Release Details

Beneficient’s Platform is Designed to Provide High-Net-Worth Individuals and Small-to-Mid-Sized Institutions Access to Simple, Rapid, and Cost-Effective Liquidity Solutions for Their Alternative Assets.

DALLAS, Aug. 05, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Beneficient Company Group, L.P. (Ben), a leading company serving the growing market of investors seeking liquidity from alternative assets, today announced the launch of a first-of-its-kind platform and suite of private trust solutions that seeks to offer simple, rapid, and cost-effective liquidity solutions for owners of alternative assets. With Ben, mid-to-high net worth (MHNW) individuals and small-to-mid-sized institutions—who are often locked into alternative assets for 10-12 years or more—may now be able to overcome many of the traditional barriers to liquidity that existed within the asset class in order to redeploy their capital on their own terms.

Investors in these assets have relied primarily on secondary funds for their liquidity needs. These non-permanent funds cater to large institutions and employ M&A-like transactions involving multiple intermediaries, complicated agreements, time-consuming negotiations requiring many months (and often more than a year), and expensive fees. Operating as a permanent financial services company, Ben seeks to empower these alternative asset owners with a complete offering of standardized trust solutions solely focused on their liquidity needs.

“Liquidity has always been a critical issue in the markets, particularly in alternative assets. The current environment has only accelerated the need investors have for partners who can help them access and redeploy their capital as needed. That is where Ben comes in,” said Brad Heppner, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Ben. “The public launch of our proprietary liquidity platform will create a new liquidity market for individuals and small institutions that provides an unmatched level of choice and flexibility for when and how they monetize all kinds of alternative investments, from private equity to real estate. Our entire team has been focused on establishing Ben as a new and welcome departure from the industry’s historically complicated practice of providing liquidity to these investors.”

Ben seeks to provide liquidity for most types of professionally managed alternative asset investments, including: private equity, venture capital, feeder funds, fund of funds, leveraged buyouts, private debt, real estate, non-traded BDCs, and REITs, among others. Ben acts as a principal in all transactions and uses its own balance sheet in its effort to provide liquidity to investors. Varying with availability of prior underwriting information, transactions are designed to close in as short as 30 days—a much shorter period than the current industry standard for closing transactions—without the complexity involved with securing liquidity from secondary funds.

U.S.-based MHNW individuals and small-to-mid-sized institutions currently hold $1.2 trillion in alternative investments. Ownership of alternative assets in the U.S. has increased significantly in recent years and is likely to continue growing. In June, the U.S. Department of Labor provided guidance to help facilitate employer-sponsored retirement accounts such as 401(k)s (which represent approximately $9 trillion in assets) access funds with a private equity component. Ben believes increased access among individual investors to alternative investment vehicles will lead to greater demand for simple, rapid, and cost-effective liquidity solutions for these investments.

“Ben’s structure as a permanent financial institution with a well-capitalized balance sheet is arguably our most critical differentiator from other liquidity providers in the alternatives market,” said James Silk, Director, Executive Vice President, and Chief Legal Officer of Ben. “We have been working for years to develop our customizable liquidity solutions for investors across the alternatives market, and believe they will help modernize the industry and put alternatives on par with other assets when it comes to when and how investors are able to exit their investments.”

“The movement of capital between markets and economic cycles is essential for investor success, especially so in times of economic uncertainty. Ben plays a critical role in providing liquidity and facilitating the flow of investor capital by serving individual investors and small-to-mid-sized institutions that own alternative investments,” said Richard Fisher, former President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas and Senior Partner Director of Ben.

Ben’s platform offers a range of other trust solutions, including the Ben LiquidTrust® and Ben InterchangeTrust™, that may be customized to suit investors’ individual circumstances and tax-planning needs. Investors and financial advisors looking for more information on Ben and its trust solutions can visit www.trustben.com.

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