Topic
Alternative assets
Where marine assets sit in an alternative allocation, and what the illiquidity premium is actually worth.
16 articles
Are yachts an alternative asset class?
The Cash Discipline
Gold returned 1.3 percent a year in real terms from 1900 to 2025 against 6.6 percent for equities, and the reason sophisticated capital favours distributing assets is that a payment is falsifiable evidence while a valuation is an opinion.
Mike Soertsz16minUpdated Aug 2026
The Cost Shock
The 2026 Strait of Hormuz disruption cut global oil supply by 10.1 million barrels a day in March, yet Brent averaged less than in 2022, and operating real assets absorbed it as a cost rather than a hedge.
Mike Soertsz16minUpdated Aug 2026
The Illiquidity Premium
The illiquidity premium is a hypothesis rather than a property of private assets, and with ten-year US real yields at 2.41 per cent in August 2026 the bar an illiquid asset must clear has risen.
Mike Soertsz16minUpdated Aug 2026
What Access Means
Family offices hold 44 percent of the average portfolio in alternative assets according to the UBS Global Family Office Report 2025, an allocation explained by eligibility, ticket size and tolerance for decade-long lock-ups rather than superior insight.
Mike Soertsz15minUpdated Aug 2026
The Income Hurdle
The ten year US inflation indexed Treasury yield reached 2.44 per cent in August 2026, setting a real hurdle that every illiquid real asset must clear after operating costs before its illiquidity is compensated at all.
Mike Soertsz17minUpdated Aug 2026
REIT Valuation Opportunity
The public-private real estate cap rate spread reached 112 basis points in the third quarter of 2025, against a typical 20 to 50 basis points, indicating public REITs trade below private market valuations of comparable assets.
Mike Soertsz12minUpdated Aug 2026
Luxury Collectibles & Superyacht Evolution
Luxury collectibles are being institutionalised, with a Christie's-backed Hermes handbag hedge fund raising 1 million dollars in November 2025 and reporting a 34 per cent net return over its first 43 days.
Mike Soertsz14minUpdated Aug 2026
Real Estate Secondaries & PE Mega-Deals
The real estate secondaries market is projected to reach 15 billion dollars in 2025, up from 8 billion in 2023, an 88 per cent increase in two years.
Mike Soertsz15minUpdated Aug 2026
The Debasement Trade
Gold passed 4,000 dollars per troy ounce and silver rose 75 per cent during 2025 as ultra-wealthy investors rotated from financial assets into tangible ones, a shift the yacht market is now absorbing.
Mike Soertsz12minUpdated Aug 2026
BRICS De-Dollarization Impact
Foreign central bank Treasury holdings at the New York Fed fell to 2.78 trillion dollars in October 2025, the lowest level in over a decade, as BRICS members expanded non-dollar settlement systems.
Mike Soertsz12minUpdated Aug 2026
The Great Convergence
McKinsey estimates the convergence of traditional and alternative asset management puts 10.5 trillion dollars in motion, driving portfolios from the 60-40 model toward a 60-20-20 split with 20 percent in private alternatives.
Mike Soertsz19minUpdated Aug 2026
Family Office Marina Boom
Single-family offices are projected to reach 5.4 trillion dollars under management by 2030, and private equity is reclassifying marinas as infrastructure, evidenced by Blackstone paying 5.6 billion dollars for Safe Harbor Marinas in February 2025.
Mike Soertsz18minUpdated Aug 2026
Private Credit Fund Boom 2025
H.I.G. WhiteHorse closed its Middle Market Lending Fund IV at 5.9 billion dollars in August 2025, the largest private credit closing of the year and a marker of the asset class moving into mainstream allocation.
Mike Soertsz18minUpdated Aug 2026
From Bonds to Buildings
Prime residential prices rose in 85 of 100 key markets during the 2022 bond selloff, illustrating why investors treat property rents and replacement costs as an inflation adjustment mechanism that fixed coupons lack.
Mike Soertsz9minUpdated Aug 2026
Rethinking Risk-Free Assets
The 2022 government bond drawdown, one of the worst calendar years for Treasuries in the modern era, pushed investors toward floating-rate private credit in search of yield less exposed to duration.
Mike Soertsz8minUpdated Aug 2026
Collectibles Investment Guide
The Knight Frank Luxury Investment Index rose 7 per cent in the twelve months to June 2023, but dispersion inside the basket ran from art up 30 per cent to classic cars down 7 per cent.
Mike Soertsz8minUpdated Aug 2026