The Bahnsen Group Moves to Launch a Branded Multi-Alternatives Interval Fund

The Hightower-affiliated practice would take no fund-level advisory fee for at least the first year, while the vehicle’s repurchase windows open half as often as the interval fund market’s norm.

September 14, 2026

The Bahnsen Group is moving to put its name on a registered alternatives vehicle. The Bahnsen Group Alternative Core Solutions Fund was registered with the SEC on September 11, 2026 as a non-diversified, closed-end management investment company that will operate as an interval fund under Rule 23c-3. The trust was organized in Delaware on August 31, 2026 and comes to market as a new registrant.

The structure separates the brand from the plumbing. PPB Advisors, LLC, of West Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, is the investment adviser and handles the fund’s business affairs. Madison Avenue Financial Solutions, LLC, of Chicago, is the sub-adviser and is responsible for determining and implementing the investment strategy. The Bahnsen Group is a business unit of Hightower Advisors, LLC, which the prospectus identifies as an affiliate of the sub-adviser. David Bahnsen, who launched The Bahnsen Group in 2015 after eight years as a managing director at Morgan Stanley and six as a vice president at UBS, and Brian Szytel, with the practice since 2015, are named as portfolio managers.

PPB’s involvement extends well past the advisory contract. PPB Capital Partners, LLC, an affiliate of the adviser, also serves as fund administrator, fund accountant and transfer agent, drawing a monthly fee from the fund based on average net assets and subject to a monthly minimum. Ultimus Fund Distributors is principal underwriter on a best-efforts basis, Fifth Third Bank is custodian, Tait, Weller & Baker is the independent registered public accounting firm, and Practus is fund counsel.

A sub-adviser that waives its own fee

The economics are the most striking feature of the registration:

• the fund pays the adviser a management fee of 1.20 percent of average daily managed assets, accrued daily and paid monthly;
• the adviser pays the sub-adviser 0.85 percent out of that fee, with no separate charge to the fund;
• the sub-adviser has contractually agreed to waive the entirety of its 0.85 percent for at least one year from the waiver’s effective date;
• the net management fee during that period is 0.35 percent.

The manager affiliated with the advisory practice whose clients are the natural audience for the fund therefore intends to take nothing at the fund level during the initial period, leaving the residual with the platform adviser. The waiver can be terminated early only with the consent of both the sub-adviser and the board, and renewal after the initial term sits at the sub-adviser’s sole discretion.

What the 0.35 percent figure does not capture is the rest of the expense load, and at this stage neither does the prospectus. The fee table leaves the marketing services fee, other expenses, acquired fund fees and expenses, and both total expense lines blank, and the expense example is unpopulated. Because the fund is built to hold other funds, acquired fund fees will do much of the work in setting what shareholders actually pay. Fees payable to underlying managers are expected to range from zero to 2.85 percent annually of the net asset value of the fund’s investment, with incentive allocations or fees generally between zero and 30 percent of an investment fund’s net profits, and the prospectus notes those ranges may be exceeded.

A multi-manager mandate with wide latitude

The stated objective is current income first and long-term capital appreciation second. That objective is non-fundamental, so the board can change it without a shareholder vote. The sub-adviser will pursue it by allocating among registered closed-end and open-end funds, private investment funds and other vehicles, defined collectively as investment funds, which may constitute all or substantially all of the portfolio at any given time. Named strategies include alternative credit, private equity, hedged strategies and direct credit. The fund may also take co-investments originated, serviced or underwritten by the underlying managers.

There are no targets for industry, sector, strategy, geography, maturity, duration or credit quality, and no limit on the duration, maturity or credit quality of any holding. Portfolio turnover is anticipated at 25 to 50 percent. The fund may borrow up to one-third of total assets under a secured revolving credit agreement. The prospectus flags two consequences of that design: the underlying private funds carry their own leverage outside the 1940 Act asset coverage test, and fund-level borrowing can generate unrelated business taxable income for tax-exempt holders.

Liquidity on a two-window calendar

The repurchase policy is where the vehicle departs from the pattern most advisors will have in mind. The fund has adopted a fundamental policy to offer to repurchase no less than 5 percent and no more than 7 percent of outstanding shares at net asset value semi-annually, rather than on the quarterly cadence common across the interval fund market. The prospectus adds that shareholders should not expect the board to authorize offers above the 5 percent floor.

Written notice goes out no less than 21 and no more than 42 days before each repurchase request deadline, with roughly 30 days typical. Pricing occurs as of the deadline or no later than the fourteenth day after it, and payment follows within seven days. Oversubscribed offers are filled pro rata. The fund may borrow to fund repurchases, and the prospectus notes that interest on such borrowing works against shareholders who do not tender.

Access terms

Purchases run the other direction daily. Investors buy directly from the fund at the net asset value next calculated, and there is a single share class. The minimum initial investment is $25,000, as is the minimum additional investment, with the adviser retaining discretion to accept less. Shares will not be listed and carry transfer and resale restrictions. The fund intends to qualify as a regulated investment company and to deliver a 1099 rather than a Schedule K-1, which the prospectus frames in terms of shareholders not having to file for an extension. Distributions are expected quarterly, subject to board discretion and material net investment income, and are automatically reinvested absent a contrary election.

Governance and pending relief

The board consists of three trustees, two of them independent, and both independent slots are blank in this version. The interested trustee and chairman, Michael Weckwerth, is director of fund development at PPB Capital Partners and also serves as the fund’s president and principal executive officer. The treasurer and the secretary are likewise PPB Capital Partners personnel. The chief compliance officer is drawn from outside the platform.

Two applications for exemptive relief are pending. The fund, adviser and sub-adviser intend to seek an order permitting co-investment alongside affiliated funds and accounts, conditioned on independent trustee review and approval of each transaction. The fund and adviser are separately applying for manager-of-managers relief that would let the adviser hire and modify agreements with sub-advisers, affiliated and unaffiliated, subject to board approval rather than a shareholder vote. Neither has been granted.

The prospectus is preliminary and subject to completion. The ticker, the independent trustees, the distributor fee and the entire expense table remain open, and effectiveness will come when declared under Section 8(c) of the Securities Act.