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Holly Goodrich, Global Head of Consultant & OCIO Relations, Partner in the Client and Product Solutions (CPS) group at Apollo: Investment consultants are navigating an increasingly complex investment landscape as their clients’ needs evolve. Interest rate expectations, public equity valuations and concentration in AI-related stocks are prompting conversations about asset allocation, diversification and sources of durable income. Consultants are also focused on private market valuations, distributions and liquidity, including how they are managed within semi-liquid fund structures.
We are seeing a broader shift in how consultants think about portfolio construction. Rather than relying solely on traditional asset class boundaries, they are examining how investments interact, where risk is concentrated and how portfolios can be positioned to achieve client objectives. This aligns with our thinking at Apollo: we believe investments should be evaluated on their underlying characteristics – not simply whether they are public or private, given both markets span a range of risk and return profiles.
“Consultants are looking to asset managers for not only individual strategies, but also more comprehensive portfolio solutions.”
Holly Goodrich, Global Head of Consultant & OCIO Relations, Partner in the Client and Product Solutions (CPS) group at Apollo
Meanwhile, consulting firms are evolving their own businesses. Many are expanding their outsourced chief investment officer (OCIO) capabilities, exploring new client segments and considering how technology, including AI, can enhance their investment processes and operating models. As a result, consultants are looking to asset managers for not only individual strategies, but also more comprehensive portfolio solutions.
Stephanie Lane, Managing Director: Consultants are embracing the broader shift toward integrating private assets into portfolios, rather than treating them only as alternatives allocations. This includes incorporating private assets into traditional fixed income allocations and expanding their role in liability-driven investment (LDI) strategies and defined contribution (DC) plans. The trend is consistent with growing interest in a total portfolio approach (TPA), which evaluates investments based on their contribution to overall portfolio objectives, including risk, return and liquidity.
Consultants are also taking a closer look at the different types of private assets and the roles they can play in portfolios. For example, they are increasingly recognizing that private investment-grade credit can complement traditional public fixed income allocations or replace a portion of them, with the potential to provide incremental income and diversification without necessarily moving down in credit quality. These potential benefits reflect differences in how private credit investments are originated, underwritten, structured and negotiated, which can help generate excess spread.
“The question has become less about whether an investment is public or private and more about the role it can play in the portfolio.”
Stephanie Lane, Managing Director
For fixed income and LDI portfolios, consultants are evaluating private investment-grade credit, including appropriate asset-backed finance exposures, against the same objectives that guide other investments: credit quality, duration, cash flows and liquidity needs. The question has become less about whether an investment is public or private and more about the role it can play in the portfolio.
As private assets become more integrated into broader portfolios, access to consistent pricing, reliable data and greater transparency becomes increasingly important. To help address this need, Apollo is expanding daily pricing across its credit business, and we are an anchor partner in ICE Private Credit Intelligence, which is designed to support standardized data and greater transparency.
Holly Goodrich: The starting point is retirement outcomes: helping participants build sufficient savings and turn those savings into income that can last throughout retirement. Consultants have an important role in helping plan sponsors evaluate a broader set of tools to meet those goals.
There is growing interest in bringing capabilities that have historically been available to defined benefit (DB) plans into DC. That includes access to private assets through professionally managed investment solutions, such as target date funds, as well as access to retirement income solutions. This gives plan sponsors more options to address participants’ long-term needs.
These are related but distinct needs. Private assets may provide additional sources of return and diversification, while insurance-based lifetime income solutions can help participants address the risk of outliving their savings. Our experience across asset management and retirement services through Athene reinforces the importance of considering investment strategies and retirement income solutions together.
Addressing these needs creates opportunities for collaboration among consultants, asset managers, insurers and plan sponsors, including those serving pooled employer plans and master trusts. Consultants can help navigate the distinct requirements of each market and plan structure.
Bringing private assets into DC is not simply a matter of repackaging institutional strategies. Consultants are rightly focused on fiduciary considerations, valuation, liquidity, fees, operational integration and participant outcomes. Education and thoughtful product design are essential. Similarly, lifetime income solutions need to be understandable, accessible and integrated into the participant experience. The goal is not to add complexity, but to make these capabilities work more effectively for retirement savers.
Stephanie Lane: Firms looking to extend their expertise beyond traditional pension plans are turning to insurance and wealth management as adjacent markets for their consulting and OCIO capabilities. Both allow firms to apply their portfolio construction, manager research and implementation expertise to a new set of clients.
Each market, however, has distinct needs. For insurers, the starting point is the liability. Investment decisions need to reflect liability profiles, regulatory capital requirements, liquidity needs and asset-liability matching. Through our work sourcing high-grade assets and managing insurance portfolios, we see firsthand the importance of these considerations as consultants expand their work with insurance clients.
In wealth management, the opportunity is to help advisors bring institutional-quality investment capabilities into portfolios in ways that are appropriate for their clients. That requires more than access to products. It includes portfolio construction support, appropriate investment structures, transparent reporting and ongoing education, with close attention to suitability, liquidity and fees.
As consulting firms build their presence in these markets, they are developing capabilities, partnerships and implementation models tailored to different client segments. Whether through investment advisory mandates, manager selection or OCIO relationships, consultants are applying investment expertise to meet the needs of the end investor.
Holly Goodrich: Manager research and investment performance remain fundamental, while the breadth of the relationship with asset managers is expanding. As consultants grow their OCIO businesses into areas such as wealth and insurance, many are looking for strategic partners that can contribute across portfolio construction, implementation and the development of long-term solutions.
“Being ‘in the lab together’ allows both sides to anticipate emerging client needs, test ideas and develop solutions around a specific objective.”
Holly Goodrich, Global Head of Consultant & OCIO Relations, Partner in the Client and Product Solutions (CPS) group at Apollo
That means bringing more than just a product. Consultants value differentiated investment capabilities, intellectual capital and the ability to collaborate from the earliest stages of solution design. Being “in the lab together” allows both sides to anticipate emerging client needs, test ideas and develop solutions around a specific objective. These relationships should complement, not compromise, consultants’ independent research and judgment.
For Apollo, that means bringing the breadth of our platform to the conversation—from origination and investment capabilities across credit, hybrid and equity to structuring expertise and retirement solutions. We seek to deliver excess return across the risk-reward spectrum, while helping partners consider how those capabilities can be applied to their clients’ portfolios.
Ultimately, the objective is to combine complementary expertise to solve client challenges and build solutions that can evolve as their needs change. That is how we think about creating lasting value for our consultant and OCIO partners and the investors they serve.
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