Buried in Jefferies’ 2025 market review is the most important asymmetry in secondaries: transactions under $250M were 41% of all deals by count but only 13% of the volume.1 Nearly half the market’s sellers share an eighth of its dollars and, in practice, almost none of its advisors.
The economics that create the blind spot
Roughly three-quarters of secondary volume is advisor-intermediated, and advisory fees run about 1–2% of deal value, sliding to tens of basis points at billion-dollar scale, with engagement floors commonly at $250K and up, and the established advisors engaging from around $50–100M.2 Run that math on a $10M stake: a 1–2% fee pays $100–200K, below the cost of a banked process. Below roughly $5M, nobody runs a process at all. The work in a secondary (teaser, NDA, data room, bids, purchase agreement, GP consent, transfer, wire) is per fund position and per GP relationship, not per dollar, so a $3M stake costs an advisor nearly as much effort as a $300M portfolio while paying one one-hundredth of the fee.
Who these sellers are
The long tail is not distressed institutions. It is estates, divorces, family offices winding down, and individuals whose fund position outlived the reason they bought it. On Palico, the small-stake venue that in 2024 became the first FINRA-approved electronic trading system for LP-led secondaries, half of sellers were first-timers, up from 37% the year before.3 First-time sellers get no banked process, no independent underwriting, and no competitive tension: exactly the conditions under which small lots clear well below the published averages.
The market is drifting toward the tail anyway
Buyer concentration is easing: the top ten buyers took roughly half of 2025 deployment, down 14 percentage points over four years, with newer entrants clustering in the sub-$250M bracket.1 And the venue that exists for the segment publishes a 1% fee under $50M with a $20K minimum.4 That is a real price, but a venue’s price: matching without underwriting, documents, or execution. What no one has offered the long tail is the full bank, meaning pricing, marketing, negotiation, consent, and closing, at a cost structure that clears on a $2M stake.
Our position, stated plainly
That gap is the reason this desk exists: full execution for LP stakes of any size, paid only at the wire. What a bulge-bracket advisor does for a $500M portfolio, done for a $3M stake. If that describes a position you hold, here is exactly how the process works.