Insurance services multinational company Willis Towers Watson (WTW) plans to launch CG WTW Private Equity Access LTAF (CG WTW PEAL), which will invest in various private equity opportunities including co-investments, via the new Long Term Asset Fund (LTAF) structure recently introduced by the FCA.
LifeSight, the company’s defined contribution (DC) pensions master trust with 360,000 members, has agreed to allocate up to 5% of its LifeSight Equity default fund into private equity via WTW’s new LTAF.
CG WTW PEAL is anticipated to be available later this year and marks the first time WTW’s institutional private equity business has offered a pooled fund to the market, which will enable investment into assets that, historically, have been harder for DC and private investors to access.
In a press release, WTW stated: “Private equity investments, which historically have offered a high illiquidity premium, provide the greatest opportunity to maximise long-term returns from private markets and are therefore where all long-term illiquid DC asset strategies should start”.
The LTAF is a new type of open-ended authorised fund introduced by the FCA in 2021 and designed to invest efficiently in long-term, illiquid assets, including asset classes like venture capital, private equity, private debt, real estate and infrastructure.
