Episode Details

Welcome back to the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast.

Today’s conversation provides a fascinating window into the world of how one of the industry’s largest wealth managers approaches private markets.

We sat down with the man who holds the keys to the kingdom.

Mark Sutterlin is the Head of Alternative Investments within the Investment Solutions Group at Bank of America. He leads the firm’s strategy and platform development across hedge funds, private credit, private equity, physical precious metals, and real estate, delivering a broad spectrum of institutional-grade investment solutions to advisors and their clients.

Mark brings the advisor’s perspective to bear as he builds the alternative investments menu for Merrill and Bank of America Private Bank and helps educate advisors and clients on how and where to thoughtfully and appropriately include private markets in portfolios.

Mark and I had a fascinating discussion. We covered:

How GPs can work with private banks.

What one of the largest private wealth allocators looks for in GPs.

How Merrill approaches different product structures to deliver solutions across the wealth client spectrum.

What constitutes a manager’s edge.

I loved this conversation with Mark, who takes such a thoughtful approach and brings a true passion to helping clients and advisors build and protect wealth.

Thanks, Mark, for sharing your expertise, wisdom, and passion on private markets and private wealth.

Thanks for reading Alt Goes Mainstream! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work - writing and podcasting about the convergence of private markets and private wealth since December 2020.

A word from AGM podcast sponsor, Ultimus Fund Solutions

This episode of Alt Goes Mainstream is brought to you by Ultimus, the full-service fund administrator and transfer agent powering asset managers in private and public markets. As alts go mainstream, you need real expertise to handle complex fund structures, connect with key distribution partners, and handle sophisticated compliance, reporting, and transparency demands.

That’s Ultimus: high-tech, high-touch solutions for over 450 clients and 2,500 funds with $775B in assets under administration. Backed by an expert team of over 1,200 employees, they place client service at the core of their business, helping you navigate complexity during your fund structuring or launch and then supporting you through every stage of growth. Whether you’re already in the market or thinking about entering private wealth, you can trust their team’s deep expertise in retail alternatives to help you reach your goals.

Learn more: ultimusfundsolutions.com or email info@ultimusfundsolutions.com.

We thank Ultimus for their support of alts going mainstream.

Show Notes

00:00 Investor Edge Beyond Returns

00:32 Sponsor Message from Ultimus

01:29 Meet Mark Sutterlin

03:27 From Advisor to Alts Lead

03:34 Lessons From 2008

04:12 Trust And Advisor Duty

04:27 Serving HNW And UHNW

04:51 Evergreen To Drawdown Spectrum

05:19 Building The Alts Shelf

05:52 Platform Design Principles

06:35 Diligence As Core Identity

07:04 Nuance In Private Credit

07:40 Long Term Themes Overlay

08:17 Core Satellite Portfolio Mix

09:57 Evergreens Take The Lead

10:23 Evergreen Growing Pains

10:50 Education And Expectations

11:49 Who Can Run Evergreens

12:40 Allocation Policy And Scale

13:07 Post-Sale Servicing Matters

13:40 Manager Service Playbook