Mercer Advisors Launches Proprietary Private Markets Platform to Bypass Intermediary Fees

Mercer Advisors, a Denver-based registered investment adviser managing approximately $115 billion in assets, has launched Aspen Partners, a proprietary private markets fund-of-funds platform designed for its ultra-high-net-worth clients. The two-year-old vehicle enables the firm to act as its own general partner, sourcing and managing institutional-grade private equity, venture capital, and credit exposure in-house. This strategic shift aims to eliminate intermediary fees associated with platforms such as iCapital or CAIS, allowing the firm to apply institutional due diligence and negotiate directly with general partners.

The initiative is led by Don Calcagni, Mercer Advisors’ chief investment officer, who chairs the firm’s investment committee. Calcagni noted that the platform targets clients with investable assets between $10 million and $50 million, a segment that typically cannot build diversified private market allocations independently due to the high minimum ticket sizes of $1 million to $5 million required by high-quality general partners. By pooling capital across its client base, Mercer can negotiate its own economics directly with managers rather than paying rack rates.

Aspen Partners represents an industry shift where large registered investment advisers act as their own general partners, bypassing intermediary platforms to avoid layered fee structures. Unlike traditional fund-of-funds that may include 1-and-10 or 1-and-15 fee arrangements, Mercer Advisors does not charge a separate management fee or carried interest for running the fund. Clients pay only the existing advisory fee, with the firm covering the costs of sourcing, underwriting, and managing a diversified allocation of roughly six to eight limited partnership interests.

The firm raised $100 million in its first year and currently has approximately $3 billion in total capital entrusted by around 325 families. Rather than measuring success solely by fund size, the firm focuses on the household level to protect long-term relationships. The platform utilises technology partners such as Opto Investments and Arch to facilitate the setup of these proprietary vehicles, while strategic partnerships with service providers like Deloitte and Paul Weiss support the firm’s fund formation and legal requirements.

Beyond cost efficiency, the vehicle provides value to general partners by acting as a consolidated investor relations team, reducing the administrative burden of managing hundreds of individual limited partners. Mercer’s institutional due diligence process, which includes an 80-question request for proposal with full data-room access, is designed to catch firms off guard. Additionally, because the firm manages its clients' whole balance sheet with liquidity planning in place, its capital is viewed as a more reliable and recurring provider compared to other institutional limited partners.