This Week in Beyond Wealth
How HNW households carry debt and manage strategic leverage.
Navigating the NIL era: A conversation with Texas Tech's head football coach.
Finding clarity in the private credit chaos.
Money & Markets
What forms of debt do high-net-worth families typically carry?
We recently polled the Long Angle community to benchmark which liabilities wealthy families carry and how they approach personal debt.
The data shows a community split between those carrying traditional debt and those who have moved away from it entirely. While 59% of respondents carry a primary mortgage, a substantial 29% carry no personal debt at all. Interestingly, only 17% reported an auto loan.
A subset of those who do carry debt utilize strategic asset-backed lines (21% of respondents) to access liquidity without selling off assets. These include:
PLOC (Personal Line of Credit): An unsecured line of credit. Because there is no collateral, these typically carry much higher interest rates.
SBLOC / PAL (Securities-Based Line of Credit / Pledged Asset Line): A bank loan secured by your non-retirement brokerage account. You can typically borrow 50-70% of the value.
Margin Loan: Similar to an SBLOC but usually offered directly through your broker for quicker, often more aggressive, trading liquidity.
HNW investors typically use these instruments to fund large purchases or capital calls.
Life, Health, & Family
How is NIL changing college football’s operating model?
College football has transitioned from a traditional amateur model to a complex commercial enterprise. In a recent Navigating Wealth podcast, our hosts sat down with Texas Tech Head Coach Joey McGuire to pull back the curtain on the new collegiate economy.
Coach McGuire describes the current landscape in one word: chaos. But, as he explains, it is "chaos with a structure to it." Three forces are operating simultaneously:
The Transfer Portal: Athletes can move freely between programs during specific windows, creating a "speed dating" reality for coaches who must re-recruit their own rosters every year.
NIL and Revenue Sharing: Athletes are now compensated directly, either through brand deals or a share of university athletic revenue (currently capped at roughly $21M per program).
Conference Realignment: The conference map has shifted dramatically, driven largely by TV contract money and the pursuit of larger media markets.
For elite programs, this has meant building entirely new internal infrastructure and functioning more like a professional front office.
Listen to the full episode: How NIL & Revenue Sharing are Changing College Football
Private Market Perspectives
Is there real systemic risk in private credit or are the headlines overblown?
Is private credit in the midst of a crisis? Long Angle just released its latest white paper to provide the context needed to make sense of the noise. The paper unpacks two polar narratives taking shape in the headlines:
The Media Narrative:
Private equity created a credit bubble solely to boost AUM and fees.
Loans are poorly underwritten and laden with bad credit that managers blindly fail to mark down.
Tricolor and First Brands failures signal widespread bad underwriting and are the “canary in the coal mine.”
"SaaSpocalypse": managers are hiding huge swaths of worthless software debt on their books.
Investor dollars are trapped in a bubble of managers' own making with no way out.
The Asset Manager Narrative:
There is no bubble: private credit has simply taken a larger share of bank capital, and these vehicles better prevent panic-driven fire sales.
Tricolor and First Brands were isolated cases of fraud with minimal connection to private credit and are not signs of systemic collapse.
Credit quality has not actually deteriorated.
Software debt is a smaller, more durable portion of loan books than the "SaaSpocalypse" headlines suggest.
Top managers are doubling down to meet redemptions.
Read Private Credit Perspectives Q1 2026: Signs of Stress or Sound Plumbing? to draw your own conclusions. Pick a side, or (like us) maybe land somewhere in the middle.
Around Long Angle
The best of both worlds
At Long Angle, we believe in the "best of both worlds" approach: combining a sophisticated global virtual platform with localized in-person events. This is what sets our community apart.
Throughout March, we’re hosting 25 in-person meetups for Long Angle members across the US and UK, with more to come in April.
We’re committed to bridging the gap between digital connection and real-world relationships.
Join our community of over 7,500 members for happy hours, dinners, outings, and live events in your area. Apply for membership here.
Published By
Chris Bendtsen
Insights Lead, Long Angle
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This material is for informational purposes only and is not investment advice regarding any security or investment strategy. Long Angle does not provide legal or tax advice, consult your attorney, CPA, or tax professional regarding your situation.
Long Angle Management, LLC (Long Angle), is an SEC registered investment adviser firm. Registration does not imply a certain level of skill or endorsement. Investing involves risk, including potential loss of principal. Past performance is not indicative of future results.