Guides to the structures and asset classes used in alternative investing, written for advisers, allocators, and investors evaluating them. Each guide is a full explainer with a cluster of supporting articles beneath it.
Working on the operational or compliance side instead? See guides for industry professionals.
Credit
Private Credit — Direct lending and the private credit market: what it lends against, where it sits in the capital structure, how it is valued, and how it compares to bank lending and high yield.
Business Development Companies — The regulated wrapper for private credit: the 1940 Act framework, listed and non-traded formats, position-level disclosure, and what to examine in the filings.
Fund structures
Interval and Evergreen Funds — Semi-liquid registered vehicles: the periodic repurchase mechanism, tender offer funds, perpetual structures, and how liquidity actually works when it is capped.
Real estate
1031 Exchanges — The rules, deadlines, and mechanics of like-kind exchange, including qualified intermediaries, identification, reverse exchanges, and the UPREIT path.
Delaware Statutory Trusts — Passive replacement property for 1031 exchanges: the structure, its constraints, its costs, and its risks.
Non-Traded REITs — Unlisted real estate vehicles: NAV pricing, share repurchase programs, fee structures, and how they compare to listed REITs.
Private Markets — What private markets are, the vehicles that hold them, who qualifies as an accredited investor, and how to size and plan an allocation.
Private Equity — Buyout, growth and venture strategies, the fund lifecycle, fees and the waterfall, secondaries, continuation vehicles, and the J-curve.
Real Estate Syndication — Sponsor and investor roles, the capital stack, promote and waterfall economics, and Regulation D mechanics.
Infrastructure & Real Assets — Core to opportunistic risk tiers, regulated and contracted revenue, digital infrastructure, and farmland and timberland.
Opportunity Zones — The permanent program after the 2025 law: rolling deferral, the ten-year exclusion, rural funds, and fund diligence.
Related
- The full guide index — everything on the site, both tracks
- Glossary — definitions for the terminology used throughout
- SQX Alts directory — independent, unaffiliated listings of firms active in the space
