Frequently Asked Questions

Alliance Global Advisors was founded to address a clear gap in the real asset investment industry: the lack of a truly independent advisor focused on helping investment managers elevate best practices and compete more effectively for diversified capital sources. Drawing on deep experience across consulting, LP, GP and capital markets roles, Alliance Global Advisors provides strategic guidance that helps firms strengthen their platforms, improve decision-making and align with evolving investor and consultant expectations.

Alliance Global Advisors is a strategic advisory firm that partners with real asset investment managers across all stages of platform maturity. This includes managers preparing to raise their first institutional vehicle as well as highly established firms that have successfully raised multiple funds from a wide range of capital sources. Since its founding, Alliance Global Advisors has advised emerging and established managers representing more than $970 billion in assets under management.

Alliance supports clients as they prepare to compete for institutional capital over the long term. The firm provides strategic growth solutions across areas such as organizational assessment, new product development, marketing and brand elevation, competitive positioning and investor engagement. Alliance also advises on more complex strategic initiatives, including entity-level analysis, data and performance measurement, programmatic joint ventures and private wealth positioning, helping investment managers strengthen their platforms and align with evolving investor expectations.

Alliance Global Advisors was co-founded in April 2020 by Heather Fernstrom, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, and Jennifer Stevens, Co-Founder and Managing Partner. Both built careers spanning institutional consulting, LP organizations, capital markets and investment management before launching Alliance Global Advisors to fill a clear gap in the market: the need for a truly independent strategic advisor to the real asset investment management community.

Heather Fernstrom brings deep expertise across investor relations, capital markets and investment management, having held senior roles at National Real Estate Advisors, Hunt Investment Management and The Townsend Group. Jennifer Stevens served as Managing Partner of The Townsend Group’s West Coast office and was a pioneer in institutional ESG, receiving the inaugural GRESB Leadership Award in 2016. Together, their combined experience directly informs every Alliance Global Advisors engagement.

Alliance Global Advisors works with real asset investment managers across all stages of platform maturity, from emerging managers preparing to raise their first institutional vehicle to highly established firms managing multiple funds and strategies.

Typical clients include investment managers seeking to strengthen their platforms, launch new investment vehicles, expand into new capital channels or improve their positioning with institutional investors and consultants. Many engagements occur at key inflection points, such as preparing for institutional fundraising, expanding into private wealth, evaluating programmatic joint ventures or exploring entity-level investment opportunities.

Alliance Global Advisors has advised both emerging and established managers representing more than $970 billion in assets under management. These organizations turn to Alliance when they want an independent perspective on strategy, organizational readiness and long-term growth as they compete for capital in an increasingly complex institutional market.

Alliance Global Advisors’ differentiation is rooted in the depth and diversity of its team. The firm brings together professionals who have served as LPs, consultants, capital markets specialists, operators and investor relations leaders within the real asset investment industry.

This multi-perspective experience allows Alliance to approach challenges from the viewpoints of investors, consultants and investment managers simultaneously. As a result, the team provides institutional-grade guidance that is practical, independent and grounded in real-world execution rather than theoretical advice.

Because Alliance understands how institutional investors and consultants evaluate managers, the team helps clients anticipate expectations, refine strategy and strengthen their platforms in ways that resonate with the institutional market.

Alliance Global Advisors is not a placement agent and does not raise capital or make investor introductions on behalf of clients. Instead, Alliance works with investment managers ahead of fundraising to develop strategic growth solutions that strengthen organizational readiness, positioning and long-term competitiveness.

While placement agents focus on capital distribution and investor outreach during a fundraising process, Alliance focuses on preparing firms to compete for institutional capital. This includes refining strategy, strengthening governance and infrastructure, enhancing marketing and investor communications and ensuring managers are aligned with the expectations of institutional investors and consultants.

Alliance Global Advisors also maintains proprietary global investor and consultant mapping tools that provide insight into capital sources, allocation trends and consultant coverage. These tools help clients better understand the institutional landscape and strategically position their platforms for engagement with the right investors. However, Alliance’s role is to prepare managers for those conversations rather than directly facilitate capital introductions.

By focusing on readiness rather than distribution, Alliance helps investment managers build durable platforms that are better prepared for fundraising, institutional diligence and long-term growth.

Alliance Global Advisors works with investment managers across all stages of platform maturity, from firms preparing to raise their first institutional vehicle to highly established organizations managing multiple funds and strategies.

Emerging managers benefit from Alliance’s guidance on institutional readiness, strategy articulation, governance infrastructure and how to position a first-time fund for credibility with allocators and consultants. Established managers typically engage Alliance when navigating platform evolution — launching new strategies, expanding into private wealth or sovereign wealth channels, evaluating entity-level opportunities or reassessing positioning as investor expectations shift.

The common thread is not the size of the firm but the mindset of the leadership team. Alliance partners with organizations whose senior leadership is ready to compete, open to challenge and committed to building a durable, best-in-class platform over the long term.

Alliance Global Advisors provides strategic growth solutions that help real asset investment managers strengthen their platforms and compete more effectively for institutional capital.

The firm advises leadership teams across several core areas, including organizational assessment and strategic planning, new product development, marketing and brand elevation, investor and consultant analysis and thought leadership and professional development. These services help investment managers refine strategy, strengthen governance and improve their positioning with institutional investors and consultants.

Alliance also advises on more complex strategic initiatives such as entity-level analysis, data and performance measurement, programmatic joint ventures and private wealth positioning. In addition, through its executive recruitment platform, Alliance Search Partners, the firm helps clients identify and recruit senior talent aligned with long-term platform growth.

By combining strategic advisory, market insight and industry relationships, Alliance helps investment managers build stronger organizations that are better prepared to navigate evolving investor expectations and competitive market dynamics.

Institutional investors have increasingly rigorous expectations around governance, transparency, performance measurement and organizational infrastructure. Alliance Global Advisors helps investment managers understand these expectations and prepare their organizations to meet them.

Alliance works with leadership teams to evaluate organizational readiness, refine strategy and clearly articulate competitive differentiation. This includes strengthening governance structures, improving marketing and investor communications and ensuring the firm’s investment strategy and track record are positioned to resonate with institutional investors and consultants.

Alliance also helps managers prepare for institutional diligence processes by advising on documentation, organization of materials and the development of institutional-quality data rooms. By addressing these areas proactively, Alliance helps investment managers enter investor conversations with stronger platforms and clearer positioning in an increasingly competitive market.

Alliance works with clients through bi-weekly working calls, ongoing leadership touchpoints and regular collaboration between meetings. Throughout the engagement, Alliance serves as an extension of the client’s internal team, providing continuous guidance, feedback and support as priorities and market conditions evolve.

Alliance begins every engagement with a deep-dive assessment of the client’s current platform, strategy and organizational infrastructure. During the first 30 days, the Alliance team conducts structured conversations with senior leadership, reviews existing materials and identifies priority gaps across strategy, marketing, governance and investor positioning. This foundation shapes a customized roadmap that guides the engagement and ensures efforts are focused on the areas with the greatest long-term impact.

Alliance brings a team of senior professionals with direct experience across LP, GP, consulting and capital markets roles. Clients gain access to an institutional-grade advisory team, proprietary research tools, investor and consultant mapping and a deep network of industry relationships, all within a structured engagement. For many firms, this provides stronger and more cost-effective support than building an internal function, particularly during critical growth phases or ahead of a fundraise when speed and institutional credibility matter most.

Alliance measures success by the success of its clients. This includes helping firms attract long-term capital partners, strengthen their organizational platforms, enhance professional development and build durable brands within the institutional market. High client renewal rates and referrals are key indicators of Alliance’s impact.

Clients often engage Alliance across multiple phases because the challenges associated with institutional engagement and long-term growth change over time. As firms evolve and market conditions shift, continued advisory support helps leadership teams remain prepared rather than reactive.

Alliance works with clients through a minimum 12-month engagement structure, compensated via a monthly retainer. This model supports ongoing, proactive advisory work and allows Alliance to serve as a long-term strategic partner rather than a transaction-based consultant. Alliance is happy to discuss pricing directly — reach out at alliance-globaladvisors.com/connect.

Alliance Search Partners is the executive recruitment portfolio company of Alliance Global Advisors, focused on helping real asset investment managers identify and hire senior talent aligned with their long-term growth strategy. Alliance Search Partners leverages Alliance’s deep industry relationships across investment managers, institutional investors and consultants to identify experienced professionals who can strengthen a firm’s leadership team and investor engagement capabilities.

Alliance Search Partners specializes in recruiting professionals across key areas such as capital raising, investor relations, investment strategy and operational leadership. By combining executive search with Alliance’s broader strategic advisory perspective, Alliance Search Partners helps clients make hiring decisions that support long-term platform growth and institutional competitiveness.

Alliance Global Advisors helps investment managers strengthen their platforms, launch new strategies and position their organizations to attract institutional capital.

Alliance engagements often focus on helping investment managers refine strategy, strengthen governance and improve institutional readiness. While each engagement is tailored to a firm’s specific goals and stage of growth, Alliance has supported clients across a range of strategic initiatives that improve their positioning with investors and consultants.

For example, Alliance has helped clients launch and scale new investment vehicles, including open-end, closed-end and special situation strategies. In one engagement, Alliance supported a real estate investment manager preparing to raise its next discretionary fund by strengthening capital markets infrastructure, refining investor communications and enhancing governance and policies. The engagement helped position the firm for institutional fundraising and contributed to securing a $90 million commitment from a major U.S. public pension plan.

Alliance also advises managers on programmatic operating partnerships and entity-level investment opportunities, helping firms evaluate capital structures that support long-term platform growth. In addition, Alliance frequently works with clients expanding their investor base into new channels, including institutional investors, sovereign wealth funds and private wealth platforms.

Another common engagement involves preparing managers for institutional due diligence. Alliance conducts mock investment and operational due diligence reviews and helps strengthen data rooms, performance attribution and internal documentation so firms are better prepared for investor diligence or potential strategic transactions.

As private wealth has emerged as a significant and growing source of capital for real asset investment managers, Alliance Global Advisors has developed dedicated expertise to help clients navigate this evolving investor segment. This includes advising on product structuring, messaging and positioning for wealth management intermediaries, family offices and high-net-worth platforms.

Alliance Global Advisors helps managers understand how private wealth investors evaluate real asset strategies, what operational and reporting standards they expect and how to build credibility with this audience alongside existing institutional relationships.

The right time to engage Alliance is before a firm is forced to react to market or investor pressure. Alliance is most impactful when engaged ahead of key inflection points, such as preparing for institutional fundraising, launching a new strategy, navigating organizational growth or reassessing platform positioning as investor expectations evolve.

The clients that extract the most value from an Alliance partnership are those with senior leadership teams that are ready to compete, willing to be challenged and prepared to invest the time and resources necessary to strengthen their platform. This applies to both emerging managers and established firms.

During periods of cautious capital deployment, institutional investors remain active and focused on vintage year diversification and future opportunity. Alliance helps managers stay engaged, prepared and competitive so they are positioned to participate in upcoming vintages rather than sitting on the sidelines and risking long-term relevance.

Investor expectations continue to evolve around transparency, governance and operational excellence. Alliance helps firms anticipate these changes and adapt proactively, ensuring their platforms and messaging remain aligned with institutional standards rather than lagging behind market expectations.

Evaluating performance requires more than reviewing internal track records. Investment managers must understand how their returns, strategy positioning, fees and portfolio construction compare to the broader competitive landscape. This includes benchmarking against peer managers pursuing similar strategies, analyzing performance attribution at the asset level, as well as understanding how consultants and institutional investors interpret performance relative to risk, vintage year and market conditions.

Alliance helps clients assess their positioning through detailed attribution analysis, peer benchmarking and institutional perspective. By evaluating performance alongside strategy differentiation, organizational structure and investor expectations, Alliance helps managers understand where they are competitive and where adjustments in messaging may strengthen their positioning with institutional capital providers.