A Snapshot of the Registered Alternative Funds Market

Alternative.Investments and Interval Fund Tracker together cover all publicly registered non-traded alternative investment funds that file with the SEC. This universe includes more than 420 funds, and more than $410 billion in net assets(excluding the impact of leverage).

The registered alts market includes a broad range of product structures including:

  • Interval Funds
  • Tender Offer Funds
  • NT BDCs (public and private)
  • NT REITs (public and private)
  • Opcos/Conglomerates
  • Hybrid fund structures.

The registered alts market also includes a broad range of asset classes including credit, real estate, private equity/venture capital, funds of hedge funds, and more. Although there are many unique niches of alternative investments available to retail investors, credit funds are by far the most popular.

Most Registered Alternative Funds are Evergreen

Alternative Funds across different fund structures can be divided into two categories: Evergreen and Finite Life.

Evergreen funds have no fixed termination date, allowing for continuous capital raising and periodic liquidity. All five of the largest funds shown above are evergreen.
In contrast, finite life funds launch with a set lifespan, after which they seek to list on an exchange, or merge with another fund. The lifespan of a finite fund might be strictly limited by the prospectus. In other cases the prospectus might state that the board has to consider liquidity even after a certain number of years. Finite life funds are sometimes also called “lifecycle” funds, because they have a definite lifecycle.

Across the entire market, approximately 78% of funds are Evergreen.

The dominance of evergreen fund structures is even more apparent when you look at total net assets. Approximately 88% of net assets in the retail alts industry are evergreen.

The rising popularity of interval funds, which are evergreen structures, has is a big reason that evergreen funds are so prevalent. The concept of a retail perpetual alternative investment fund really took off after 2016, when Blackstone launched its first NTREIT. Most NT REITs and NT BDCs that launched in recent years are evergreen as well.

In terms of number of active funds, tender offer Fund is the most common product structure, followed closely by Interval Fund and NT BDC. All of these fund structures are examples of 1940 Act Funds.

Although NT BDC is third most common by number for of funds, it is the largest by total net assets. Aggregate NT BDC net assets are $155 billion as of the most recent filings, accounting for 37% of registered alternative fund net assets.

Within the NT BDC space, privately offered funds account for approximately 79% of products in the market, but only 38% of total net assets. In contrast, nearly all interval funds conduct public offerings.

Credit Funds Dominate Retail Alts Market

Credit is the most popular asset class in terms of number of funds and total net assets. 

Over 51% of active funds in the market are credit focused.  

Credit funds hold over 56% of total net assets in registered alternative funds.  

This post provided a broad strokes overview of the retail alternative funds market.  To get more detail on the structure and strategy of funds in the market, as well as key trends impacting asset managers and investors, check out the additional tools and resources below.

Additional Tools and Resources

For comprehensive competive intelligence on the unlisted CEF industry, sign up for a Premium Plus Membership.  

To access the industry’s most complete dataset covering NT BDCS, NT REITs and Opcos, sign up for Alternative.Investments Pro.   Its an essential resource for anyone involved  in product development, investment research, or due diligence within the retail alts space.  

  We also have a lot of data available for free:

Interested in advertising on or Alternative.Investments or Interval Fund Tracker? email jacob@intervalfundtracker.com to learn about partnership opportunities.


Holding alternative investment funds that you need to exit quickly? We also have liquidity solutions for unlisted securities

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