:07]
Constructing a resilient perpetual (evergreen) vehicle requires a hybrid architectural approach to cash flow engineering. A secondary manager balances broadly diversified, highly cash-generative LP-led portfolios as the foundational liquidity base. On top of this, they selectively stack concentrated, high-upside GP-led continuation vehicles. Because these GP-led assets typically require a 5-year hold before realization, acquiring them frequently in small bites over time creates a continuous "liquidity ladder." As the fund matures, the staggered exits of the concentrated assets begin mirroring the predictable, smooth distribution pace of the baseline LP portfolio.
Bespoke LP Solutions at Scale [00:26:37]
As the secondary market moves away from the legacy fund-of-funds model, the industry's ultimate evolution is providing bespoke, strategic balance sheet optimization at scale. Different segments of the market require radically different structural solutions; for example, highly regulated insurance companies require unique capital-efficiency structuring to optimize their balance sheets. A modern secondary platform acts as a multifaceted toolkit capable of ingesting diverse asset classes (equity, credit, real assets) to solve highly specific, individual LP liquidity and regulatory problems without fracturing execution efficiency.
Secondaries as Active Institutional Portfolio Management [00:30:56]
Historically, institutional private equity allocation was an inherently passive exercise: LPs committed capital and waited 10 to 12 years for the natural fund lifespan to run off. The proliferation of GP-led Continuation Vehicles has shattered this passivity. When a GP forces an election decision—roll capital into the CV or take liquidity—the LP must suddenly act as a direct underwriter of single assets. This dynamic elevates secondaries from a tactical liquidity trade into an essential mechanism for active portfolio management, demanding rigorous real-time resource allocation from LP investment committees.
6. Anecdotes
The Cat-Killing Sub-Doc Paperwork [00:05:11]
To illustrate the intense operational friction that historically locked individual wealth out of alternative investments, Elmhurst recounted his early days trying to distribute institutional funds to retail advisors. The manual subscription process was so burdensome that advisors and clients complained about receiving foot-thick stacks of physical paperwork capable of "killing the cat" when violently dropped through the mail slot. This physical bottleneck directly catalyzed the wealth industry's aggressive shift toward single-subscription, perpetual semi-liquid vehicles.
The 23-Generation Yorkshire Farm (1348 Black Death Survival) [00:05:54]
Reflecting on his departure from UBS in 2021 after 26 years of corporate finance, Elmhurst details his return to his ancestral farm in Yorkshire. His family line has continuously farmed the exact same land since 1348, having transitioned from serfs to property owners during the peak of the Black Death due to resilient family genetics. Elmhurst uses this profound timeline to inject humor into the conversation, drawing a stark contrast between centuries of grounded agrarian survival and the abstract financial engineering of modern private equity.
Why Farming Fails Every PE Investment Criteria [00:06:41]
Connecting his farming heritage to his day job, Elmhurst walks through a mental exercise testing agriculture against standard private equity underwriting criteria. He concludes that farming fails every single metric: it is deeply capital-intensive, highly regulated, exposed to volatile global commodity pricing, and entirely dependent on entirely unmanageable variables like the weather. He uses this anecdote to explain why agricultural success requires strict diversification and rapid execution during tight seasonal windows—principles that translate directly into secondary portfolio risk management.
The Yale and Harvard Forced Seller Paradigm [00:18:35]
While discussing the nuance of purchasing assets at a discount versus buying high-quality assets, host Michael Sidmore cites elite endowment funds like Yale and Harvard. He brings them up as historical archetypes of "forced sellers"—entities that occasionally need to liquidate world-class, premium private equity portfolios for macro reasons entirely outside of their control (such as broader institutional liquidity crunches). This perfectly illustrates the ideal secondary entry point: acquiring high-quality compounders at a fair price rather than dumpster-diving for deeply discounted, impaired assets.
7. References & Recommendations
Companies, Firms & Institutions
Coller Capital [00:00:27] - Secondary private markets investment manager, established in 1990 and known as a pioneer in institutionalizing the asset class.
UBS / UBS Global Wealth Management [00:00:38] - The global financial institution where Elmhurst spent nearly three decades, specifically cited for its pivot to scale private markets access to retail investors.
Broad Haven Ventures [00:00:12] - The venture firm co-founded by host Michael Sidmore.
Alt Goes Mainstream (AGM) [00:00:12] - A specialized media and research platform focused on the democratization and distribution of alternative investments.
Blackstone [00:01:58] - Global alternative asset manager referenced heavily regarding both early institutional fundraising and their subsequent dominance in rolling out perpetual, semi-liquid wealth products.
Apollo Global Management [00:01:58] - Global alternative investment manager cited alongside Blackstone as an early titan of the fund placement space.
Ares Management [00:01:58] - Alternative investment manager referenced as a major player that Elmhurst helped raise capital for during their early growth phases.
Partners Group [00:04:20] - Private markets firm specifically highlighted by Elmhurst as a first-mover and early pioneer in launching semi-liquid evergreen products for the wealth channel.
EQT [00:30:36] - A global private equity firm cited by Sidmore for successfully institutionalizing an active ownership and operational management model across their portfolio.
Educational Endowments
Yale University Endowment [00:18:35] - Referenced as an archetypal institutional LP that occasionally becomes a forced seller of high-quality assets due to external liquidity needs.
Harvard University Endowment [00:18:35] - Mentioned alongside Yale to illustrate how premium portfolios enter the secondary market for non-fundamental reasons.
People
Michael Sidmore [00:00:12] - Host, Founder of AGM, Co-Founder of Broad Haven Ventures.
Jake Elmhurst [00:00:20] - Head of Capital Formation and Wealth Solutions at Coller Capital, guest of the episode.
Jeremy Coller [00:20:52] - Founder of Coller Capital, noted as one of the original founding architects of the secondary private equity industry.
Historical Events & Conferences
SuperReturn International (Berlin) [00:00:20] - The premier global private equity conference serving as the live venue for this recording.
The Black Death (1348) [00:06:09] - The devastating 14th-century bubonic plague pandemic referenced as the precise historical moment the Elmhurst family transitioned from serfs to landowners in Yorkshire.
Sep 3, 2026
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Elmhurst Family Farm Lineage
23 generations
Direct hereditary ownership line farming the exact same Yorkshire land parcel.