Ast Defeasance
AST Defeasance & Rate Cap Advisors provides commercial real estate advisory services—defeasance, yield maintenance, and interest rate cap procurement—to CMBS borrowers, supported by proprietary live pricing calculators and competitive multi-dealer Wall Street bidding.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2007
- HeadquartersLos Angeles, United States
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingServices
What Ast Defeasance does
AST Defeasance & Rate Cap Advisors is a US-based commercial real estate advisory firm specializing in defeasance, yield maintenance, and interest rate hedging services for borrowers holding CMBS and conduit loans. Founded in 2007, the firm has closed over 25,000 transactions covering more than $100 billion in defeased balances and serves commercial real estate borrowers across the United States. The firm operates through two service brands: AST Defeasance, which handles defeasance and yield maintenance advisory, and Rate Cap Advisors, which manages interest rate cap procurement. Both brands are supported by a sister-company operating structure and share infrastructure across three US offices (Los Angeles, Baltimore, and Cedarhurst).
The core product line consists of three proprietary web-based calculators (Defeasance Calculator, Yield Maintenance Calculator, and Rate Cap & Floor Calculator) running on live Treasury and SOFR data, supplemented by a Bulk Defeasance Calculator add-on that supports portfolio-level pricing via spreadsheet upload. A daily-refreshed Markets dashboard surfaces SOFR rates, Treasury yields, OIS swap spreads, and FOMC projections. The firm pairs this technology with a Market Insights content platform publishing daily rate market commentary. Underlying the calculators, AST shops securities across multiple major Wall Street investment banks on every transaction rather than maintaining a single broker-dealer relationship, producing a competitive bidding process that is positioned as a differentiator versus peers.
The firm operates a sales-led, direct-engagement go-to-market model, acquiring clients through website contact forms, phone (1-866-DEFEASE), and email. Revenue is generated through performance-based defeasance consulting, flat-fee yield maintenance payoff services, and what the firm describes as industry-low advisory fees for rate cap procurement. All-in third-party fees per defeasance transaction typically range from $50,000 to $80,000, with servicer legal fees of $12,000 to $25,000. The firm is privately held with no disclosed institutional investors, parent company, external funding rounds, or SEC filings.
Ast Defeasance firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Ast Defeasance
- Legal name
- AST Defeasance & Rate Cap Advisors
- Website
- https://astdefeasance.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2007
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Short description
- AST Defeasance & Rate Cap Advisors provides commercial real estate advisory services—defeasance, yield maintenance, and interest rate cap procurement—to CMBS borrowers, supported by proprietary live pricing calculators and competitive multi-dealer Wall Street bidding.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Where Ast Defeasance is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Los Angeles
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices3 records
Markets served
Ast Defeasance business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Services
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales
Revenue model
- Defeasance Advisory Services: Performance-based defeasance consulting. AST collects multiple bids from major Wall Street investment banks on every deal and prices each transaction individually to deliver the lowest-cost execution. The firm acts as an independent third-party consultant representing the borrower's interests.
- Yield Maintenance Services: Flat fee yield maintenance payoff services. Provides precise penalty calculations and leverages servicer relationships to reduce what borrowers owe.
- Rate Cap Advisory: Interest rate cap procurement services with industry-low advisory fees. Handles documentation, counterparty requirements, and closing logistics end-to-end.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Other | One time/ perpetual license | Defeasance third-party fees (consulting, legal, accounting, custodian) |
| Other | One time/ perpetual license | Servicer legal fees |
| Other | One time/ perpetual license | Yield maintenance services |
| Other | One time/ perpetual license | Rate cap advisory fees |
Go-to-market motion1 record
Distribution channels1 record
Marketing channels3 records
Ast Defeasance product offering
Product offeringCore offering
AST Defeasance provides independent advisory and consulting services to commercial real estate borrowers and lenders navigating prepayment and hedging of CMBS loans. The firm sources competitive bids from major Wall Street investment banks on every defeasance transaction, manages yield maintenance payoff calculations, and procures interest rate caps and floors with end-to-end Dodd-Frank compliance handling. Underpinning the advisory services are proprietary live calculators running on current Treasury and SOFR data that deliver itemized prepayment and hedging estimates.
Product overview
AST Defeasance and Rate Cap Advisors operate as sister companies offering a suite of commercial real estate prepayment and hedging tools. The core product line consists of three financial calculators (Defeasance Calculator, Yield Maintenance Calculator, and Rate Cap & Floor Calculator) that run on live Treasury and SOFR data, supplemented by a Bulk Defeasance Calculator for portfolio-level analysis. Underlying the calculators are two service brands: AST Defeasance (handling defeasance and yield maintenance advisory with competitive multi-dealer bidding) and Rate Cap Advisors (managing interest rate cap procurement with flat fees and Dodd-Frank compliance). Supporting content includes a Market Insights blog with daily rate commentary and a Markets data dashboard showing real-time SOFR and Treasury rates.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- AST Defeasance Advisory Defeasance and yield maintenance advisory service for commercial real estate borrowers, handling securities portfolio sourcing, third-party coordination, and transaction execution with competitive bidding across Wall Street institutions.
- Rate Cap Advisors Interest rate cap procurement service for commercial real estate owners, providing competitive cap auctions, flat advisory fees, and end-to-end Dodd-Frank compliance documentation handling.
- Defeasance Calculator Live calculator that estimates the full cost to pay off a CMBS loan early, including securities costs, third-party fees, and prepayment penalties itemized for transparency, running on current Treasury data.
- Yield Maintenance Calculator Calculates yield maintenance prepayment penalties across multiple rate scenarios based on where Treasury rates move.
- Rate Cap & Floor Calculator Provides instant interest rate cap and floor pricing customizable by notional amount, strike rate, and term, built on live SOFR data.
- Bulk Defeasance Calculator Enables pricing of multiple loans at once via spreadsheet upload, returning results for all loans in a downloadable format.
Quantifiable outcome
- 100% deal close rate - no dropped deals
- +3 more outcomes
Companies that use Ast Defeasance
Customer profileSegments2 records
Ideal customer profiles1 record
Ast Defeasance technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed No
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Feature4 records
Ast Defeasance partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Two partnerships are on record, tiered core.
- Major Wall Street Investment BankscoreAST collects multiple bids from the largest investment banks on Wall Street for every defeasance transaction. Unlike competitors that partner with individual broker-dealers, AST shops securities across multiple dealers to obtain the best available price for borrowers.
- Major Loan ServicerscoreDirect relationships with major servicers including Berkadia, Grandbridge, KeyBank, Midland Loan Services, NCB, Principal, Trimont, Walker & Dunlop, and others. These relationships help reduce processing delays and enable faster resolutions for borrowers.
Scale indicators5 records
Recent moves5 records
Expansion highlights4 records
Ast Defeasance competitors and assessment
Company assessmentBroad incumbents
- Chatham Financial: The dominant independent advisory firm for debt and derivative risk management, with major practices in interest rate hedging (caps, swaps, floors) and defeasance-related advisory for CRE and corporate borrowers. Directly overlaps with AST's Rate Cap Advisors and has a substantially larger scale across more asset classes and geographies.
Direct peers
- The Defeasance Group: A specialized defeasance consulting firm serving CMBS borrowers through loan prepayment, defeasance, and yield maintenance advisory. Directly comparable to AST Defeasance in target customer (CRE borrowers with conduit/CMBS loans), core service offering, and reliance on multi-dealer pricing competition.
- Cresta Advisors: An independent commercial real estate defeasance and prepayment advisory firm that arranges defeasance transactions by sourcing bids from multiple broker-dealers. Closely comparable to AST in business model (third-party advisor, no preferred-dealer model) and target market (CMBS and CRE borrowers).
- Integra Defeasance (Integra Realty Resources): A division within Integra Realty Resources that provides defeasance and yield maintenance advisory services to commercial real estate borrowers. Directly comparable to AST on core product (defeasance consulting) and customer segment (CMBS borrowers), though embedded within a broader real estate appraisal and consulting firm.
- Capstone Defeasance: A specialized commercial real estate defeasance consulting firm serving CMBS borrowers with prepayment advisory and securities portfolio sourcing. Directly comparable to AST in core service (defeasance consulting) and reliance on multi-dealer competitive bidding to lower borrower costs.
- Hudson Advisors: An advisory firm providing commercial real estate defeasance, yield maintenance, and prepayment consulting services to institutional CRE borrowers. Directly comparable to AST on core service (defeasance) and customer segment, though operating at a different scale and ownership structure.
- HedgeStar (formerly DerivLogic): An interest rate hedging advisory and technology firm that helps commercial borrowers procure caps, floors, and swaps with Dodd-Frank compliance support. Directly comparable to AST's Rate Cap Advisors service line in target customer (CRE owners with variable-rate debt), product (rate caps and floors), and pricing model.
Others
- Berkadia Commercial Mortgage: One of the largest U.S. CMBS loan servicers and a named servicer partner of AST. While not a direct defeasance competitor, Berkadia interacts with AST on every deal and could in principle expand in-house defeasance capabilities, making it an adjacent ecosystem participant with potential competitive overlap.
- Walker & Dunlop: A major U.S. commercial real estate finance company and CMBS servicer that is both a partner (named servicer relationship) and an indirect competitor for AST's CRE borrower relationships. Comparable because Walker & Dunlop originates and services many of the same CMBS loans AST's clients seek to prepay.
- Midland Loan Services: A large CMBS loan servicer and AST partner relationship. Comparable as an adjacent ecosystem participant that controls the servicer side of the defeasance workflow on which AST's execution speed depends.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks7 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Ast Defeasance social profiles
Digital presenceAst Defeasance financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Ast Defeasance leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Ast Defeasance funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Ast Defeasance M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Ast Defeasance
What does Ast Defeasance do?
AST Defeasance provides independent advisory and consulting services to commercial real estate borrowers and lenders navigating prepayment and hedging of CMBS loans. The firm sources competitive bids from major Wall Street investment banks on every defeasance transaction, manages yield maintenance payoff calculations, and procures interest rate caps and floors with end-to-end Dodd-Frank compliance handling. Underpinning the advisory services are proprietary live calculators running on current Treasury and SOFR data that deliver itemized prepayment and hedging estimates.
Is Ast Defeasance a public or private company?
Ast Defeasance is a private company. It is classified as founder individual operated bootstrapped and is currently operating.
When was Ast Defeasance founded?
Ast Defeasance was founded in 2007. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is Ast Defeasance based?
Ast Defeasance is headquartered in Los Angeles, United States, in the North America region.
How does Ast Defeasance make money?
Three revenue lines are on record. Defeasance Advisory Services are the primary driver. The others are yield Maintenance Services and rate Cap Advisory.
Who are Ast Defeasance's main competitors?
Chatham Financial is listed as a broad incumbent. Direct peers are The Defeasance Group, Cresta Advisors, Integra Defeasance (Integra Realty Resources), Capstone Defeasance, Hudson Advisors and HedgeStar (formerly DerivLogic). Others are Berkadia Commercial Mortgage, Walker & Dunlop and Midland Loan Services.
Does Ast Defeasance have an API?
No public API is recorded for Ast Defeasance.