StepStone Group has launched private wealth solutions group to meet rising demand for private market assets by high net worth (HNW) and mass affluent investors.
Dubbed Conversus, the new venture will focus on delivering the StepStone’s institutional capabilities to HNW individuals.
It will leverage the parent company’s expertise across private equity, real estate, private debt and infrastructure to create and distribute new products for individual investors.
Conversus and StepStone will jointly club fund investments, secondaries and co-investments to develop tailored product solutions for the private wealth sector.
StepStone president and co-COO Jason Ment said: “Creating products to meet this demand is a natural extension of our franchise. We believe the same tools we employ for sophisticated institutional investors can benefit individual investors.
“We look forward to our partnership with the Conversus team, who have shown they can create innovative products and bring institutional investment capabilities to the high net worth and mass affluent markets.”
Bob Long has been named as the CEO of Conversus. He will be joined by Tim Smith as COO & CFO and Neil Menard as president of distribution.
Previously, Long and Smith started Conversus Capital, a publicly traded fund of private equity funds.
In 2012, they divested Conversus Capital’s private equity portfolio but retained the rights to the Conversus name.
Long said: “With $37bn of commitments in 2018 alone, StepStone is one of the world’s largest investors in the private markets. Conversus will leverage that expertise and develop products to provide high net worth and mass affluent investors with StepStone’s industry-leading capabilities.”
