Shannon Saccocia, CIO of Neuberger Berman Private Wealth, has spent her career in wealth management, serving high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth clients. In her role, Saccocia works with clients to understand and define the asset allocation that best fits their investment approach. She spoke with Crain Currency about the ever-changing landscape of alternatives and how she speaks to her clients about the space.
The definition of "alternatives" has changed. What has that evolution been like, in your opinion?
The evolution of the word “alternatives” has gone through various stages over the last three decades and in some ways has come full circle. The term really grew out of a need to define investable assets that didn’t fall neatly into the three main categories of cash, equities and fixed income but over time took on additional attributes: illiquid, tax-inefficient, active, opaque and expensive, to name a few. In some ways, the term became more about structure than diversification. And the implication was that the more complex, expensive and exclusive a strategy was to access, the better it was. Changes over the last five to seven years, however, have moved away from a focus on structure, fees and access. Investors are more focused now on how to incorporate less liquid, more inefficient assets in their portfolios, to enhance returns or limit risk — or perhaps both. Increasingly, investors are also considering how these strategies are incorporated in their portfolio based on the underlying exposures — see private equity as a part of the overall equity allocation. This is lending itself to a new crop of alternatives, creating a new cycle.
What’s the best way to maximize alternatives for ultra-high-net-worth individuals?
Determining why you are including certain strategies in the portfolio should always be the first step. Incorporating strategies into a portfolio with limited liquidity implies a longer-term time horizon — even if there are mechanics for liquidity — and any strategy should be included with an eye toward increasing the probability of meeting a client’s desired outcome. For longer-term portfolios designed for wealth accumulation and eventual gifting or philanthropic giving, selecting strategies designed to offer capital in exchange for flexibility and latitude in timing of transactions, such as venture capital and private equity, makes sense. Conversely, investing in income-generating assets which also have a capital appreciation opportunity, or strategies that are more tax-advantaged in terms of their distributions, may be appropriate for investors with a desire to supplement current income or limit taxes while still accessing opportunities outside of the public markets. Overall, creating a plan that involves a disciplined, programmatic approach tends to result in a portfolio of alternative strategies that delivers.
What are your clients most concerned about when it comes to alts?
Liquidity is very often the biggest concern for individuals when it comes to allocating to alternatives. While there are often avenues to garner liquidity for clients in the event of an emergency, an emphasis on proper sizing and allocation to avoid needing the assets even in an emergency is a better approach. Guiding clients to understand that the percentage of their overall portfolio allocated to alternatives should be determined only after an evaluation of the assets needed to maintain to meet immediate — and that could even mean two to three years, depending on the spend — liquidity and to continue to grow principal through traditional public market exposure. Only then can the allocation to alternatives be determined, and the tenor of the underlying assets then needs to mirror any additional longer-term needs. Many clients are also concerned about the complexity and opaqueness of certain strategies and/or asset types. But in our experience, those concerns are often much less pronounced than the liquidity issue.
Where do you see the most opportunity?
With higher rates and a banking system which has been through several fundamental shifts over the last 15 years, firms that can be flexible, value-add liquidity providers to small and medium-sized companies have an advantage. In addition, we believe that we are undergoing a transition to a new regime, where private investors will no longer be able to rely only on financial engineering to generate strong returns on invested capital but instead will need to effect operational and strategic improvements at portfolio companies to create comparable results to those achieved in a lower-cost-of-capital environment. More specifically, we see particularly attractive opportunities in areas that are running chronically short of capital and liquidity, such as private debt, private equity secondaries and co-investments.
Looking out on the horizon, where do you see the alts space in five to 10 years?
The line between public and private investments — and thus between cash, equities, fixed income and alternatives — continues to blur. Much of the historical research on valuation, spreads and liquidity are based on and frankly anchored in periods where the public markets were the primary avenue of transparency and price discovery. With the growth of the private markets and the shift in how capital is provided into the market, many of the tenets on which we evaluate opportunity over the next five to 10 years need to include the impact that a flexible approach to investing in asset classes across both public and private will produce. Supplementing equity and fixed-income exposures, both public and private, with noncorrelated, niche assets that still require an information advantage is likely to become increasingly important.

ART CORNER: 'Untold Stories' of 6 women artists
By CHARLES MOORE
How do artistic representations of the female body interact with a woman’s sense of self?
From now through Feb. 18, the Sugar Hill Children’s Museum presents an exhibition that aims to answer this question. In “Untold Stories: Six Women Artists in Conversation,” artists from diverse backgrounds share their untold stories — each narrative grounded in a unique perspective.
The show features the work of Alanna Fields, Olivia Jia and Ruby Sky Stiler from the United States; Mie Olise Kjærgaard from Denmark; Turiya Magadlela from South Africa; and Manuela Viera-Gallo from Chile. Curating the exhibit are Omar Lopez-Chahoud and artist-in-residence C.J Chueca.
Through their collective interest in bodily representation, the artists leverage narratives that allow them to reconsider their own identities — grappling with topics like transmigration, emotional vulnerability and visibility. The exhibition explores the role of shifting identities and communal support, expressed metaphorically by way of painting, collage and sculpture.
Fields focuses on the intersection of queerness and Blackness, putting the spotlight on early African American vernacular photography by cropping and reframing images and adding subtle layers of paint to the works. Through a vulnerable lens, her series highlights the paradox of hypervisibility and invisibility — two extremes, both problematic. “Kiss Me Make My World Fade Away” (2023) is evidence of this paradox; the golden-hour light softens the composition as the subject makes eye contact with the viewer, painted yellow lines serving as a protective barrier. Yet what are the implications of that protection?
Jia crafts psychological self-portraits founded in space and place, revealing how different aspects of history have come to form her current self. The artist paints fictional, nocturnal workspaces, complete with archival documents and books that serve as metaphors for her inner world — referencing her loved ones via portraiture. In “Star Study, Portrait of My Mother” (2023), Jia has thoughtfully re-created a school photograph of her mother as a child, arranged atop a star-filled folded paper covering a patterned hardcover book — an affectionate homage.
Kjærgaard examines the togetherness, freedom and excitement of dynamic women. By taking back the gaze, so to speak, she uses the ship as a metaphor for movement — highlighting the intricacies of the nomadic, fast-moving lifestyle she lived growing up in Scandinavia. Her subjects are active and move freely across the canvas, exuding strength at every turn.
Magadlela shines the spotlight on the fraught history of Black South African women, relying on traditionally feminine techniques: sewing, embroidery and more. Using fabrics like stockings and correctional service uniforms, she shares the personal experiences of women in her native country. Among the artist’s works are “What Happened to Lumka?” (2023) and “What Happened to Mashadi?” (2023) — nylon and cotton pantyhose on canvas collages, the fabrics stretched and restitched in a manner that resembles the female thighs and genitals in repetition. Sexual and almost violent in nature, the different shapes and shades are kaleidoscopes, telling women’s stories while positing what became of them.
Stiler crafts figurative plywood configurations that evoke moments of daily life and question gender norms. “Father with Child” (2023) and “Reclining Father with Child” (2023) reexamine the concept of fatherhood, shedding light on the challenges men face when they show their emotions or define themselves by their children. The male figures in her works are painted purple and rest intimately, while the female subject in “Standing Artist” (2023) stands in solitude, her face a featureless red-orange as she faces the viewer with a palette in hand. In Stiler’s world, men are domestic subjects, and women are intent on pursuing their passions — an experiment in gender identity.
A Chilean born in exile, Viera-Gallo focuses on her personal experience with inequality by depicting anonymous masked figures attempting to find their way. Through her paintings, she hopes to break down the patriarchal systems that hinder our civic and political welfare. Anonymity is integral to her work; the artist prefers to stay neutral as she shows the different voices challenging stereotypes around women. In “Bridge: Equality, Identities in Transit” (2023), two figures stand face to face in front of a black backdrop, their features cut off — anonymized — as eight masks seemingly float from their heads and gradually come together. The work underscores the value of embracing all beings, regardless of background, race or political affiliation.
Ultimately, “Untold Stories: Six Women Artists in Conversation” creates an open dialogue around the female body and women’s roles in society. The six artists share different global perspectives. Yet together, they push past taboos and touch on themes like memory, desire and power, highlighting contemporary victories and questioning patriarchal roles in society. Each artist acknowledges that progress remains to be made, yet contributes to the conversation around the stories we share.