We use Gridline because it turns private market investing, which is historically complex, manual, and very fragmented, into a smoother, more efficient, and more comprehensive part of our practice.
Keebeck Wealth Management is a Chicago-based registered investment advisory firm and multifamily office managing just under $2B in assets. The 11-person team serves high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth clients, primarily private business owners and entrepreneurs. Keebeck helps them take the same ownership mindset they bring to their companies and apply it to their capital, stepping into the role of “CEO of their capital.”
Keebeck gives clients a unified approach that combines investing with estate planning, banking, lending, and long-term structuring. Alternatives have been part of that strategy from the start, typically making up 20% of allocations depending on client appetite. Over time, Keebeck has leaned further into direct private investments and unique investment access. This approach helps the team deliver unique, less widely marketed opportunities with clearer visibility into underlying company value.
As private investment activity increased across Keebeck’s portfolios, executing those opportunities required significant coordination behind the scenes. Early structures involved a white-labeled fund-of-funds approach that was time consuming to manage. Individual investments could require weeks of paperwork, layered subscription documents, and manual work across spreadsheets, administrators, and legal counsel. The team was managing practical complexities like multiple investor names on cap tables and limited digitization. Internally, Keebeck began looking for technology solutions that could support more speed and consistency while reducing operational complexity.
“It was predicated on a confluence of events, whether it be our business getting larger, our investment opportunities getting wider and more frequent, and knowing we needed a partner that we could rely on to build some repetition and some scale,” said Joe Polakoff, President of Keebeck.
Since engaging Gridline in the second half of 2025, Keebeck has launched three SPVs across private equity and real estate transactions. Joe shared that what once took over a month of paperwork to bring 20 to 25 investors into an investment can now be completed in roughly two weeks, including a five-day capital call notice. The SPV structure allows Keebeck to participate as a single name on a cap table while still representing multiple clients in a typical opportunity.
Gridline supported the formation process through a streamlined digital workflow and served as the GP, providing the legal, audit, tax, and compliance infrastructure expected in these vehicles and allowing Keebeck to deliver capital through a single entity. Subscription steps like investor documentation, AML, KYC, and core fund documents were handled in one place. Repeat investor information is stored, so the team doesn’t restart from scratch with each new opportunity.
With Gridline, Keebeck’s SPVs were priced digitally and held as line items at the custodial level (Schwab), allowing NAV updates to flow into performance reporting without manual offline tracking. Joe described the Gridline-Schwab connection as a small but significant shift for client visibility, since clients can now see these investments directly in their custodial accounts rather than treating them as reporting-only assets managed outside the system. Keebeck also expects further operational efficiency as tax reporting and statements consolidate into a single source.
Joe described the relationship between Keebeck and Gridline as an open partnership shaped by ongoing feedback and follow-through. “The Gridline team has been wildly open to the feedback that we’ve shared. They actually immediately made changes because they saw it through our eyes,” he said. Joe also pointed to the importance of follow-through in execution, especially when opportunities arise quickly. “Everything that the Gridline team said that they were able to do, they in turn reciprocated and delivered on as well,” he added.
With the initial SPVs completed, Keebeck is now looking to scale the process through the structure established with Gridline. The team is also beginning to explore the possibility of a white-labeled drawdown vehicle as the next phase of their private market strategy.
For Keebeck, Gridline has made private market execution “a smoother, more efficient and more comprehensive part of our practice.” “Everybody vocalizes it often,” Joe said of the Keebeck team, and shared that clients have also been able to “feel the difference in small but meaningful ways.”
This is what it means to set a new standard for alternative investing.