BNY Advisors CIO on Alts Access; Francisco Partners Closes $21B

BNY Advisors CIO on Alts Access

Francisco Partners Closes $21B

BNY Advisors CIO Chris Vella outlined the firm's push to expand private markets through interval fund and model portfolio structures on a recent episode of the Dakota Live podcast, arguing that operational simplicity and investor education will determine how broadly alternative investments scale across the advisory channel. Vella said daily NAV vehicles are a prerequisite for private market strategies to function within model portfolios, and that educational efforts are concentrated on home offices and advisors rather than end investors; the firm is also pursuing a single signature process for private market investments to reduce administrative friction.

On the LP side, the New Hampshire Retirement System extended its investment management agreement with BlackRock's Strategic Income Opportunities Bond Fund for five years through June 2031 and renewed BNY Mellon as master custodian through June 2028; and the Arapahoe County Retirement Plan committed $7.5M to The Jordan Company's middle-market buyout fund and separately added Vanguard’s Total International Stock Index to its public equity allocation.

In GP fundraising news, Francisco Partners closed $21B across flagship Francisco Partners VIII and middle-market Francisco Partners Agility IV – according to Dakota data, the New York State Common Retirement Fund committed a combined $550M across both funds. Elsewhere, Partners Group held the final close of its infrastructure secondaries program at over $5.5B, comprising a $1.7B closed-end fund plus bespoke mandates and co-investment vehicles; and in the pipeline, Khosla Ventures is reportedly in talks to raise as much as $5.5B across its latest venture funds, which would mark its largest fundraising event to date.

In leadership developments, the Employees' Retirement Fund of the City of Dallas is seeking a deputy CIO, with applications due August 24; CIO Natalie Sorrell has held the permanent role since September 2025 after more than eight years as deputy. Separately, Kyrkans Pension, the $2.8B occupational pension for Church of Sweden employees, is conducting a CEO search following Carl Cederberg's planned retirement after 12 years at the helm.