Index funds may be king of the retirement investing landscape, but a new player is drawing increasingly more interest from investors looking for alternatives to the standard stock-bond portfolio.
Called an interval fund, it gives regular investors access to investments that have typically been the province of financial institutions and the ultra wealthy, such as venture capital, private credit, and private equity. Created in the '90s, the funds started growing in popularity following the 2008 financial crisis, according to Morningstar, and total assets under management have grown almost 40% per year over the past decade to $80 billion through May 2024—"bucking the trend," as Morningstar says, of "persistent outflows from most actively managed strategies" over the past few years. The financial services firm credits this increase to near- and current retirees looking for a greater return than public markets alone can get them.
