Accessing private markets through evergreen funds

A perspective from ProduQtive Capital

Private markets have become a core component of institutional portfolios. For most wealth managers, however, access remains difficult. Traditional private equity and private credit funds were designed for large institutions with predictable capital, long horizons and the operational capacity to manage capital calls, complex reporting and multi-year lock-ups. Wealth clients want comparable exposure, and they want it with greater flexibility.

Evergreen private markets funds have grown rapidly in recent years and are now one of the most significant developments in the industry. They adapt the traditional closed-ended model to remove some of its structural barriers, offering a format that is better suited to wealth managers and their clients.

ProduQtive Capital Fund I (PQC Fund I) is built on this architecture. This paper explains why evergreen funds are becoming a preferred route into private markets, and how PQC Fund I is designed to serve wealth managers.

Why evergreen funds have grown

Evergreen funds address three long-standing problems.

Investing without drawdowns

Traditional private equity requires investors to commit capital and wait while it is called and deployed over several years. Fees accrue on commitments before returns materialise, which produces the familiar J-curve. An evergreen structure changes that experience. Investors subscribe fully funded capital and gain exposure to a diversified portfolio through a single holding, without a multi-year drawdown schedule or the pacing risk that comes with one.

Capital that has not yet been deployed is managed as described below, so investors should expect that part of the fund may be held in liquid instruments while it is put to work.

Liquidity in an illiquid asset class

Closed-ended funds typically lock capital in for ten to fourteen years. PQC Fund I is designed so that investors are not bound to that horizon in the same way. Exposure can be exchanged at any time with other participants in the PQC wealth network, at a price fixed by the most recent quarterly net asset value. There is no redemption window to wait for and no price to negotiate. Because the buyer is another network participant rather than the fund itself, the portfolio is not forced to sell assets to fund an exit. Liquidity depends on a counterparty being available and is not guaranteed, but it turns a decade-long commitment into an allocation that wealth managers can integrate far more flexibly into client portfolios.

Simpler access for wealth clients

Evergreen funds also remove much of the operational friction that has historically kept private markets out of wealth channels. There are no capital calls, no unpredictable funding schedules, no bespoke structuring and no need to select and monitor numerous individual funds. In place of that complexity, the wealth manager holds a single, professionally managed private markets allocation with consolidated reporting.

Why wealth managers are adopting evergreen structures

Wealth managers operate under a distinct set of constraints. Clients expect a degree of liquidity, and portfolios must remain balanced. Operational teams cannot realistically manage dozens of GP relationships, suitability and reporting have to be standardised, and any allocation must scale across hundreds or thousands of clients. Evergreen structures speak directly to these needs.

Introducing PQC Fund I

PQC Fund I is a modern evergreen private markets fund designed specifically for wealth managers. It provides diversified exposure across six private market strategies, and it operates as a professional limited partner, investing alongside institutional GPs and giving wealth managers a single, governed access point.

How underlying GP fees are handled

A common question from wealth managers is how fees are covered when PQC invests in closed-ended private equity funds with five-to-seven-year fee schedules and clients may wish to exit in the meantime.

The answer is that the underlying managers' fees are borne within PQC's net asset value. NAV absorbs their management fees, fund expenses, carry and extension fees as they arise. A wealth manager looking at the NAV is therefore looking at a figure net of those costs, and the full fee drag is reflected transparently rather than hidden. Fee obligations to underlying managers are accounted for in the valuation, not something each investor has to fund or track. Because exits take place between participants in the wealth network rather than as withdrawals from the fund, an investor's exit does not reduce the capital that PQC has invested, and PQC manages the fund's liquidity so that it can meet its obligations to underlying funds as they arise.

What happens to capital before it is deployed

If a wealth manager subscribes, for example, £20 million and PQC does not deploy it immediately, the capital is held in low-risk, highly liquid instruments such as money market funds, short-term treasury bills and AAA-rated liquidity funds. The aim is to preserve value and limit idle-cash drag while allowing PQC to move quickly when suitable GP opportunities arise.

Built for the realities of wealth management

PQC Fund I is designed around how wealth managers actually work. It is scalable across thousands of clients, simple to onboard, report on and explain, and governed to institutional standards. It offers diversified exposure and flexible liquidity without capital calls and without the operational burden of managing multiple GP relationships.

Evergreen funds represent the modern evolution of access to private markets, and PQC Fund I aims to deliver that experience with institutional discipline, diversified exposure and mechanics that suit wealth managers. If you would like to explore how PQC Fund I could fit your client offering, we would welcome a conversation.