Specialist Liquidity Advisory

Individual sellers. Institutional pricing.

Sold alone, a private fund position attracts few buyers and weak offers — if it can be sold at all. Vellum Secondaries gives individual holders of private equity, venture capital, and hedge fund interests what institutions have always had: scale, competition among qualified buyers, and disciplined execution. The result is an orderly exit at the best price the market will genuinely pay.

A note on expectations: secondary interests trade at a discount to net asset value — sometimes a meaningful one. We will not tell you otherwise. Our job is to make sure the discount you accept is the smallest one the market will bear.

Who We Work With

People who did not choose to become fund investors — or who need to stop being one.

The institutional secondary market works well — for institutions. Sellers below its minimums are left with weak bids or none. Vellum exists for them: holders of positions they cannot redeem, cannot transfer freely, and cannot wait a decade to run off.

Divorce

Individuals dividing marital assets

A fund interest awarded in a settlement is a claim on capital you may not see for years. We help convert an entangled, unredeemable position into proceeds that can actually be divided.

Estates

Executors and administrators

An estate cannot stay open for the life of a fund. We help executors dispose of inherited LP interests so the estate can be valued, settled, and closed on a reasonable timeline.

Counsel

Trust & estate attorneys

When a client's holdings include private fund interests, we act as the execution arm: valuation context, transfer mechanics, GP consent, and a documented, defensible sale process.

Former GP Staff

Departed fund professionals

Carried interest and co-invest positions rarely come with an exit. For former partners and employees of fund managers, we structure a discreet path to monetize what you earned.

The Process

Individually, your position is too small to sell well. Together, it isn't.

Institutional secondary buyers underwrite blocks, not fragments. We combine individual positions into a single offering of institutional scale — which changes who shows up to bid, and what they pay.

Contribute your position

Your interest joins a pooled vehicle alongside comparable positions, and you hold a precisely recorded, proportionate claim on the proceeds of the eventual sale.

We build the block

We assemble positions from multiple sellers into an offering of institutional scale and manage the general partner consents each transfer requires.

We run a competitive sale

The combined vehicle is marketed to institutional secondary buyers. Competition among qualified bidders — not negotiation with a single counterparty — sets the price.

You receive proceeds

At closing, sale proceeds are distributed to sellers in proportion to what each contributed. Your stranded position becomes cash, with full documentation of how the price was achieved.

The Honest Math

You will not receive net asset value. Here is why — and what we do about it.

Secondary buyers pay a discount to a fund's reported NAV. That is not a defect of our process; it is the price of converting an illiquid, consent-restricted, long-dated claim into immediate cash. Depending on the fund, the vintage, and the market, that discount can be substantial. Anyone who tells you otherwise is not being straight with you.

The discount is real, and we say so up front

NAV is an accounting mark, not a bid. What your position is worth is what a qualified buyer will pay for it today — often meaningfully less than the number on your statement.

Aggregation narrows it

A single small LP interest attracts few buyers and weak pricing, if it can be sold at all. A pooled vehicle of institutional size attracts serious capital, and serious capital competes.

Competition narrows it further

We run a structured process with multiple qualified bidders rather than accepting the first offer. The spread between a negotiated price and a competed price is our reason to exist.

Our incentive sits on your side of the table

Vellum acts solely for sellers. We do not buy positions for our own account and we do not represent buyers. We are paid to maximize your outcome, not to close at any price.

The first conversation is confidential, without obligation, and usually clarifying.

Tell us what you hold and the circumstances. We will give you a candid view of whether a sale makes sense — including when the honest answer is that it doesn't.

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