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For the past year, Australian behemoth Macquarie Asset Management has been working to create a unified front for the U.S. wealth channel. That effort has entailed taking various portfolios (some that Macquarie built and some that it acquired) and rolling them up under the Macquarie name.
The brand transition included taking Delaware Funds by Macquarie mutual funds, Ivy strategies and Central Park Group offerings and putting them all under the Macquarie name. Its product set now includes five active ETFs, about 50 mutual funds, 10 SMAs and private equity funds, hedge funds and funds-of-funds across a number of asset classes with a total AUM of around $600 billion. Infrastructure Investor magazine has ranked Macquarie as the top private infrastructure manager for more than a decade.
The integration effort has been overseen by Kimberly LaPointe, who joined the firm just more than one year ago as senior managing director and head of wealth distribution within Macquarie’s client solutions group.
LaPointe joined Macquarie with three decades of industry experience, predominantly at Cohen & Steers and PGIM.
WealthManagement.com sat down with LaPointe to discuss Macquarie’s brand integration and its efforts in the U.S. wealth channel.
This interview has been edited for style, length and clarity.
WealthManagement.com: It’s been about one year since your move to Macquarie. Can you talk about what your priorities have been in that timeframe?
Kimberly LaPointe: I was really intrigued by the opportunity to join Macquarie as it is one of the remaining large integrated asset managers serving institutions and wealth globally. We have a book of private assets and our public business.
I was also interested because of the trend of wealthy clients migrating from 60/40 portfolios to include up to 20% in private assets. What Macquarie brings is not only this solid foundation as a public markets manager, but also a deep legacy in private infrastructure. It’s the largest infrastructure manager in the world and through Wealth Solutions, it’s been an innovator, bringing hedge fund and other alternative fund capabilities. I was intrigued about how to bring this all together.
WM: How has the consolidation of brands for the U.S. wealth audience been going?
KL: Over the last few years, Macquarie has been integrating these acquisitions across public and private markets and moving it all under the Macquarie brand. That puts all these capabilities in one integrated brand with unified operations and a cohesive client experience. We will continue to build out the brand and what it stands for and ensure what’s made us strong remains intact. You will also see us lean into our heritage in private markets and infrastructure.
The integration also eliminates confusion caused by some overlapping strategies between Ivy and Delaware. Creating a consistent brand focus makes it easier for clients to understand.
WM: If you can talk a bit more about your public side first, you’ve gotten into ETFs, and you have some SMAs and a history in mutual funds. What’s the strategy there?
KL: In the U.S., we have a well-established mutual fund business that’s top 50 across equity and fixed income. We saw strong demand in 2024 for large cap growth strategies specifically, and that has continued into this year. We also launched our ETF platform in the U.S. and Australia within the last 19 months. As you can imagine, there’s a significant increase in interest in active ETFs in both countries as clients are looking for choices.
The SMA business is also important, specifically for active management. Clients are looking to make active allocations in SMAs. We have SMA strategies for equity and fixed income and see significant demand across both.
WM: Are you also looking at evergreen strategies for the wealth market?
KL: Yes. We recently launched an evergreen structure in the U.S. and have two overseas. We have been fortunate to work closely with partners. We launched an infrastructure strategy in Japan with Nomura and also an energy transition strategy with UBS globally. The structures are different in the U.S. and overseas, but it’s the same investment capability.
WM: And what about on the private side?
KL: We are in the early days of the democratization of wealth. We see it as threefold. First, we want to continue to offer wealth solutions where we are bringing Macquarie, coupled with other managers in the industry, to bring a packaged solution to investors. Second, we will continue to lean into areas like infrastructure, energy transition and infrastructure debt—these are core competencies of Macquarie. Third, as we go further into product development, you might see us looking at ways of combining public/private and considering partnerships.
When you look at partnerships, they can be twofold. We can have distribution partnerships, and the other piece is combining capabilities. We are continuing to innovate in how we can democratize a version of infrastructure investing and other Macquarie capabilities, including in-house and through partnerships.
WM: It feels like we’re in the middle of a period of rapid innovation in what asset managers are building for the wealth channel.
KL: Part of why I joined Macquarie is to be at a firm that has all of these strong capabilities. And infrastructure happens to be on the minds of a lot of clients today. Macquarie has a lot of the components that will be required for success in the long term.
It is an interesting time in the market. There is collaboration and partnerships on distribution, also potentially with traditional competitors, that can bring value. It’s an exciting time for wealth clients who can now gain access to many of these capabilities and benefits that were only previously available to institutions.
WM: Can you also talk a bit about what you have built internally for handling distribution to the wealth space? It’s very different than working with institutions where you might have fewer clients and bigger investments. How do you navigate an ecosystem with different kinds of wealth firms and where there are a lot of firms to potentially reach out to?
KL: In the U.S. today, we have 86 folks dedicated to wealth. Some work with traditional B/Ds. We also have a strategic relations group for larger partnerships and an RIA team. And since we have a range of products from mutual funds to ETFs to private markets to SMAs, we have a generalist/specialist model. This includes 18 specialists dedicated to the alts offerings and have traditional asset class specialists. We don’t have ETF or SMA specialists because people are more comfortable with those structures already.
When you think about the dynamics in the wealth space, with RIAs, what is old is new again. RIA aggregators remind me of the old IBD models. RIA firms or independent advisors can run their practice with support from just platforms all the way to RIA firms that provide more home office support. We’re seeing that in the RIA space. It’s been very disparate. The business model can also vary from RIA to RIA, whether they focus on retirement, HNW investors or are a multifamily office. As they aggregate for scale and there’s been a demand for PE shops to back them, it’s changing the way you need to think about working with them. I do think it needs a dedicated focus to be successful there. And that’s an area where, earlier this year, we started to increase our sales resources.
WM: You mentioned earlier interest in active management for ETFs and SMAs. Can you talk about some investment trends you are seeing with clients?
KL: It’s an interesting time in the market, and we think there will be growth amid volatility. There’s still interest in large cap growth strategies, and that’s no longer just in mutual funds but also in actively managed ETFs. We are seeing that shift to active equity, but not necessarily at the expense of mutual funds. There’s also demand for emerging market equity as well as municipal bonds.
As for active/passive, passive traditionally has been king, but we are seeing more interest in active strategies today than I’ve seen in the last few years. Market volatility creates a demand for active. And there is room for all of the active mutual funds, ETFs, and SMAs.
WM: I’m curious also about whether having a global footprint provides some insights. Are there things you learn in some markets that are helpful for others either on the asset management side or the wealth side?
KL: We were able to find demand for our wealth platform in Europe and Asia and use what we learned to help seed products in the U.S. That’s the effect that having a global business can have in the U.S. market. We can bring intelligence and expertise over there as well, particularly in markets like Japan. The globalization of our wealth business ends up resulting in a better client experience. We can bring the best of each region to bear. There are elements you need to adjust for local preferences, such as vehicle preferences, as there are more flexible vehicles available outside the U.S., but it’s how you think about the global strategy that can help build your business all around the world.
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