Gryphon Investors couldn’t have closed its recent flurry of deals without a little help from its friends. The San Francisco-based firm relied on lending clubs made up of its limited partners to help finance a buying spree announced earlier this month.

The Washington State Investment Board earlier this month moved closer to its new and comparatively aggressive private equity target allocation of 25 percent. The pension committed $850 across four funds, two that are sector specific, one of which represents an emerging markets play, and one that focused on distressed-debt opportunities.

Somebody tell David McGovern that starting a new private equity firm shouldn’t be this easy.

Additional equity upside, reduced expenses, and tax realization benefits to boot…in exchange for an asset you were going to dispose of anyway. Who says there isn’t such a thing as a free lunch?