Erik Hirsch: Manager Dispersion Has Not Narrowed in 20 Years
Hamilton Lane's Erik Hirsch explains why private equity return dispersion remains wide and why fund selection outranks fee-saving co-investments.
Hamilton Lane's Hirsch: Private markets industry has too many GPs
With Adam Le, Erik Hirsch · Sunday, October 25, 2026
Erik Hirsch, executive co-chairman of Hamilton Lane, joins PEI's Adam Le to analyze structural shifts across the private markets industry. Hirsch argues that the sluggish fundraising environment is primarily caused by an oversupply of underperforming general partners rather than cyclical headwinds, while addressing the persistence of zombie funds, the expansion of the secondaries market, and valuation disparities between public and private equities. He also outlines why Hamilton Lane continues investing in software assets despite market panic over generative artificial intelligence disruption.
Key takeaways
- Hamilton Lane proprietary data shows performance dispersion between top-quartile and bottom-quartile buyout sponsors remains as wide today as it was twenty years ago. Read more →
- Public equities trade near the 90th percentile of their historical performance averages, driven by heavy concentration in correlated mega-cap technology and artificial intelligence names. Read more →
- Secondaries offer portfolio flexibility, but Erik Hirsch notes that trading stakes between balance sheets does not create genuine cash liquidity at the underlying asset level. Read more →
- The vast majority of private equity portfolio assets have enterprise values below $1 billion, putting them far below the size threshold public stock markets now demand. Read more →
4 articles from this episode
Erik Hirsch on Why Public Tech Distorts Private Equity Benchmarks
Hamilton Lane's Erik Hirsch explains why public index concentration skews PE benchmarks and how two-pass evaluation fixes allocator decisions.
Erik Hirsch: Most Continuation Funds Cannot Find Capital
Erik Hirsch explains why GP-led continuation funds face a capital mismatch and outlines the criteria for healthy secondary restructurings.
Erik Hirsch on Why IPOs Cannot Rescue Private Equity
Hamilton Lane's Erik Hirsch explains why the IPO market cannot solve private equity liquidity shortages and what is stalling exits.
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