Episode summary
Episode 38: The Model Revolution: Scaling Private Markets Access Through Technology and Education...
Alternative Allocations
· · Hosts: Tony Davidow · Guests: Dana D'Auria
Summary
Dana argues that private markets can add meaningful diversification and return potential for wealth clients, but only if advisors understand the operational differences from public funds. She says the biggest issues are liquidity, valuation, and the fact that “semi-liquid” vehicles are still illiquid in a stressed market. Quarterly redemption windows and daily versus lagged valuation can create expectations gaps, so education is central.
The discussion also focuses on how models can help advisors scale access to alternatives. Dana explains that Investnet is building ways to put interval funds into unified managed accounts and model portfolios, whether an advisor wants a ready-made model or wants to construct one using approved funds. In her view, the platform should handle trading, rebalancing, windows, and due diligence so advisors can spend more time on client-facing work.
She is most constructive on private equity, private credit, and real assets, and less enthusiastic about hedge funds as a wealth solution. Her broader point is that alternatives are worth the effort, but only when advisors ask the right questions about holdings, leverage, fees, liquidity, and redemption mechanics.
Key takeaways
- Dana says the term “semi-liquid” is misleading because quarterly liquidity does not guarantee cash when investors most want out.
- Investnet is expanding model access to interval funds inside unified managed accounts, with either turnkey models or open-architecture fund selection.
- Dana says dispersion among private-market managers is wider than in public markets, making manager due diligence especially important.
- She is more constructive on private equity, private credit, and real assets than on hedge funds for wealth clients.
- Dana argues advisors should use asset-manager education, but still dig into each fund’s liquidity, fees, and redemption rules.
Notable quotes
“5% liquidity per quarter is sort of a meaningless number to the average person in that fund”
“there has to be an understanding that, and we take this for granted, but I don't know how well understood this is in a retail client base”
“the value-add there is that the advisor is outsourcing to us managing those windows”
How the episode opens
This is Alternative Allocations by Franklin Templeton. A monthly podcast where we share practical, relatable advice, and discuss new investment ideas with leaders in the field. Please subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcast to make sure you don't miss an episode. Here is your host, Tony Davidow.
Welcome to the latest episode of the Alternative Allocations podcast series. I'm thrilled to be joined today by Dana Diorio of Investnet. And Dana, you've got a really fascinating role.
You're the Chief Investment Officer of the Solutions business. And Investnet's a really fascinating company with a lot of growth going on, a lot of innovation. Maybe just share a little bit for our audience what you do on a day-to-day basis, and then we'll get into some specific areas of interest.
Yeah, happy to. And Tony, thank you so much for having me. It's great to be here.
My role at Investnet is twofold. One, as Chief Investment Officer, I get the great joy of working with all the investment people, being on the investment committee, the portfolio managers, the due diligence teams, etc. Investnet is great as an ecosystem.
It's a financial services platform where we get to sit at the junction of 600-odd other asset managers, wealth managers, all the big independent insurance, bank, broker-dealer, wealth managers, big RIAs are clients. So, I get access to so much great information as it relates to investments and how people are thinking about investments. So, that's a fantastic position.
And then on the other side, I serve as the group president in the solutions department, which basically means running the business of the managed accounts platform or TAMP, if you will.
And I know one of your big strategic initiatives over the last year has been focused on model portfolios.
From the episode’s captions: roughly the first two minutes, lightly cleaned. Keep watching on YouTube →
Topics
- private markets access
- technology platforms for advisors
- liquidity and valuation
- semi-liquid investments
- private equity and private credit
Companies and tickers mentioned
- BEN
- Franklin Templeton
- Envestnet Solutions
- Symmetry Partners
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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Alternative Allocations, this episode and its artwork belong to Franklin Templeton. Octagon is not affiliated with the show; this page is an independent summary.
