Barings Offers Alternative Investments to HNW Clients

High-net-worth investors now will have access to alternative investment strategies due to a new agreement between Barings and iCapital Network, the financial technology platform. iCapital has provided Barings with a customized platform to offer alternative strategies to individual clients, including RIAs and their clients.

About 20% of Barings $306 billion in assets under management is in alternative strategies, defined as private credit, private equity, real assets (such as commodities, timber, energy) and real estate.

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“Clients are looking for a diversified set of solutions that can help them meet their investment goals,” said Duncan Robertson, head of Asia and global head of distribution and marketing for Barings, in a statement. “Increasingly, alternative investments are an important component of a balanced portfolio, and both our high-net-worth and institutional clients will now be able to leverage the full capabilities of our global investment platform.”

iCapital CEO Lawrence Calcano added that “This agreement with Barings is an exciting step forward in our mission to democratize alternative investments for the high-net-worth community.”

Barings Asset Management was purchased by MassMutual in 2004, and in 2016 became the namesake of a merger of four asset management businesses that also included a bond specialist, private equity house and real estate advisor.

More famously, Barings Bank, the “venerable” London bank that opened in 1762, collapsed in 1995 after Nick Leeson, a derivatives trader for the bank, who was based in Singapore, fraudulently traded several accounts causing a global freeze of assets across the futures markets. Barings was sold to ING, including its asset management operations, in 1995 for 1 pound.

Today the global financial services firm has 1,800 employees and offices in 16 countries.