Dakota Research Podcast

In this episode of Dakota Insights, Chris LeRoy and Alex deMarco break down Dakota's first-half 2026 review of RIA M&A, covering 205 announced transactions and roughly $400.7 billion in acquired client AUM — and the two forces driving that number: a deal count that's settled into a remarkably steady ~100-per-quarter pace, and a dollar total that swings hard depending on whether a single mega-deal lands in a given quarter, as Carlyle's $72.6 billion majority stake in MAI Capital Management did in Q1.

They walk through who's actually capturing that volume — Cerity Partners, Hightower Advisors, and Wealthspire lead H1 AUM, while Carson Group and Wealth Enhancement stand out as the quarter's most prolific serial acquirers — and unpack the widening gap between mega-platforms like CAPTRUST, Creative Planning, and Mariner Wealth Advisors, which have scaled past $1 trillion and largely locked in centralized approval lists, and the emerging $5–50 billion tier (Prime Capital Financial, EP Wealth Advisors, Waverly Advisors, Merit Financial Advisors, Arax Advisory Partners, and OnePoint BFG Wealth Partners) where manager relationships haven't consolidated yet. They also dig into how deal structures are diversifying beyond the traditional majority buyout, with minority stakes, continuation vehicles, and the first PE-to-PE recaps all gaining ground.

They close with the quarter's active and rumored transactions — THL's process to sell a controlling stake in Hightower, CD&R's minority sale in Focus Financial, the Carlyle-versus-Bain bidding war for Wealth Enhancement, and smaller moves from Parallel Advisors, Summit Trail, LPL, Novare Capital, and Macquarie — plus a look ahead to H2 2026, where another record year is likely regardless of whether a new mega-deal materializes.

In this episode of Dakota Insights, Chris LeRoy and Alex deMarco break down Dakota's Quarterly Private Equity Asset Class Review for Q2 2026, covering $153.2 billion in closed fund capital and the three forces reshaping where that money is going: concentration at the top, a growing role for the middle market's differentiated players, and the rising share captured by secondaries and GP-led liquidity solutions.

They walk through the quarter's biggest fund closes — KKR's $23 billion North America Fund XIV, EQT's $15.6 billion BPEA IX, and Blackstone's $13 billion Asia Fund III among them — and unpack why Asia-Pacific buyout funds had an outsized quarter, why generalist mid-market and first-time managers are seeing extended fundraising timelines, and why GP stakes, royalties, and IP-focused strategies are pulling in capital for their uncorrelated return profiles. They dig into performance data across the 2015–2024 vintage years (IRR, TVPI, and DPI), including the notable dip in the 2021 vintage and a widening gap between top- and bottom-decile managers that points to manager selection mattering more than ever.

They also cover the quarter's headline deals and macro developments — Bain's Everllence stake, EQT's Intertek take-private, the record-setting SpaceX IPO, geopolitical shocks from the Strait of Hormuz, EU insurance reform favoring PE allocations, and the push to open 401(k) markets to private assets — plus early signs of stress in evergreen and semi-liquid vehicles even as private wealth adoption of alternatives keeps climbing.

In this episode of Dakota Insights, Chris and Alex unpack GP stakes investing — buying minority equity interests in the management companies that run alternative asset funds, rather than in the funds themselves, and what that means for both allocators and fund managers.

They cover how a typical deal is structured (10–30% stakes, priced at 10–15x management company EBITDA), the market's evolution from Petershill and Dyal's early days through Blue Owl's rise to a $75 billion platform, and why the center of gravity has shifted decisively toward middle-market managers since 2022. They walk through why GPs actually sell — founder liquidity, succession planning, platform capitalization — and why LPs have piled in, including a performance comparison where Blue Owl's GP Stakes Fund III posted a 3.00x net MoIC and 21.6% net IRR with no J-curve, beating traditional PE benchmarks.

They also dig into the wealth channel's first entry into the strategy through semi-liquid and tokenized evergreen vehicles, the adjacent GP seeding strategy and where the line between the two has blurred, and the live open question hanging over the market: how 2016–2020 vintage put rights will resolve as they begin to vest for the first time.

In this episode of the Dakota Insights Interview Series, hosts Chris Leroy and Alex DeMarco sit down with Marius Vygantas and Richard Banks, founding partners of Soling Partners, a boutique advisory firm focused exclusively on the Middle East. Together, Marius and Richard bring over 50 years of combined experience in the region, and they walk through everything a fund manager needs to know before engaging the Gulf — from how to think about the allocator landscape to the patience and partnership required to succeed.

Marius founded Soling in 2015 after a decade at Mubadala, Abu Dhabi's sovereign wealth fund, and three years with HH Mohammed bin Rashid's Executive Office in Dubai. Richard joined in 2016, bringing deep expertise in financial communications and business development across MENA built over 30 years. Today, Soling advises 15 clients managing roughly $4 trillion in assets and has helped facilitate approximately $1.92 billion in capital out of the region.

The conversation opens with a framework that any manager approaching the Middle East should internalize: the four engagement quadrants. These range from passive sovereigns investing into fund structures, to tailoring sovereigns like ADIA, Mubadala, and QIA that actively shape their capital partnerships, to pensions and family offices seeking operational relationships, to regional aggregator platforms that syndicate capital from a long tail of families. Understanding which quadrant a prospective allocator sits in is essential before the first conversation.

From there, Marius and Richard make clear that the entire region operates on two foundational principles: partnership and patience. The GCC is a verbal, consensus-driven culture where trust is built through sustained dialogue over time — not a transactional market where a pitch deck closes a deal. The baseline engagement arc is two years, with two to three in-person visits required just to establish a relationship. Managers who treat the region as a quick capital raise and disappear when results don't come immediately risk reputational damage that is hard to undo.

On the current environment, Richard notes that recent geopolitical events have created near-term drag — allocators who came into the year bullish are now largely in a holding pattern through the summer. Soling's advice to clients is to stay close through relationship management and be ready to re-engage aggressively in the autumn. The disruption is tactical, not structural.

The discussion also covers what separates managers who crack the GCC from those who don't. The answer, consistently, is platform-level engagement. Managers who present their full suite of capabilities and align those capabilities with the region's economic diversification priorities — rather than leading with a single product — are the ones building real, lasting partnerships. Blue Owl, Blackstone, Apollo, and Brookfield are all cited as firms that have done this well.

Finally, Marius and Richard address co-investment and GP stakes, now expected across virtually the entire allocator spectrum, and break down the nuances of Abu Dhabi, Riyadh, Doha, and Kuwait as distinct markets each requiring a tailored approach.

In this episode of Dakota Insights, Chris and Alex deliver a comprehensive breakdown of the US public pension universe — 800-plus plans, $9 trillion in AUM — a…In this episode of Dakota Insights, Chris and Alex deliver a comprehensive breakdown of the US public pension universe — 800-plus plans, $9 trillion in AUM — and what the data really says about how capital moves through this channel.

They cover the extreme concentration of assets at the top (24 plans hold nearly 60% of all system assets), two decades of alternatives adoption that have pushed the largest plans to 37% in alternatives today, and commitment activity that nearly doubled year-over-year to $83.2 billion in Q1 2026. They walk through how the largest plans actually operate — pacing programs, co-investments, SMAs — and why governance structure and board composition shape everything from decision speed to CIO tenure.

The consultant landscape gets a tier-by-tier breakdown showing who really controls manager access at each level of the market. And the performance analysis challenges a common assumption: the data shows alternatives have been more valuable as a risk management tool than a return enhancer. They close on CIO turnover — 26 transitions since January 2025 — and why the relationships that survive are the ones built deeper than the CIO themselves.

In Episode 29 of the Dakota Insights Podcast, we explore the evergreen market — the open-ended fund structure that has grown from a niche corner of private markets into a mainstream wealth channel reshaping how individuals access alternatives.

We break down how evergreens differ from traditional closed-end drawdown funds, why 100% capital deployment on day one, 1099 reporting, and quarterly liquidity have unlocked the wealth channel, and the three forces compounding the shift — massive untapped demand, accelerating regulatory tailwinds, and distribution infrastructure that has finally caught up.

We also walk through the math investors get wrong: why a drawdown fund must generate more than double the headline return to match an evergreen on a dollar-in, dollar-out basis, and why MOCC is a more honest benchmark than MOIC. We examine the market landscape across private credit, real estate, and private equity, the dominance of the largest sponsors, and the wide return dispersion that makes manager selection as critical as strategy selection.

Finally, we look at the structural risks — conditional liquidity, NAV pricing lag, and fee layering — that allocators and advisors should weigh before subscribing, including the live Q1 2026 example of major funds gating redemptions.

The message is clear: the evergreen structure is no longer a side conversation in private markets — it is the channel through which the next wave of capital will reach alternatives.

In this Dakota Insights interview, Chris LeRoy and Alex deMarco sit down with Robert Thummel, Senior Portfolio Manager and Investment Committee member at Tortoise Capital, to explore the firm's active ETF platform and the growing investment opportunity in AI infrastructure.

Tortoise Capital has built its identity around a simple mission: be the energy experts. Rob brings 30 years of energy investing experience and has spent the last 20 at Tortoise, alongside three co-portfolio managers with a combined 100-plus years of investment experience and four dedicated analysts. The firm offers a focused lineup of active ETFs spanning the energy and infrastructure landscape — from TNGY, its flagship fund covering the entire energy value chain, to more targeted products like the Tortoise MLP ETF, TPZ (Electrification Infrastructure), TCAI (AI Infrastructure), and the most recently launched TNUK (Nuclear Energy Renaissance).

At the center of the conversation is TCAI, launched last August on the core belief that AI does not run on code alone — it runs on infrastructure. Rob walked through the physical and digital backbone that makes AI possible: massive data centers the size of Central Park, data storage devices, network switches, cabling, and liquid cooling systems. A standout example is Modine, a 100-year-old Wisconsin radiator company that has transformed itself into a key provider of liquid cooling systems for hyperscaler data centers. TCAI is designed to give investors exposure to these "picks and shovels" of AI — essential, cash-flow-generating businesses that complement the mega-cap tech names most portfolios already hold.

Rob emphasized that electricity is becoming the new oil. After 20 years of flat US electricity demand, the country is now facing a projected ~75% increase over the next couple of decades, driven by data center growth in Northern Virginia, Dallas, Atlanta, and the Northeast. Hyperscaler capital spending is expected to reach roughly $700 billion in 2026 — nearly double the prior year — with much of that capex flowing into the infrastructure names TCAI holds. Despite this growth, valuations remain attractive: the portfolio's PEG ratio is materially lower than the S&P 500's, suggesting investors are capturing significant earnings growth at a reasonable price.

Rob also walked through Tortoise's disciplined risk management process. Every security is evaluated across three pillars — asset essentiality, cash flow quality and contract duration, and management team quality and capital allocation — and assigned a tier ranking from 1 to 4 that governs position sizing. Proprietary financial models support the process across a universe of hundreds of companies.

On the energy mix, Rob sees an all-of-the-above future. Natural gas, already at ~47% of today's generation mix, is expected to grow its share. Nuclear is positioned for a renaissance, with mothballed reactors coming back online and new enrichment and processing capacity being built. Solar, wind, hydro, and battery storage all play supporting roles. For Rob, low-cost, reliable US energy — combined with the country's technology leadership — is the competitive advantage that will determine whether the US wins the global AI race.

In Episode 28 of the Dakota Insights Podcast, we explore the consultant channel — the gatekeepers that advise on approximately 87% of institutional private market allocations and shape how capital flows to fund managers across pensions, endowments, and foundations.

We break down how just 10 consultants advised on roughly 61% of U.S. pension fund commitments in 2025, and why the OCIO model — now a $2.5 trillion U.S. market projected to reach $5.6 trillion by 2029 — is reshaping how institutional capital is managed.

We also cover the private equity–backed consolidation wave transforming the competitive landscape, how consultants actually evaluate managers, and the practical steps fund managers can take to build lasting relationships in a channel that rewards long-term discipline.

The message is clear: the consultant channel can't be bypassed — it can only be navigated.

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We cover new RIA launches like Soulence Wealth Management, as well as RIA acquisitions by firms such as Maridea Wealth Management and Creative Planning. We also share updates on commitments from The New Mexico State Investment Council (SIC), Seattle City Employees Retirement System, and Boston Retirement System. On the search front, we highlight activity from The Tulare County Employees’ Retirement Association (ERA), Boston Retirement System, and Plymouth County Retirement Association. We also cover fundraising from Leafgreen Capital, Inflexion, and Starcloud — plus a reminder to register for our next Dakota Cocktails event.

We cover new RIA launches like Maridea Wealth Management and Soulence Wealth Management as well as RIA acquisitions by Creative Planning. We also share updates on commitments from North Dakota State Investment Board (SIB) and City of Phoenix Employees' Retirement System. On the search front, we highlight selections from The Firefighters’ Retirement System of Louisiana, The Chicago Teachers’ Pension Fund, and The Arkansas Public Employees Retirement System (APERS). We also cover fundraising from Conduit Health, Nadia Care, and Orion Resource Partners — plus a reminder to register for our next Dakota Cocktails event.