Ares Management has launched a wealth management arm to offer alternative investment solutions to its global individual investor client base.
This comes a day after the UK regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), announced it will take forward proposals to establish a type of open-ended authorised investment fund which will help support investment in assets like infrastructure and private equity.
Ares Wealth Management Solutions (AWMS) will oversee the product development, distribution, marketing and client management activities across Ares’ investment offerings in the global wealth management channel.
AWMS will have more than 90 client services professionals.
Raj Dhanda has been named Ares’ global head of wealth management and will lead the division.
Prior to joining Ares in 2021, he was chief executive of Black Creek Group, which he joined in 2016. Previously, Dhanda spent 26 years at Morgan Stanley, where he held a variety of leadership roles, including leading several divisions of its institutional and wealth management platforms.
In addition to Dhanda, Christina Adamson, Moshe Bajnon, Casey Galligan and Jeff Taylor have been named to senior leadership positions at AWMS.
‘Significant’ demand for alternatives
Ryan Berry, partner and chief marketing and strategy officer at Ares Management, said: “Like our institutional clients, individual investors are highly focused on increasing their exposure to alternative investment strategies.
“While there might be a shared objective, individuals have historically been more limited in how they could use alternatives to diversify and enhance their portfolios. Ares Wealth Management Solutions will seek to address these challenges by providing greater access to our credit, private equity, real estate and secondaries strategies and delivering outstanding client service.”
Dhanda added: “The retail demand for alternative investments is significant and experiencing accelerated growth.
“This move enhances the strong foothold that Ares already has built in the retail and high net worth channel, which today represents more than $45bn of assets under management and puts us in a better position to use Ares’ extensive relationships to further expand our distribution partnerships.”
Ares Management’s global platform has approximately $262bn (£190.2bn, €225.7bn) of assets under management, with approximately 2,000 employees operating across North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and the Middle East.
