More and more investors are discovering the advantages of using unlisted closed end funds to access alternative investments. Regardless of investment strategy, using an unlisted structure allows a manager to focus on long term opportunities, without worrying about short term fluctuations. The additional step required for an investor to exit a fund also helps with emotional management during market volatility ultimately leading to better wealth preservation over many market cycles. Unlisted closed end funds offer the advantages of non-traded alternative products, but also the transparency of regular SEC filings. Closed end funds have additional investor protections under the 1940 Act, just like mutual funds.

Interval Funds, tender offer funds non-traded REITs, and BDCs can all make great additions to investor portfolios. Unlisted closed end funds, including both interval and tender offer, have both been outpacing REITS and BDCS in recent years. The industry saw a surge in interval fund registrations between 2016 and 2019. In 2020, the interval fund space still grew, but tender offer funds proved to be especially popular among sponsors launching new funds. In 2020 there were seventeen new tender offer fund registrations covering a variety of strategies.

The following chart summarizes the registrations of non-traded alternative investment products over the past five years:

(note that this chart counts a master fund with multiple feeder funds as one entity)

Tender Offer Fund Registrations By Category

A variety of strategies can work inside a tender offer fund wrapper.  Private equity has proven to be the most popular in recent years.  Central Park Group and Neuberger Berman both have families of funds that provide affluent retail investors  with private equity access normally reserved for institutions and family offices.  Funds of Hedge Funds are another major category.  At the end of 2020, Blackrock registered a new tender offer fund that will invest in a portfolio of hedge funds.  Aspirant has had success in recent years with  hedge fund focused strategies , and they also launched a new product in 2020.  Real Estate and Credit are more popular as interval fund strategies, although there are also tender offer funds in the registration pipeline that follow these strategies.  The following table includes all tender offer funds that filed registration statements in 2020.  

The following chart summarizes 2020 Tender Offer Fund registrations by category:

This table has a full list of tender offer funds that filed registration statements in 2020:

Fund Name	Date of Registration Statement	Category
BlackRock Hedge Fund Guided Portfolio Solution	12/29/2020	Fund of Hedge Funds
John Hancock GA Senior Loan Trust	11/19/2020	Credit
Aspiriant Risk-Managed Capital Appreciation Fund	11/16/2020	Fund of Hedge Funds
Aspirant Risk-Managed Real Asset Fund	11/03/2020	Fund of Hedge Funds
CPG Vintage Access Fund IV LLC	09/25/2020	Private Equity
OATH Advisors Partner Fund	08/07/2020	Private Equity
AIP Private Equity Opportunities Fund IP LP	07/24/2020	Private Equity
NB Crossroads Private Market Access Fund LLC	07/17/2020	Private Equity
CPG Cooper Square International Equity, LLC	07/17/2020	Fund of Hedge Funds
Conversus StepStone Private Markets	07/02/2020	Private Equity
BlackRock Private Investments Fund	06/30/2020	Private Equity
KKR Real Estate Trust Inc.	05/28/2020	Real Estate
BBR Alo Fund	05/01/2020	Fund of Hedge Funds
Zell Capital	04/17/2020	Private Equity
Delaware Wilshire Private Markets Tender Fund	04/15/2020	Private Equity
Hamilton Lane Private Assets Fund	02/14/2020	Private Equity

Tender Offer Funds provides  free, downloadable spreadsheets including all active tender offer funds, and all recently registered funds.  For more information on interval funds, check out Interval Fund Tracker.