About this episode
Why has liquidity across private markets broken down and what does it mean for institutional portfolios?
David Weisburd speaks with Alex Ambroz about collapsing distributions, the rise of continuation vehicles and secondaries, and why many allocators are facing a structural mismatch between models and reality. They explore whether “private is the new public,” how incentives shape GP behavior, and what LPs must change to adapt to a new normal of prolonged illiquidity.
Highlights:
Why private market distribution yields have fallen from ~25% to single digits
How declining DPI drives the denominator effect across portfolios
Continuation vehicles: why LPs both rely on and resent them
Secondary sales as a liquidity tool—and their political costs
The growing gap between private marks and realizable value
Why IPOs are no longer a reliable liquidity release valve
How incentives keep large companies private far longer than before
Why private credit remains the lone exception on distributions
Career risk and principal–agent problems on the LP side
Where AI tools help allocators—and where judgment still matters
Using factor models to distinguish alpha from disguised beta
Guest Bio:
Alex Ambroz is the Founder and CEO of the Allocator Training Institute, the first structured education platform dedicated to developing the next generation of institutional allocators.
Before founding ATI, Alex spent two decades in senior investment roles at Morgan Creek Capital, J.P. Morgan, Cleveland Clinic, and Aberdeen Standard Investments, where he built and managed multi-asset portfolios across public and private markets.
He has trained hundreds of analysts and investment officers globally and holds deep expertise in portfolio construction, factor modeling, and operational due diligence.
Our Podcast now receives more than 300,000 downloads a month. Are you interested in sponsoring an episode? Please email David Weisburd at david@weisburdcapital.com.
We’d like to thank AlphaSense for sponsoring this episode!
Sponsor:
AlphaSense is the AI-powered market intelligence platform trusted by 85% of the S&P 100, helping investment professionals make faster, more confident, data-driven decisions. Built for hedge funds, asset allocators, private venture capital firms, and investment bankers, AlphaSense uses advanced AI and powerful search across premium proprietary content to surface the insights that matter most—before the market moves. Elevate your research and stay ahead of the competition. Visit https://www.alpha-sense.com/howiinvest/ to learn more.
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