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What’s Next for Semi-Liquid Funds? Fee Compression “Managers rushing to develop alts strategies for the advisor market have not only been chasing vast sums of high-net-worth capital but also the prospect of higher fees than they can generate from mutual funds or private vehicles. And managers have mostly found investors willing to pay the base fees for semi-liquid alts funds.” (FundFire)

ETF Slop: How Wall Street Flooded the Market With Gimmick Funds “Just as AI slop means endless articles, videos, and posts that are easy to create and empty of substance, ETF slop means endless new tickers that deliver little of lasting value. So far in 2025, issuers have launched nearly 700 ETFs, already close to last year’s record with four months still left to go. With more than 4,600 ETFs now listed in the U.S., about 15% of the entire market has been born this year alone. And much of it is slop.” (ETF.com)

What Investors Need to Know About Private Assets Managers “Traditional public market asset managers have partnered with alternatives managers to develop strategies. For the managers, it seems like a win-win situation: Public market asset managers get quicker and probably cheaper access to private asset deals and operational insight, while private market managers get an “in” to public market asset managers’ existing retail or wealth channel distribution networks.” (Morningstar)

Vanguard Hires Nuveen’s Stout to Head Private Markets Strategy “Vanguard Group hired an outsider to head its strategy for private markets, signaling that Chief Executive Officer Salim Ramji intends to make a bigger push into the asset class.” (Bloomberg)

Why You Should Pay Attention to Active ETFs “Active managers long held out on ETFs because of their daily transparency. Some companies went to great lengths to create nontransparent ETFs for this reason. But the benefit of opacity is unclear for investors.” (Morningstar)

Why Apollo CEO Marc Rowan says the traditional investing model is ‘broken’ “With the stock market increasingly driven by passive investing and indexing, and dominated by a handful of mega-tech stocks, investors seeking diversification will need to start turning to the rapidly expanding private markets, Rowan told CNBC.” (CNBC)

Alts Demand Driving Up Specialist Pay, Divisional Head Hires “Asset managers are ponying up more to hire product specialists as demand for alternative investments intensifies – and they're bringing on additional divisional leaders to support the growing mix of specialists and generalists. Average total compensation for advisor-facing specialists reached $322,563 in the second quarter of 2025, up nearly 13% from a year earlier, according to data from Cerulli Associates.” (FundFire)

US sliding towards 1930s-style autocracy, warns Ray Dalio “Hedge fund billionaire Ray Dalio has warned Donald Trump’s America is drifting into 1930s-style autocratic politics — and said other investors are too scared of the president to speak up.” (Financial Times)

How BlackRock and Goldman Sachs are bringing Wall Street’s hottest asset class to 401(k)s “Wall Street’s largest firms are championing a new cause. They are bringing alternative assets — once reserved for the ultra-wealthy — to the portfolios of individual investors.” (CNBC)

REITs Own 570,000 Properties in the U.S. “Data centers had the largest year-over-year increase, up 15% from 2023 to 352 properties at the end of 2024. Retail, storage, and apartment property types all had increases of 30% or more since 2018, with retail up 39%, storage up 33%, and apartment up 30%. Retail also had the second highest annual increase, up 9%.” (Nareit)