Episode summary
Alts Pulse #18: The Global Boom in Alternative Investments w/ iCapital CEO, Lawrence Calcano
Alt Goes Mainstream
· · Hosts: Michael Sidgmore · Guests: Lawrence Calcano
Summary
Lawrence Calcano argued that alternative investments are still early in adoption globally, including in the US, even as interest is accelerating across Asia, Europe, Canada, and Latin America. He said Asia is iCapital’s largest market outside the US, with about $18 billion there versus about $12 billion in Europe, and he described strong demand from advisers and private banks for access to alts.
He said the go-to-market model differs by region: iCapital began in the US with independent wealth and RIAs, while outside the US the entry point is more private bank focused. But the product preferences are broadly similar, with evergreen structures, drawdown funds, and broader product shelves helping advisers serve both wealthy and accredited clients. Lawrence also argued that the shift to models and multimanager solutions will make alts easier to allocate to, while still requiring significant education and boots-on-the-ground distribution.
On strategy, Lawrence emphasized personalization, modular platform design, and better use of data to improve client experiences without losing flexibility. He expects private-market allocations at major private banks to keep rising, with CIO targets often in the 15% to 30% range, and said the firms that win will combine technology, education, and local distribution presence.
Key takeaways
- Lawrence Calcano said Asia is iCapital’s largest market outside the US, at about $18 billion, and the region is still early in alts adoption.
- Lawrence said evergreen structures are helping advisers serve broader client bases globally, not just in Asia.
- Lawrence expects the most successful GPs to invest in education and distribution, because alternatives are still largely “sold not bought.”
- Lawrence said model portfolios and custom solutions will coexist, but both should support significantly larger alternative allocations over time.
- Lawrence said iCapital is investing in personalization so different users see different products, workflows, and data based on their needs.
Notable quotes
“Asia is our largest market outside the US. Um I think we're up to about uh $18 billion uh in Asia broadly”
“I think it ends with people having significantly larger alt allocations”
“this is still an asset class that is being sold not bought”
“not a one-sizefits-all, obviously, as we've said”
How the episode opens
Welcome back to the alt pulse. I'm Michael Sigmore, co-founder and partner of Broad Haven Ventures and founder of the Alco mainstream podcast. I'm here with Lawrence Kalcano, chairman and CEO of I Capital. We got a lot to discuss today. You were in Asia recently. What was that like?
There's so much activity going on in Asia, really everywhere outside the US candidly, but it's it's incredible. there's just a a real um excitement around giving alternative products to advisers to help you know seed their clients uh and it's it's just taken off the interest in in learning about and allocating to alts. Where do you think a region like Asia is relative to the US as an example which has more AUM when you think about AUM in private markets more in the US than in Europe than in Asia?
So how do you think about where Asia is on its adoption of alt journey? I think it's still early but by the way I think the US is still early as well right I mean you still have a dynamic where you know a small number 25 30% of the advisers are doing 70% of the business and so while that's changing and the sort of uh growth in product design and so forth is helping to facilitate more advisers coming into the asset class um US is still uh in the early days and that's true about Asia it's true about Europe uh it's true about Canada Latin America as well But we're seeing it really pick up for I Capital. Asia is our largest market outside the US.
Um I think we're up to about uh $18 billion uh in Asia broadly. Uh whereas Europe is about 12. Uh Canada's uh a little over seven and Latin America is about 5 billion.
From the episode’s captions: roughly the first two minutes, lightly cleaned. Keep watching on YouTube →
Topics
- alternative investments
- private markets
- asia wealth management
- data-driven personalization
- evergreen products
Companies and tickers mentioned
- iCapital
Watch the episode
Summary, takeaways and quote selection by Octagon. Quotes are short excerpts; the full conversation is in the episode.
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Alt Goes Mainstream, this episode and its artwork belong to Michael Sidgmore. Octagon is not affiliated with the show; this page is an independent summary.
