Managers who deliver more consistent performance tend to take a fundamentals-based approach to value creation.
Musci: “We started investing in private equity over 20 years ago. Today we hold a portfolio diversified by vintage, strategy, and geography.”
Family offices are highly diverse structures that support wealthy families in managing their assets, planning wealth transfers across generations, and handling governance matters arising from the complex intersection between business and family wealth. But how do these entities invest — and, in particular, how do they approach private markets?
At the 4th Digital Forum on Private Markets organized by We Wealth, Gabriele Besacchi, Managing Director and Head of Private Markets at AlTi Tiedemann Global Suisse, and Emanuela Musci, Co-founder of S&O Multi Family Office, shared their experiences.
“We Started with Private Equity Over 20 Years Ago”
“We were founded as a single-family office between the late 1980s and early 1990s, following a liquidity event within a family,” recalls Musci. “Of course, the investment landscape back then was nothing like it is today. However, the founding family already owned two companies in the United States since the 1970s. They were therefore accustomed to observing what was happening overseas and how their American peers invested,” she continues.
“As a result, we started investing in private equity over 20 years ago. Today, we have a portfolio diversified by vintage, strategy, and geography — one that has now become self-sustaining,” Musci explains.
Building a “Black Swan”-Proof Portfolio
According to Besacchi, building a portfolio — especially one resilient to unexpected events — must always start with diversification. “It’s one of the golden rules of investing,” he says. “We’re talking about diversification across vintages, strategies, geographies, and sectors. But that’s not all. Even within the same vintage, sector, or region, manager performance can vary significantly. Therefore, careful selection is key to achieving resilient diversification.”
How should investors navigate this process? “Managers who deliver consistent performance over time usually have a fundamentals-based approach to value creation,” explains Besacchi. “Another critical factor is the quality and structure of the team, along with the robustness of internal processes and governance. These are all elements that cannot be overlooked when building an all-weather portfolio.”
The Role of Semi-Liquid Products
In the structuring of private market allocations, Musci believes semi-liquid products can play an important role. “We embraced them as soon as we identified them, about four years ago. In our experience, they have made our private market portfolios more efficient,” she notes.
“With semi-liquid or evergreen funds, capital is fully deployed from day one — it starts working immediately. We’ve analyzed studies from long-term partner firms where we invested in both drawdown and semi-liquid funds. We found that, with the same underlying assets and investment horizon, the compounding effect alone contributed positively to performance. There’s also the added benefit of being able to redeem if necessary — although we believe one shouldn’t enter a semi-liquid fund like an ETF, expecting to exit quickly,” Musci cautions.
Finding the Ideal Mix in Private Markets
Given these considerations, Besacchi emphasizes that there is no predefined formula for finding the ideal mix when designing a private markets strategy. The key, he says, lies in listening. “Understanding the family’s needs makes it easier to align their risk profile and return expectations with the actual performance of different asset classes and to build the right mix,” he explains.
“However,” he adds, “even with sophisticated models designed to predict future cash flows, there will always be internal and external factors that can affect outcomes. It’s therefore essential to maintain reasonable flexibility in terms of liquidity.”
Watch the full talk here: https://www.we-wealth.com/news/mercati-privati-come-costruire-portafoglio
