Columbia and Hamilton Lane Pair Up on a Public-Private Growth Interval Fund

Columbia collects framework fees from Hamilton Lane while committing at least 40% of the portfolio to Hamilton Lane vehicles it intends to select without surveying rival managers.

September 16, 2026

Columbia Management Investment Advisers has registered the Columbia Hamilton Lane Growth Innovation Fund, a continuously offered interval fund that would bolt a public growth-equity portfolio onto private-market exposure sourced through Hamilton Lane.

The vehicle is a product of a strategic framework the two firms have built to deliver public and private solutions to wealth and retirement investors, and the fund is explicitly one of its intended outputs. Hamilton Lane may provide marketing support to Columbia without additional compensation. Columbia, in turn, receives framework fees from Hamilton Lane — an arrangement the prospectus itself identifies as creating an incentive to keep allocating to Hamilton Lane funds.

Under normal conditions the fund would put at least 80% of net assets into exposure to what Columbia defines as growth innovation companies: businesses it believes can grow over the long term, or that support, benefit from, or drive innovation through new technologies, products, services, processes, business models or markets. The target split runs roughly 40% to 60% public equities and 40% to 60% private assets, with the public sleeve drawn from U.S. and foreign companies in the capitalization range of the Russell 3000 Growth Index.

At least 40% of net assets, measured at the time of investment, is expected to sit in one or more underlying investment funds managed by Hamilton Lane. Remaining private exposure would come through direct investments in private companies, held directly or through special purpose vehicles, and those are expected to be co-investments Hamilton Lane sources alongside its own funds.

An arm’s-length partner, on paper

The structure is notable for what Hamilton Lane is not. It is not a sponsor, promoter, investment adviser, sub-adviser, principal underwriter or affiliate of the fund. It provides no investment advice to the fund or to Columbia, including on the underlying funds and the co-investments it sources. Beyond supplying information about its own vehicles, it had no hand in preparing the prospectus. Columbia retains sole discretion over whether to act on anything Hamilton Lane surfaces, and has engaged no sub-adviser.

What the fund gains in fee simplicity at the adviser level it gives back in concentration. Columbia states it expects to select underlying funds and co-investment opportunities without considering the broader universe of options from other managers or sponsors, and flags the resulting conflict directly: the approach becomes a problem if the Hamilton Lane vehicles underperform comparable alternatives over extended periods. The menu of available Hamilton Lane funds may change over time.

The dependency runs deeper than allocation policy. If the two firms modify or terminate the framework, the fund may be unable to implement its strategy in whole or in part and could be forced to liquidate or transfer substantially all of its assets to another vehicle, with shareholders absorbing any losses.

Where 1940 Act protection stops

Certain underlying funds will not be registered investment companies, so neither the fund nor its shareholders get 1940 Act protections on those holdings. Others may be Luxembourg SICAVs outside the supervision of the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier and outside the 2010 Law. Underlying funds are not bound by the fund’s own investment restrictions, and unregistered ones face few investment limitations of any kind.

Valuation runs through the same channel. Columbia has been designated valuation designee under Rule 2a-5, and the fund or its pricing agents may rely on inputs from Hamilton Lane, its affiliates and the underlying funds themselves. Because the management fee is struck on net asset value, the prospectus acknowledges the conflict embedded in that arrangement.

Costs still blank

Nearly every economic term in the preliminary prospectus is a placeholder — left open are:

• the management fee and the expense caps for all four classes;
• acquired fund fees and expenses, and the fee waiver period;
• the management fee and carried-interest ranges Hamilton Lane charges at the underlying-fund level.

Columbia does note that acquired fund figures are based on historic returns of the underlying funds and that actual costs may run significantly higher than whatever ends up in the table.

What is fixed: distribution and service fees of 0.50% on Class A and FoundersA, none on the two institutional classes, and a $10,000 minimum initial investment across every class with no subsequent minimum. A front-end load of up to 3.0% applies to the two retail classes, shown as preliminary. Columbia intends to absorb organizational and offering costs without seeking recoupment. The FoundersA and FoundersInst classes are open to the same investors as their standard counterparts but would close to new purchases at the earlier of a stated asset threshold or a date in 2027 — both still bracketed.

Liquidity and the rest of the machinery

Shares would price at net asset value each business day and be offered continuously through Columbia Management Investment Distributors on a best-efforts basis, with no escrow. There is no listing and no expectation of a secondary market. The fund has adopted the Rule 23c-3 fundamental policy requiring quarterly repurchase offers of 5% to 25% of outstanding shares, and expects to run each offer at the 5% floor.

Against that quarterly window, the fund may hold illiquid securities without limit to the extent Rule 23c-3 liquidity requirements allow. It is non-diversified, may borrow up to 33 1/3% of total assets plus 5% for temporary purposes, and has exemptive relief permitting co-investment alongside other Columbia-managed funds and accounts, subject to allocation conditions that can cut its participation or exclude it outright.

Three portfolio managers are named. Joshua Kutin heads multi-asset solutions for North America at Columbia. Vimal Patel is a managing director who joined in 2014. Paul Wick has been with Columbia or a predecessor firm since 1987 and leads the Columbia Seligman technology strategies.

The fund was organized as a Massachusetts business trust on July 1, 2026 and has not commenced operations, so no financial highlights are available. Effectiveness has been deferred pending amendment, and the custodian, the sub-transfer agent and the repurchase months remain unfilled.

The registration lands as Hamilton Lane continues expanding the registered capacity of its own evergreen private-markets funds. The prospectus does not name which of its vehicles the Columbia fund would buy.