Apollo Brings Private Credit to UK Pension SaversBut There's a Catch

Apollo Global Management, one of the world's largest <a href="/learn/what-are-alternative-investments">alternative asset</a> managers, announced on 10 March 2026 the launch of the CG Apollo Global Diversified Credit LTAF — its first <a href="/learn/ltaf-deep-dive">Long-Term Asset Fund</a> in the United Kingdom. The fund has received FCA authorisation and is set to provide UK defined contribution (DC) pension schemes with access to a diversified global <a href="/learn/private-credit-complete-guide">private credit</a> portfolio in a semi-liquid format.

This is a private credit fund — a category that has historically been available only to large institutional investors like pension endowments and sovereign wealth funds. <a href="/learn/private-credit-complete-guide">Private credit</a> refers to loans and debt financing arranged privately, outside of public bond markets.

Specifically, the fund is principally focused on private investment grade lending, large-cap corporate lending, and asset-backed finance. In plain English, that means:

Private investment grade credit — loans to large, financially stable companies, similar in quality to investment-grade corporate bonds but negotiated privately and typically offering a yield premium over public equivalents.

Large-cap corporate lending — direct loans to major corporations, often financing acquisitions, expansions, or refinancings.

Asset-backed finance — debt secured against pools of assets such as mortgages, auto loans, aircraft, or infrastructure revenue streams.

By spanning these different borrower types and structures, the fund aims to spread risk across multiple credit sectors rather than concentrating in a single niche.

The fund is described as "semi-liquid," which is an important distinction. Unlike a daily-dealing unit trust or ETF, you cannot simply sell your units at will. Redemptions are subject to notice periods and liquidity management — a trade-off for accessing assets that aren't traded on public markets.

The <a href="/learn/ltaf-deep-dive">Long-Term Asset Fund</a> is a fund structure created by the FCA in 2021 specifically to give UK investors structured access to illiquid, long-term assets. LTAFs are open-ended funds required to invest more than 50% of their assets in unlisted securities and other long-term assets, including private credit, venture capital, <a href="/learn/private-equity-complete-guide">private equity</a>, <a href="/learn/private-real-estate-complete-guide">real estate</a>, and infrastructure.

LTAFs are classified as Restricted Mass Market Investments (RMMIs) and are considered high-risk by the FCA. The RMMI regime mandates additional protections for retail investors, including prominent risk warnings and appropriateness assessments for all retail investors wishing to invest.

For a broader comparison of the UK and European fund frameworks, see our guide to <a href="/learn/ltaf-eltif-new-fund-structures">LTAFs and ELTIFs</a>.

This is the critical question — and the honest answer is: not directly, at least not yet.

Apollo's LTAF has been designed and marketed specifically at UK defined contribution (DC) workplace pension schemes, not at individual retail investors. Jesal Mistry, Apollo's managing director and UK DC lead, described the launch as an "important milestone" as DC plans increasingly seek to "enhance member outcomes and integrate private markets solutions."

However, there are several routes through which ordinary savers may gain exposure over time:

1. Through your workplace pension (most likely route) If your employer's DC pension scheme — for example through providers like Aviva, Nest, or similar — decides to allocate to the Apollo LTAF as part of its default investment strategy, you would gain exposure automatically. In September 2025, Aviva announced that Apollo was among a select group of asset management partners selected to allocate capital under My Future Vision, its new default pension investment strategy targeting 20–25% private markets exposure. If you are an Aviva pension member, allocation to this or similar Apollo products may already be forming part of your fund's future strategy.

2. Through a SIPP (Self-Invested Personal Pension) Mass market retail investors, self-select DC pension schemes, and Self-Invested Personal Pensions (SIPPs) are now permitted to invest into an LTAF — though this depends entirely on whether your specific SIPP platform chooses to make the Apollo LTAF available. At this stage, no major SIPP platform has publicly confirmed it will offer this particular fund.

3. Through a financial adviser Any advised or discretionary managed retail investors can access LTAFs, provided a specific LTAF risk warning is provided to the end investor. If you work with an independent financial adviser (IFA) or a discretionary wealth manager, and they decide this fund is suitable for you, they could in principle include it in a portfolio.

4. As a direct retail investor (limited) Direct retail investors can access LTAFs limited to up to 10% of their investable assets, provided a personalised risk warning is provided and specific appropriateness requirements are met. This is a hard cap designed to protect ordinary investors from over-concentrating in illiquid assets. Importantly, the LTAF cannot currently be included in an Individual Savings Account (ISA), so this route is not available through a Stocks & Shares ISA wrapper.

For a full list of UK-authorised LTAFs and what they invest in, see our <a href="/insights/uk-ltaf-complete-list-2026">complete UK LTAF list for 2026</a>.

The driving force is a widespread concern that UK defined contribution savers are missing out on returns that defined benefit (DB) pension funds have long enjoyed through exposure to private markets. Apollo argues that retirement savers face a savings shortfall that private market strategies can help address, particularly as public markets have become smaller and more concentrated.

Apollo is using the LTAF as a framework it can potentially reuse for future products within the same LTAF umbrella, while DC schemes gain another route into global private credit exposure within an FCA-authorised structure. The Apollo fund is the first sub-fund under a broader Private Markets LTAF umbrella — further strategies covering other asset classes could follow.

This trend isn't limited to Apollo. Across Europe, <a href="/insights/eltifs-ltafs-european-uk-private-markets">ELTIFs and LTAFs</a> are rapidly becoming the preferred vehicles for channelling retail capital into <a href="/insights/private-credit-middle-market">private credit and middle-market lending</a>.

Private credit is not without hazard. Semi-liquid private credit products rely on careful liquidity management, so any spike in redemption requests — as seen in some industry funds recently — could test structures like the LTAF. For a detailed analysis of how <a href="/insights/private-credit-2025-redemption-wave">recent redemption pressures</a> have played out in private credit, see our case study.

In a market stress scenario, when many investors want their money back simultaneously, liquidity management becomes genuinely challenging.

Additionally, unlike many mainstream investment funds, LTAF units are not currently covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) in a straightforward way — the FCA has been consulting on this issue, and investors should check the specific fund's documentation carefully.

For most UK retail investors, direct access to Apollo's new LTAF is not immediately available off the shelf. The most realistic exposure comes indirectly, through a workplace pension scheme that decides to allocate to <a href="/learn/private-credit-complete-guide">private credit</a> strategies, or for those with a SIPP or financial adviser relationship, subject to platform availability and suitability assessments.

That said, this launch is part of a broader structural shift — the UK's biggest pension providers are steadily moving into private markets, and Apollo's LTAF is one of the clearest signs yet that those assets are making their way into mainstream retirement savings. For long-term pension savers, the question is less "how do I buy this fund?" and more: "does my pension scheme have a strategy for accessing private markets?"

If it doesn't, it may be worth asking your scheme's trustees or pension provider what their plans are.