Gabriel Freund brings 30 years of experience in the financial industry. He began on the institutional side in New York and, following his move to Miami in 2006, dedicated himself to the RIA (Registered Investment Advisor) sector and private banking, including nearly 1 decade at Santander. After establishing his independence, he founded RAC Strategic Partners, where he serves as founder and CIO. The firm operates as an advisory practice powered by an artificial intelligence agent architecture, offering discretionary portfolio management and OCIO (Outsourced CIO) services to family offices and institutions.
In discussion, Freund outlines his target client profile, details the alternative investments platform under development for Latin America, explains his framework for managing risk when delegating workflows to AI, shares his perspective on the Latin American investor base, and highlights his operational growth plans.
Which clients is RAC Strategic Partners targeting?
I operate a hybrid model driven by flexibility and my background. I plan to reactivate my institutional relationships to avoid relying exclusively on approaching single accounts directly, as is typical in private banking. I can also engage financial advisors and target institutional allocators across both U.S. domestic and offshore markets, having operated across both segments. I began my career in the U.S. domestic market and have an accounting background, which allows me to understand the cross-border dynamics between domestic and offshore structures.
With 20 years managing Latin American relationships, I have served substantial family offices and high-net-worth clients, alongside the network developed during my tenure in private banking; I will be approaching that group as well. Concurrently, I will execute the same institutional approach, engaging Latin American institutions with which I have previously worked to offer strategies through my outsourced CIO mandate. While that represents my primary focus, I also manage proprietary strategies and provide financial advice to select clients, aligned with my background and regulatory scope.
You are also developing an alternative investments platform for Latin America. What does it entail?
As newer generations in Latin America continue to evolve, they realize market access extends far beyond conventional offerings. This dynamic leaves institutional-grade strategies underrepresented among allocators in the region. We are witnessing this demand, and my partners bring decades of industry experience and local networks. Given our understanding of the Latin American investor profile alongside current macroeconomic conditions, our role is identifying strategies suited to each client segment, primarily accessed via feeder vehicles as limited partners (LPs).
My partners maintain active access to the unified NUAM market—spanning Peru, Colombia, and Chile—which collectively forms the #3 market in Latin America behind Brazil and Mexico. To be clear: we are not third-party placement agents or capital raisers. The GP must demonstrate value to the LP and generate demand. Our role is introducing fund managers to allocators within a curated setting, providing managers with detailed investor profiles to streamline discussions. We advise managers on executing roadshows and broad operational positioning. We focus on relationship-driven models rather than transactional distribution, aligned with the view that a reputation built over decades can be compromised in 10 minutes.
How do you manage the risk of delegating workflows to AI?
The framework relies on a human-in-the-loop architecture, ensuring the human remains the definitive decision-maker. My process focuses on synthesizing data to inform execution. While operational processes are automated, fiduciary and strategic decisions remain strictly mine. I have deployed a technology stack termed Sovereign Quad Core, consisting of 4 primary specialized agents: Alfa handles macro analysis, strategy, and noise filtration; Sigma serves as the fiduciary oversight layer, ensuring portfolio construction logic holds; Omega oversees operational integrity and risk management; and Nexus operates as the orchestrator, structuring the execution plan.
Latin American investors regularly navigate political and economic volatility. How do they compare to U.S. domestic clients, and how does this shape your asset allocation?
The profile remains consistent because Latin America operates in cycles. Just as positive momentum builds, unexpected disruptions emerge, resetting expectations. I cannot broadly recommend illiquid 10-year private equity commitments to every client regardless of liquidity needs. Allocators prioritize cash-flow distributions in U.S. dollars and hard currency, a preference unlikely to shift. Furthermore, given that the U.S. is navigating an uncommon period of domestic instability, identifying alternative allocations becomes critical.
What are your 3-year targets across assets, clients, and organizational scale?
The objective is not to remain a solo practice indefinitely. I currently oversee $5M across proprietary capital—which represents the smallest portion—alongside advisory mandates and assets under management. I am in discussions with clearing and custody platforms, including Pershing and StoneX, to support our Latin American business footprint. My strategy focuses on partnering with local independent financial advisors to avoid overextension, concentrating our direct management on offshore accounts and core institutional mandates.
Do your short-, medium-, or long-term objectives include expanding into additional geographic markets?
Latin America encompasses diverse institutional entities, including significant European exposure. Having spent years at European institutions—including Santander, BNP, and Deutsche Bank—I maintain an understanding of those markets; however, operational focus remains essential. For now, expansion centers on U.S. institutional accounts to scale AUM, alongside Latin American relationships cultivated over 20 years in Miami. While global markets remain volatile, dislocations generate corresponding opportunities.
