Exclusive interview with Will Hamilton, CEO & Founder, Principal, Hamilton Wealth Partners
Global Investment Insights
with Will Hamilton, CEO & Founder, Principal, Hamilton Wealth Partners
Will Hamilton founded Hamilton Wealth Partners (HWP) in 2013. Bringing nearly four decades of experience to the table, Will leads HWP’s strategic initiatives tailored to “keeping wealthy families wealthy”, ensuring they receive unparalleled value with a strong focus on client experience and communication.
Throughout his career, Will has navigated numerous investment cycles across different continents, including Australia, Hong Kong, and London. This global exposure has deepened his appreciation for the complexity and volatility of the investment markets.
In this exclusive interview with Global Investment Institute, Will discusses HWP’s approach to portfolio construction, whether the 60/40 portfolio is losing relevance, navigating the shift between public and private markets, how investors should think about their exposure to the US, the future of the USD as the reserve currency, and how intergenerational wealth transfer is influencing emerging investment trends.
Q. What is your approach to portfolio construction and what asset classes are playing a bigger vs smaller role in your asset allocation in an investment landscape where the 60/40 portfolio is losing relevance?
A. A large debate that is out there is whether the traditional 60/40 portfolio is losing relevance, as we have seen the move to private markets.
What’s more, private wealth flows are increasingly favouring private markets, with the Bank of New York Mellon reporting that 53% of first quarter 2025 fund flows went into private markets.
For over a decade now we have allocated towards private markets, where appropriate for a client. Like many, we look at private equity, diversified credit, direct real estate and infrastructure.
Allocating to private markets depends on the client’s risk appetite, timeline and liquidity budget. In saying that, we treat any investment with liquidity of monthly or greater as illiquid, even evergreen vehicles.
A traditional 60/40 portfolio in the true sense of equities and bonds we have not run for a decade.
In constructing portfolios with private market exposure though, balance and appropriateness for each individual family group is considered.
Q. With companies staying private for longer, fewer new listings and more public companies being taken private, how are you navigating the public vs private opportunity set?
A. Everyone is focussing on private markets but one of the key considerations is the awareness that public markets are shrinking, with fewer listings and an increased number of delisting’s.
Furthermore, globally many technology and high growth companies are ignoring their local markets and listing in the US, such as Canva.
Our view is that private assets, while valuable for diversification, must be used judiciously and fill a role, one which you cannot gain access to through public markets.
An example of where we have seen private markets complement and fill a gap that public markets have not necessarily provided is in infrastructure, and as such have provided a cornerstone of resilient portfolios, aligning with priorities around energy transition, transport, and digital infrastructure.
Caution is also important, as the number of providers, per asset class, in private markets has exploded and, of course, every manager believes they have a compelling argument, but there is a huge disparity in quality of what is being offered.
Q. With the US increasingly prioritising national interests over global stability, how should investors think about their exposure to the US and does this give investors greater cause to think about diversifying their exposures geographically?
A. The US is starting to be seen as having an element of sovereign risk. This is already evident in outgoing capital flows from that nation or, more to the point, a decrease in inflows. Investors are trying to determine the US risk premia and are looking to diversify globally across asset classes.
At a recent conference I attended in Europe questions dominated around the US risk premia and its impact on asset allocation as well as lifting USD hedging.
Whilst everyone was very keen on Europe, I walked away sceptical. What do you invest in and where?
As keen as everyone is on Europe, the market has rallied. Yes, it has a tailwind with defence and infrastructure spending, but the index is an old index and without the cyclical nature of Australia.
Whilst GDP growth in the US and Europe may be similar for 2025, that is not projected to be the case for 2026 as the US pulls away, and I believe will show that it does also have superior earnings growth benefitting from lower interest rates, which makes the argument towards the US equity market compelling.
Q. As new powers challenge US’ dominance on the global stage, how do you see power shifting and what does it mean for the future of the USD as the reserve currency? What role is there for gold and digital currencies in a multi-polar world?
A. We have a US president that not just believes in but wants to see a lower USD, as such investors have been looking at how to treat USD assets.
The status of the USD is being challenged but there is no stable alternative except gold. This is one explanation for the continued strength of gold which one bank recently said even overtook flows into EUR.
This is why digital currencies have also done well, as investors have been looking at an alternative to the USD.
Whilst many have been arguing that the RMB and EUR are sound alternatives they have never taken hold as reserve currencies. When everyone is on board a consensus trade it is time to be aware, but everyone including the US president wants to see the USD lower.
Q. A final thought, as the intergenerational wealth transfer unfolds, how are investment preferences and risk appetite changing, and what investment trends are emerging as the next generation become key allocators of capital?
A. There has been a lot of talk about the intergenerational wealth transfer that is ahead of us. It is not necessarily ahead of us; we are already seeing it.
In many of the older style advice firms there is a generational cliff as older advisers retire, and the established relationship changes with the matriarch or patriarch and the next generation want to see the wealth run through a multi asset class portfolio diversified amongst and within asset classes.
This is being driven by the next generation, and by the nature of how the portfolio is run, with less volatility, but higher more stable returns.
This next generation, or the inheritors, is more knowledgeable, and we have found them driving this process on behalf of those older generations.
Will Hamilton, CEO & Founder, Principal, Hamilton Wealth Partners
Will founded HWP in 2013, bringing nearly four decades of experience to the table, Will leads our strategic initiatives tailored to “keeping wealthy families wealthy,” ensuring they receive unparalleled value with a strong focus on client experience and communication.
Throughout his career, Will has navigated numerous investment cycles across different continents, including Australia, Hong Kong, and London. This global exposure has deepened his appreciation for the complexity and volatility of the investment markets.
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