Spotlight: Future Standard, Formerly FS Investments, and Its Middle-Market Platform
The firm that brought the first non-traded BDC to market now runs one of the longer-tenured private equity secondaries platforms, and in June it closed its largest fund ever at about $3 billion.
October 23, 2026
Future Standard is the Philadelphia-based alternative asset manager known until July 2025 as FS Investments. It invests across private equity, credit, real estate and infrastructure with a focus on the U.S. middle market, for both institutional and private wealth clients. The firm estimates its assets under management at $94 billion as of June 30, 2026, across 14 offices.
From FS Investments to Future Standard
Michael Forman and David Adelman founded the firm nearly 20 years ago to broaden access to private markets. According to the firm, it brought the first non-traded BDC, one of the first closed-end funds and the largest credit REIT to market. In 2023 it acquired Portfolio Advisors, which added an institutional middle market solutions and credit business, and in July 2025 the combined firm took the Future Standard name so that both businesses would operate under one brand.
The firm's AUM definition is broad. Its footnote says the figure includes uncalled investor commitments, including some that do not yet earn management fees, along with the value of outstanding CLOs and the fair value of assets in the FS KKR Capital Corp. joint venture.
Private equity secondaries
Portfolio Advisors brought a secondaries business with roots in 2002. Future Standard estimates it has deployed more than $12 billion in secondaries since then. On June 9, 2026, the firm announced the final close of PA Secondary Fund V at approximately $3 billion in commitments from 350 institutional investors across North America, Europe and Asia. It was the largest private fund close in the firm's history. The fund buys interests in private equity funds on the secondary market and focuses mainly on LP-led transactions in the North American middle market.
Interval fund, credit REIT and FS MVP Private Markets Fund
Advisors are most likely to meet the firm through its continuously offered vehicles:
- FS Credit Income Fund (FCRIX). An interval fund launched in November 2017 that offers five share classes.
- FS Credit Real Estate Income Trust. A credit-focused REIT operating since January 2018, which reported a loan portfolio of about $7.85 billion across 140 loans at the end of 2025.
- FS MVP Private Markets Fund. The firm's private equity vehicle for the wealth channel. It took over from a predecessor limited partnership, MVP Private Markets, L.P., in a reorganization on Jan. 3, 2022.
FS MVP Private Markets Fund and its predecessor both charge a 1.25% management fee, but the fee base changed in the reorganization. The predecessor charged on the greater of NAV or NAV plus uncalled commitments, while the current fund charges on average daily managed assets. Class I shares carry no sales charge, and Class A and Class D shares carry a load of up to 3.50%.
The firm also runs two NYSE-listed funds, FS Credit Opportunities Corp. (FSCO) and FS Specialty Lending Fund (FSSL). FSSL began operating as a BDC in July 2011. On Oct. 28, 2025, it converted into a registered closed-end fund and kept its predecessor's performance history, completing a reorganization the fund had laid out for shareholders earlier that year.
A published view on private credit
In a March 2026 report, the firm's research team argued that private credit's problems come from crowding, not a crisis. The report says just 12 funds accounted for more than 40% of global closed-end private credit fundraising from the start of 2024 through mid-2025. That concentration has pushed large-cap lending toward tighter spreads and looser terms. In large-cap lending, about 60% of loans are covenant-lite and average leverage is 6.2x debt to EBITDA. In the lower middle market, the figures are 3% and 4.2x. The firm's conclusion is that private credit adds the most value in the lower and core middle market.
New leadership and an infrastructure push
Edwin Conway became CEO on July 14, 2026. He previously led BlackRock's alternatives business and was a partner at Blackstone. Forman moved to full-time executive chairman. The appointment followed several other senior hires earlier in 2026. Chris Keogh joined from Goldman Sachs as co-president and head of client engagement and capital formation. Kyle Delaney joined as senior advisor and vice chairman.
Over the same period, the firm has built out its infrastructure business. In 2025 it acquired Post Road Group's digital infrastructure and asset-based team, and in February 2026 it took a majority stake in Velonex Technologies, a managed IT services provider. On Aug. 18, 2026, it closed a minority investment in KDC, an infrastructure development firm that Conway co-founded with the Kamine family. The deal gives Future Standard an option to acquire control. KDC focuses on projects that have outgrown venture capital but remain too early-stage or operationally intensive for traditional infrastructure investors, in areas including data, energy security, advanced manufacturing and critical minerals.
