Over the last few decades, a structural shift in the equity markets has been gathering momentum. Much of the growth arc that once happened in public markets has migrated to private markets. Companies arrive in public markets larger, more mature, and at much higher valuations than they used to.
That change in where growth happens, and the up-market IPO onramp, has meaningfully altered what each market capitalization tier is best positioned to contribute to performance. Our philosophy follows the evidence.
Companies used to need access to public markets capital to scale. They entered as small or micro caps, grew through the public markets, and indexes captured that entire arc of value creation. That model no longer describes how, and where, the most consequential companies in the economy develop.
Private capital under management has grown from under $1 trillion in 2000 to over $16 trillion today.
Companies no longer need public markets to scale. They have all the capital they need. What they come to public markets for is liquidity, and that distinction changes how we should think about the mechanics of each capitalization tier.
Source — McKinsey Global Private Markets Report 2026Small cap is not a growth story anymore, because high-growth companies no longer IPO as small caps. It is a quality and value opportunity. The degree to which companies are periodically mispriced increases as market cap decreases. The contribution small cap is best positioned to make: well-run companies priced at a significant discount to intrinsic value.
Scaled private companies most commonly enter public markets in the mid cap range with established business models, meaningful revenue, and early institutional ownership already in place. This creates a distinct momentum dynamic that represents the contribution mid cap is best positioned to make.
Large cap companies are the most efficiently priced securities in public markets. Complex factor models add cost and turnover without adding alpha. The right approach here is structural: a thoughtful Quality Gate to remove capital destroyers, then own the top companies by investable market size. The contribution large cap is best positioned to make: broad market beta, held efficiently, with the noise filtered out.
Most asset managers treat structure as an execution detail — something chosen after the investment decision is made. We don't. We believe structure is one of the most underleveraged strategic inputs in the industry, and the way most equity strategies are built leaves real value on the table before a single holding is selected.
We've brought two well-established structures together in a way that creates strategic efficiencies that neither delivers alone.
Placing the equity sleeve inside an ETF isn't simply a delivery choice, it's a tax strategy decision. The ETF's in-kind creation and redemption mechanism allows the portfolio to rebalance, reconstitute across sleeves, and rotate holdings without triggering taxable events to shareholders. Most equity strategies generate returns and then surrender a portion of them every year through realized gains, year-end distributions, and the friction of repositioning. Others rely on realizing losses to offset gains, causing effectiveness to decay as complexity increases. The math of compounding is unforgiving: small annual drags become large long term differences. A structure that is tax-aware by design, not as an afterthought, allows the investment philosophy to work the way it was intended.
The index mechanism is a deliberate design choice, not a passive concession. Building a custom index gives us the ability to construct a thoughtful, diversified, disciplined strategy and deliver it with rules-based precision, full transparency, and consistent execution at every rebalance. We constructed the Equity Ascent Index with 3 distinct sleeve methodologies, tailored to capture the unique elements of each market capitalization tier. Using an index as the delivery mechanism for a diversified equity management strategy converts a traditionally static economic tool into a precise and active wealth management capability.
Structure and strategy are two sides of the same coin. What you hold matters. How you hold it matters just as much.
We appreciate what indexes bring to the table. They are cost-effective, diversified, transparent, and rules-based. A well-constructed index imposes exactly the kind of discipline that keeps an investment philosophy intact and aligned over time.
But conventional indexes apply a single methodology uniformly across the entire market. Given what we know about how growth reaches investors today, and what each capitalization tier is actually positioned to deliver, a uniform approach leaves significant value on the table.
The answer is an index recalibrated for how markets work now: one where each tier is tilted toward its highest-contribution role, the quality gate is applied consistently across all three, and the ETF structure allows for multiple reconstitutions per year with no tax drag to shareholders.
Simplified implementation. One ticker. Fully transparent methodology. No operational complexity, no custodian dependency, no minimum size constraint that limits who can access it.
Defensible at every level. Every inclusion, every exclusion, every weight follows a documented, rules-based process. Advisors can explain exactly what their clients own and why, compounding trust alongside capital.
Structurally differentiated. Not a passive index that owns everything. Not an active manager with style drift and tax drag. A purpose-built structure that takes a clear view on how markets work today and acts on it — consistently, at every rebalance.
Two sources of advantage, compounding together. Investment selection that reflects where markets actually create value. And a structural tax efficiency that allows those returns to reach the investor without ongoing Tax Drag. That is what we mean when we say structure compounds alpha.