Episode summary
How Elite RIAs Evaluate Private Markets | Dhruv Maniktala, CIO of True North Advisors
Dakota Live!
· · Hosts: Robert Morier · Guests: Dhruv Maniktala
Summary
Dhruv Maniktala argued that True North Advisors runs an institutional-style investment process inside a wealth management platform, with roughly $5 to $6 billion in assets and a private-markets toolkit built for qualified purchasers. He said the firm treats public and private opportunities as one opportunity set, but adapts the structure to the client’s liquidity needs, tax situation, and long time horizons. That has led the team to build a dedicated alternatives platform over the last seven years and to source opportunities for outside firms as well.
A major theme was how the firm evaluates managers. Dhruv said the team reviews roughly 1,500 opportunities a year to find only a handful that fit, using a champion-devil’s advocate process, investment committee debate, and deep follow-up diligence. He emphasized humility, integrity, and broad investment experience, while warning against oversized managers whose scale can limit alpha generation. He also said True North is selective about fund-of-funds, co-investments, and GP stakes, mainly using them when fees can be pushed down and conflicts can be controlled.
He also stressed liquidity as a portfolio design issue, not just an alternatives issue. True North uses fixed income and a liquid alternatives sleeve to preserve staying power, while sizing private bets so being wrong does not damage the overall portfolio. On technology, he said AI can improve research and pattern recognition, but it will also push more thinking toward consensus and make differentiated views more valuable.
Key takeaways
- Dhruv Maniktala said True North evaluates about 1,500 opportunities a year and still expects to invest in only about five.
- He prefers smaller but institutional managers because large asset managers can become the market and add less value.
- He said liquidity is a form of staying power and structures portfolios so clients can remain invested through drawdowns.
- He views diversification as managing underlying risk exposures, not just owning more names.
- He said AI will help synthesize information, but it will also crowd consensus trades and raise the value of variant views.
Notable quotes
“we look at our fixed income and fixed income allocation and we have a diversifier allocation call it an alternatives allocation that we can use to tap for liquidity”
“We will never exclude something just because it's an area of the market that we don't like”
“I think humility is really really important because everyone's makes mistakes and I would much rather my manager has made its mistake before than make it on the backs of our investors”
“the very definition of AI is going to be con driven towards consensus, right? It's taken in some sense an average of what the world is seeing and making predictions on that”
How the episode opens
Welcome to the Dakota Live podcast. I'm your host, Robert Morier. The goal of this podcast is to help you better know the people behind investment decisions.
We introduce you to chief investment officers, manager research professionals, and other industry leaders to help you sell in between the lines and better understand the investment sales ecosystem. If you're not familiar with Dakota and our Dakota live content, please visit our website at dakota.com. Before we get started, I need to read a brief disclosure.
This content is provided forformational purposes and should not be relied upon as recommendations or advice about investing in securities. All investments involve risk and may lose money. Dakota does not guarantee the accuracy of any of the information provided by the speaker who is not affiliated with Dakota.
Not a solicitation, testimonial, or an endorsement by Dakota or its affiliates. Nothing herein is intended to indicate approval, support or recommendation of the investment adviser or its supervised persons by Dakota. Today's episode is brought to you by Dakota Marketplace.
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Our guest today is Duv Manaktala. Duv is the chief investment officer and partner at True North Adviserss and chief investment officer of Western Alternative Strategies. In those roles, Droo oversees investment strategy, asset allocation, manager selection, portfolio construction, and alternative investment initiatives across the firm's client portfolios through Western Alternative Strategies.
From the episode’s captions: roughly the first two minutes, lightly cleaned. Keep watching on YouTube →
Topics
- private markets due diligence
- wealth management vs institutional investing
- liquidity risk
- manager research and portfolio construction
- ai in investment research
Companies and tickers mentioned
- True North Advisors
- Western Alternative Strategies
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Summary, takeaways and quote selection by Octagon. Quotes are short excerpts; the full conversation is in the episode.
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Dakota Live!, this episode and its artwork belong to Robert Morier. Octagon is not affiliated with the show; this page is an independent summary.
