The role of independent advice in private markets

Advice is only as useful as the incentives behind it. In private markets, those incentives are not always obvious.

An adviser that also lends, invests or underwrites may bring real resources to a transaction. It also brings interests of its own: a balance sheet to deploy, a product to place, relationships to protect elsewhere. None of this is improper. It is simply part of the picture, and clients deserve to see it clearly.

Independent advice removes that layer. Its recommendations are shaped by a single question — what is the best outcome for the client — rather than by what the adviser is positioned to sell.

Independence also changes the character of the advice itself. It allows an adviser to recommend doing nothing, to suggest a smaller transaction, to introduce a counterparty it has no other ties to, or to say plainly that an offer is not good enough.

In the moments that matter — a sale, a recapitalization, a difficult negotiation — that clarity is often worth more than any single term in the final agreement.

Velvl Greene