Collateralized Fund Obligations: The New Way Investors Are Financing Private-Market Portfolios
Private markets have created an unusual liquidity problem: investors can own valuable portfolios of private equity, private credit and other fund interests while still struggling to turn those assets into cash without selling them. That tension is helping collateralized fund obligations, or CFOs, gain attention. Rather than immediately selling a portfolio of private-market interests, a […]
Sports Franchises Are Becoming Family-Office Assets: The Investment Economics of Owning Scarcity
For most private businesses, high valuations can attract new competitors. If demand is strong enough, entrepreneurs can build another company, another hotel or another platform. Major professional sports franchises operate differently. Investors cannot simply create another top-tier team when valuations become attractive. Leagues control expansion, entry and ownership structures, making the supply of premier franchises […]
PIK Interest Explained: Benefits, Risks and Private Credit
A borrower can reduce its cash interest burden today while simultaneously increasing the amount it owes tomorrow. That is the central paradox behind PIK interest, or payment-in-kind interest, a financing mechanism that allows borrowers to defer some or all of their interest payments by adding the accrued amount to the outstanding loan balance. The structure […]
Private Aviation as an Asset Class: The Economics Behind Fractional Aircraft Ownership
Can a private jet function as an investable asset when ownership is divided among multiple users while the aircraft itself generates transportation utility, operating costs and depreciation? That question sits at the center of fractional aircraft ownership, a structure designed to give multiple owners access to business aircraft without requiring any one participant to purchase […]
NAV Lending: How Investors Are Turning Illiquid Private Assets Into a Source of Liquidity
A private investment can be valuable on paper and still leave its owner short of cash. That tension is becoming more important as private-equity distributions remain slower and investors look for ways to access liquidity without selling assets at potentially unfavorable prices. The result is a growing market for NAV lending loans secured against the […]
Next-Generation Carbon Credits: Why Nature-Based Carbon Removal Is Becoming an Investment Market
Carbon markets are entering a more important phase: investors and corporate buyers are becoming less interested in simply purchasing credits and more interested in understanding exactly what those credits represent. That shift is creating a new generation of next-generation carbon credits built around stronger measurement, more conservative carbon accounting, longer-term durability and better project monitoring. […]
Carried Interest in Private Equity: How Fund Structures Shape Investor Returns
“20% carried interest” sounds simple. It is not. An investor looking only at the headline carry percentage can miss some of the most important terms governing a private equity fund. The eventual economics can depend on the preferred return, catch-up provision, distribution waterfall, management fees, fund expenses, clawbacks and, importantly, when the general partner becomes […]
Opportunity Zones After the 2025 Tax Changes: What Investors Need to Know in 2026
The Opportunity Zone program is no longer simply approaching the end of its original tax timeline. The 2025 tax law fundamentally changed that trajectory, creating a permanent framework while leaving Opportunity Zones 2026 as an important transition year for investors. The changes also establish a new cycle of Opportunity Zone designations beginning January 1, 2027. […]
The Infrastructure Debt Boom: Why Institutional Investors Are Financing the Assets Behind AI and the Energy Transition
The next phase of the AI boom is not being built only in server racks. It requires data centers, electricity generation, transmission networks, storage systems and other physical infrastructure and those assets need enormous amounts of capital. That is creating a financing opportunity beyond technology stocks and infrastructure equity. The infrastructure debt boom is emerging […]
The Insurance Brokerage Buyout Wave: Why Recurring-Revenue Financial Services Are Attracting Private Capital
Private capital is increasingly treating insurance distribution as more than a collection of small agencies. Insurance brokerages can form scalable financial-services platforms built around client relationships, renewal-driven revenue and a fragmented acquisition landscape. That is helping drive the insurance brokerage buyout wave across the United States. The market is active, but it is becoming more […]
