Category Archives: AltsTech Announcements

Newbridge Selects Altigo for Enterprise Alts Solution

AltsTech, AltsTech Announcements, WealthForge

Newbridge Selects Altigo for Enterprise Alts Solution

December 7, 2022 | Altigo

Newbridge Securities Corporation (“Newbridge”), a full-service brokerage and investment banking firm based in Boca Raton, Fla., has selected Altigo as its one-stop technology solution that all its affiliated registered representatives and advisors will use when allocating to alternatives (“Alts“). In choosing Altigo’s straight-through processing technology to power its Alts program, Newbridge joins a growing community of 300+ sponsors, broker-dealers, and RIAs that benefit from the platform’s smart workflow, speedy and accurate transaction processing, and paperless efficiencies.

The partnership ties in with Newbridge’s larger strategy of adopting digital solutions that streamline wealth management services, while enabling affiliated registered representatives and advisors to deliver a constellation of investment solutions that align with their clients’ needs and goals.

“We look forward to Altigo setting a new standard of service for our affiliated registered representatives and advisors as well as for their supervision,” said Newbridge CTO Kurosh Golchubian. “The home office is prioritizing automation of our core capabilities to up our service game and to stay in sync with rising demand for digital-first solutions. Straight-through processing provides reduced regulatory risk and the satisfaction of knowing that submissions will be in good order the first time—giving our supervisors more time to supervise rather than micromanage paperwork.”

Altigo integrates all aspects of alternative investment subscription and compliance, while significantly reducing not-in-good-order (NIGO) errors and other administrative headaches. Newbridge will manage Alts paperwork and enforce suitability and best interest requirements using the platform’s Supervision Assistant functionality rather than with traditional methods such as checklists and spreadsheets. Newbridge will also benefit from having access to all firm-approved alternative investment offerings in a single white-labeled portal. The platform’s ability to integrate with popular CRM and compliance and risk management tools will advance Newbridge’s desire to build a tech stack that will attract new affiliated registered representatives and advisors and clients well into the future.

Altigo and WealthForge CEO Bill Robbins said, “We’re excited to know that Altigo’s transformative technology will provide an enterprise solution for Newbridge’s home office in addition to being a time-saving tool for their affiliated registered representatives and advisors. Placing the firm’s Alts program under one roof while still routing transactions through the same supervision systems Newbridge normally uses will simplify, centralize, and de-risk suitability review and other key compliance requirements.”

About Newbridge

Newbridge Financial, Inc., as the holding company for Newbridge Securities Corporation (www.newbridgesecurities.com) and Newbridge Financial Services Group, Inc. provides strategic management consulting services to growth companies and explores the development of lines of business complementary to but outside of the financial services industry.

Newbridge Securities Corporation and Newbridge Financial Services Group, Inc. provides full-service securities brokerage and investment advisory, and investment banking services to a broad-based group of individuals and corporate clients. Comprised of a committed and experienced team of financial service professionals, we seek to empower our clients to build and preserve wealth by providing superior financial services and products. Newbridge Securities Corporation is an SEC-registered broker-dealer and a member of FINRA and SIPC. Newbridge Financial Services Group, Inc. is an SEC-registered registered investment adviser.

About Altigo

Altigo is the leading open network alts subscription technology used by a community of 300+ sponsors, broker-dealers, and RIA firms. The platform enables secure electronic alternative investment transactions between asset managers, wealth advisors, custodians, and transfer agents.

With over 10,000 alts subscriptions completed on the platform since its debut in mid-2019, Altigo’s adoption reflects the valuable benefits it provides to reps and advisors including diverse product offerings, nearly error-free paperwork, and lightning-fast order entry.

Altigo’s team of experienced professionals is committed to client experience, adding new features on a regular basis and helping its ever-expanding client base streamline investment workflows and eliminate reliance on outdated paper subscriptions and snail mail.

Donovan Ventures Selects Alternative Investment Exchange (AIX) to Power its Oil & Gas Private Equity Investment Offering

AIX, AltsTech, AltsTech Announcements

Donovan Ventures Selects Alternative Investment Exchange (AIX) to Power its Oil & Gas Private Equity Investment Offering

December 1, 2022 | Alternative Investment Exchange (AIX)

Alternative Investment Exchange (AIX), the platform making it easy to buy, own, and sell alternative investments, welcomes Donovan Ventures (“Donovan”) to its technology and retail advisor platform. Donovan selected AIX to help automate its subscription document experience as the sponsor and fund distributor enters a new chapter in its 15-year history. Working with AIX will enable Donovan to offer an improved user experience for advisors and investors, as well as better support the sponsor’s capital raising efforts.

Houston-based Donovan is the sponsor firm for a series of Regulation D exempt 506(b) offerings focused on commodity-based, floating income strategies. Powered by Energia.com, Donovan’s private placement offerings allow accredited investors to directly own real property working interest in a diversified portfolio of producing oil and gas shale wells across eight major basins in North America.

Following an exhaustive search of technology providers, it was clear to Donovan that AIX offered the most advanced technology including a breadth and depth of expert talent to ensure success.

Also key to Donovan decision’s in selecting AIX was the platform’s established connectivity to its transfer agent of choice, key custodians, and AI Insight, the educational and compliance platform critical in supporting financial advisors in the alt space.

“By choosing AIX, we are digitizing the subscription document workflow process that improves the experience for RIAs, individual investors, and financial intermediaries,” said Wayne Wagner, Managing Director at Donovan Ventures. “Our goal is to create a seamless workflow experience for the advisor. We believe that aligning with AIX is truly a best-in-class decision.”

Established more than 15 years ago, Donovan Ventures is an energy financial services firm providing private capital solutions via two distinct divisions: asset management and investment banking. The firm has made 14 investments since inception and has advised on over 50 M&A transactions totaling $3.4 billion.

“Under the leadership of Founder and Managing Director, John Donovan, Jr., Donovan Ventures has a long-term track record of success in the oil and gas industry,” explained Joe Ujobai, CEO of AIX. “We are excited to work with the team as they bring their investment expertise to retail investor markets through broker-dealer and RIA distribution channels.” 

About AIX:

Alternative Investment Exchange (AIX) is an end-to-end digital platform purpose-built to improve the processes related to buying, owning, and selling alternative investments. AIX’s technology reduces friction, mitigates risk, and creates value across all alternative investing stakeholder groups – wealth managers, asset managers, custodians, transfer agents, and fund administrators. By evolving beyond documents to make data the connective tissue between alternative investment players, AIX makes it easier to conduct business and accelerate industry growth. For more information, please visit aixplatform.com or LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/aix-alternative-investment-exchange.

Media Contact:

Mark Tordik
Broadpath for Alternative Investment Exchange (AIX)
215-644-6503
mtordik@broadpathpr.com

 

ADISA Publishes A Guide to DST 1031 Best Practices (2022)

AltsTech, AltsTech Announcements

ADISA Publishes A Guide to DST 1031 Best Practices (2022)

November 30, 2022 | ADISA

ADISA, the nation’s largest trade association for the alternative and direct investment space, announced today the publication of A Guide to DST 1031 Best Practices (2022), a manual designed to highlight certain best practices related to Delaware statutory trusts (DSTs), which are the preferred structure used to facilitate securitized 1031 exchanges.

“1031 exchanges are increasingly popular tax-advantaged investments and are projected to raise more than $8 billion in investor equity in 2022,” said ADISA Executive Director John Harrison. “As more investment sponsors enter the 1031 market, ADISA sought to provide a set of best practices for these sponsors, as well as investors and advisors who are evaluating a possible offering. This guide was a collaborative effort between industry participants, including ADISA’s Standards, Education & Publications Committee, and volunteer members comprised of financial advisors, sponsors, attorneys and more. We are extremely proud of this publication and grateful to the volunteers for their efforts.”

ADISA first published its guide to certain tenant-in-common (TIC) best practices in 2006, when TICs were the dominant structure used in securitized 1031 exchange offerings. Since then, the guide has evolved with the needs of the industry. A Guide to DST 1031 Best Practices (2022) covers a variety of topics related to DSTs and 1031 exchanges, including the history and foundational principles; like-kind exchanges; private placement memorandums and disclosures; due diligence; DST securities practices; and general DST restrictions, benefits, and structures. The guide is intended for use by sponsors, broker-dealers, registered representatives, investment advisors, attorneys, CPAs, qualified intermediaries, other professional advisors, and investors.

To download the guide, please visit ADISA’s website.

ABOUT ADISA

The Alternative & Direct Investment Securities Association is the nation’s largest trade association representing the non‐traded alternative investment space. ADISA’s members are typically involved in non-traded real estate investment trusts, business development companies, master limited partnerships and private and public funds (LPs/LLCs), 1031 exchange programs (DSTs/TICs), energy and oil and gas interests, equipment leasing programs, or other alternative and direct investment offerings. The association was founded in 2003 and has approximately 5,000 members who are key decision makers, representing more than 220,000 professionals throughout the nation – including sponsor members who have raised in excess of $200 billion in equity and serve more than 1 million investors. ADISA is a 501(c)(6) non-profit organization, registered to lobby, and also has a related 501(c)(3) charitable non-profit (ADISA Foundation) assisting with scholarships and educational efforts.

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iCapital’s Amoroso on Markets Post-Fed, Strategy (Video)

AltsTech, AltsTech Announcements, iCapital Network

iCapital’s Amoroso on Markets Post-Fed, Strategy (Video)

November 2, 2022 | Bloomberg: Daybreak-Australia

Anastasia Amoroso, Chief Investment Strategist at iCapital, discusses the market reaction to the latest rate decision from the Federal Reserve and her investment strategy. She speaks in “Bloomberg Daybreak: Australia” with Haidi Stroud-Watts and Kathleen Hays.

Watch Video

 

Infinity Financial Deploys on the Alternative Investment Exchange (AIX) Platform

AIX, AltsTech, AltsTech Announcements

Infinity Financial Deploys on the Alternative Investment Exchange (AIX) Platform

October 11, 2022 | AIX

Alternative Investment Exchange (AIX), the platform making it easy to buy, own, and sell alternative investments, announced that Infinity Financial Services (“Infinity”) is now live on AIX’s alternative investment platform. As an independent broker dealer dedicated to building a robust alternative investment platform for high-net-worth advisors, Infinity’s debut is a testament to the fast, powerful, and intuitive alt investment environment AIX supports.

Infinity sets the bar in providing tech-enabled solutions to financial advisors who allocate alts into their clients’ portfolios. Infinity optimizes functionality that is essential to advisor success such as ease of use, operational efficiency, regulatory compliance, and cybersecurity, among other concerns.

Infinity has constantly challenged historical practices in the name of creating better experiences for their financial advisors and clients – all while enhancing compliance. One innovative aspect of their strategic practice has been to introduce a re-factored pre-trade approval workflow. Traditionally, an advisor recommending a new alternative investment to a client generally completes documentation, gathers client signatures, and forwards paperwork to compliance for review. In situations where compliance does not approve an investment request, advisors must explain to their client and start anew.

Recognizing the client exposure inherent in this process, Infinity turned to AIX to facilitate a pre-trade compliance approval process. In Infinity’s reimagined process, essential information is provided to the compliance team for pre-approval and advisors only propose the investment to their client after receiving supervision consent – avoiding uncomfortable client conversations centered upon re-work.

“We continuously strive to improve the experience of our advisors and their clients. With AIX, we have been able to supercharge efficiency and radically improve alt investment processes,” explained Greg Gilbert, President, CEO, and CCO of Infinity Financial Services. “Our automated pre-trade compliance workflow is just one example of the innovative approaches we offer advisors and is a testament to the capabilities that can be powered by the AIX platform.”

Infinity was founded by Greg Gilbert in 2007 to offer a breadth of services and dynamic culture that independent financial advisors would appreciate. The firm’s advisor practice management services offer an array of asset management, brokerage, insurance, financial planning, benefit plans, insurance, and risk management services. Today, Infinity transacts nearly $350 million annually in alternative investments for its clients.

“Greg and his team have established a state-of-the-art alt investment environment that supports and attracts sophisticated advisors looking to serve the best interests of their clients,” added Brad West, AIX COO. “Infinity leverages the AIX platform as a competitive advantage that ensures its financial advisors can apply their time and focus to revenue-generating activities. This is best for Infinity, best for their advisors, and best for their clients.”

Both AIX (booth #34) and Infinity are exhibiting at this week’s 2022 ADISA Annual Conference & Trade Show at The Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas.

About AIX:

Alternative Investment Exchange (AIX) is an end-to-end digital platform purpose-built to improve the processes related to buying, owning, and selling alternative investments. AIX’s technology reduces friction, mitigates risk, and creates value across all alternative investing stakeholder groups – wealth managers, asset managers, custodians, transfer agents, and fund administrators. By evolving beyond documents to make data the connective tissue between alternative investment players, AIX makes it easier to conduct business and accelerate industry growth. For more information, please visit aixplatform.com or LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/aix-alternative-investment-exchange.

AIX Media Contact:

Mark Tordik
Broadpath for Alternative Investment Exchange (AIX)
215-644-6503
mtordik@broadpathpr.com

Peachtree Joins the Alternative Investment Exchange Platform

AIX, AltsTech, AltsTech Announcements

Peachtree Joins the Alternative Investment Exchange Platform

October 6, 2022 | AIX

Peachtree Hotel Group (“Peachtree”) has selected the Alternative Investment Exchange’s AIX Platform as the primary electronic platform provider to streamline the investment processes for its independent broker-dealer and registered investment advisor partners.

This enterprise technology allows Peachtree to confirm its client’s product structures, workflows and technologies. The AIX platform will facilitate front-end engagement by providing solutions such as digital subscription documents and moving those documents through the pipeline to the custodians and clearing firms.

“At Peachtree, we’re committed to delivering an elevated experience for our advisors,” explained Jessica Correnti, director, national accounts at Peachtree. “AIX supports these objectives by making the investment process straightforward and seamless. It takes powerful technology to make it this easy for advisors to add alts to their clients’ investment portfolios.”

About Peachtree Group

Peachtree is a private equity investment, asset and fund management firm focusing on opportunistically deploying capital across its distinct operating and real estate divisions, including hospitality, commercial real estate lending, residential development, capital markets and media. Since its founding in 2008, the company has completed hundreds of real estate investments valued at more than $7.8 billion in total market capitalization and currently has $1.9 billion in equity under management. For more information, visit www.peachtreegroup.com.

Contact:

Charles Talbert
678-823-7683
ctalbert@peachtreehotelgroup.com

 

CAIS Hires Advisor I/O’s Alex Cavalieri as Director of Marketing Operations

AltsTech, AltsTech Announcements, CAIS

CAIS Hires Advisor I/O’s Alex Cavalieri as Director of Marketing Operations

October 4, 2022 | Diana Britton | WealthManagement.com

Alex Cavalieri, the co-founder and former head of strategy at Advisor I/O (formerly Seven Group), has left the financial advisor marketing platform to join CAIS, as director of marketing operations.

Cavalieri is best known for building Seven Group, the marketing, practice management and content platform, which launched in 2020. The company was acquired by CION Investments Group, an alternative investment solutions platform, in July 2022, and rebranded as Advisor I/O. He was also the host of the popular “Advisor Lab” podcast.

“The team that worked alongside Alex and us to build, launch and grow Advisor I/O over the past three years is continuing to execute our mission of helping advisors scale their marketing efforts in a digital world,” said Michael A. Reisner, co-CEO of CION, in an emailed statement. “In the current environment of market volatility, lower asset values and uncertainty about the future, marketing is even more critical to advisors. We see Advisor I/O as a key element of our commitment to the advisor community.”

In his new role at CAIS, Cavalieri will oversee content, digital and project management, reporting directly to Abby Salameh, who was brought on last November as CMO. He’ll be helping Salameh build on the work she and her team have done over the last year.  

“We had very strong alignment very quickly as it relates to what she foresees is the vision of not only the marketing organization, but the CAIS brand and where the platform is going,” Cavalieri said. “I’m going to help build out what we’re doing from a content and digital perspective—scaling out our processes, from a technology standpoint, automation standpoint and then also how we’re building out our content ecosystem.”

One of his tasks is to build on the digital engagement of CAIS’s educational platform, CAIS IQ, which helps advisors prepare to talk to clients about alternatives.

“You look at the alts space—to the end investor it’s still fairly new from a mass audience standpoint, relative to the market and every other asset class,” he said.

He’ll also be working on how the marketing organization can better utilize data that’s feeding into different parts of the company.

“There are a few data initiatives that we’ve identified and that we can start to tackle, and that’s everything from your traditional dashboarding of marketing activities and different things like that and also to really understanding how we can continue to evolve our data within the firm and how it’s being looked at and analyzed,” he said. “And then the other part of that is really figuring out areas of optimization across automation from advisor communications to internal communications and also making sure that we’re able to provide as much of a personalized experience as we can to the advisor.”

The CAIS platform has been growing quickly the past few years, and recently expanded its relationships with large enterprises, such as Advisor Group and Focus Financial Partners. In April, the company announced a $100 million continuation of a January funding round that saw the company valued at more than $1 billion. The $100 million investment came from Reverence Capital Partners, which gave it a seat on CAIS’ board of directors, filled by Milton Berlinski, managing partner at Reverence.

Ardian and iCapital® Partner to Broaden Private Markets Investment Access for Wealth Managers Globally

AltsTech, AltsTech Announcements, iCapital Network

Ardian and iCapital® Partner to Broaden Private Markets Investment Access for Wealth Managers Globally

October 4, 2022 | iCapital®

Ardian, a world leading private investment house, has entered into a partnership with iCapital1, the leading global fintech platform driving access and efficiency in alternative investing for the asset and wealth management industries to provide wealth managers with access to Ardian’s private market investment strategies. Notably, iCapital products created as a result of this partnership will be available through Allfunds, one of the world’s leading B2B WealthTech platforms.

Marco Bizzozero, Head of International at iCapital, said: “Our mission is to solve the fundamental challenges of investing in private markets for wealth managers and their private clients.”

Ardian will leverage iCapital’s technology platform and structuring solutions to provide wealth managers and their clients with access to Ardian’s deep private markets expertise and suite of alternative investment strategies, based on its global network of 15 offices in Europe, the Americas and Asia. Ardian’s alternative investment strategies spanning Private Equity, Real Assets and Private Credit, will be available to wealth managers.

Private Wealth has always been an important part of Ardian’s investor base. Today, this segment represents more than $8.3 billion of assets under management and over 600 investors. Over the past three years and following the launch of its Private Wealth Solutions unit, Ardian has been developing new ways to give private clients and wealth managers greater access to private market assets.

With more than $141 billion in alternative assets under management and long-standing experience as a private investment house, Ardian’s partnership with iCapital comes amid a surging interest in alternative investing from the global wealth management community and their clients, who have historically had more limited access to appropriately structured alternative investing opportunities. These investors are also increasingly prioritising ESG when making their investment decisions. Ardian has been developing its approach to responsible investment for over 10 years, notably through its annual Secondaries portfolio ESG monitoring. Ardian’s objective is to amplify its impact by assessing GP’s practices and actively engaging with them to improve ESG integration in private investments.

Erwan Paugam, Head of Private Wealth Solutions and Managing Director at Ardian, said: “In 2020, we launched our Private Wealth Solutions initiative based on our conviction that alternative investment opportunities should be accessible to wealth managers and their private clients around the world. Joining forces with iCapital ensures that wealth managers can now seamlessly access our broad expertise in Private Equity, Real Assets and Private Credit investing. Through this partnership, we are combining iCapital’s innovative technology platform with our long-standing commitment to meet the evolving demands of the global wealth management community, to bring a leading solution to wealth managers and help their clients achieve their investment goals.”

Marco Bizzozero, Head of International at iCapital, said: “Our mission is to solve the fundamental challenges of investing in private markets for wealth managers and their private clients. iCapital’s solutions help asset managers and wealth managers facilitate their clients’ access to the growth and diversification opportunities of private markets. This partnership represents another important milestone in our global expansion. We are very pleased to support Ardian’s commitment to bring attractive alternative investment opportunities to the wealth management channel globally and to help advisors and their clients achieve their investment objectives.”

About Ardian

Ardian is a world leading private investment house, managing or advising $141bn of assets on behalf of more than 1,300 clients globally. Our broad expertise, spanning Private Equity, Real Assets and Credit, enables us to offer a wide range of investment opportunities and respond flexibly to our clients’ differing needs. Through Ardian Customized Solutions we create bespoke portfolios that allow institutional clients to specify the precise mix of assets they require and to gain access to funds managed by leading third-party sponsors. We also provide a specialist service for private clients through Ardian Private Wealth Solutions. Ardian is majority-owned by its employees and places great emphasis on developing its people and fostering a collaborative culture based on collective intelligence. Our 900+ employees, spread across 15 offices in Europe, the Americas and Asia, are strongly committed to the principles of Responsible Investment and are determined to make finance a force for good in society. Our goal is to deliver excellent investment performance combined with high ethical standards and social responsibility. At Ardian we invest all of ourselves in building companies that last.
www.ardian.com

About iCapital

Founded in 2013, iCapital is the leading global fintech company powering the world’s alternative investment marketplace. iCapital has transformed the way the wealth management, banking, and asset management industries facilitate access to private markets investments for their high-net-worth clients by providing intuitive, end-to-end technology and service solutions; education tools and resources; and robust diligence, compliance, and portfolio analytics capabilities. iCapital’s solutions enable organizations to streamline and scale their alternative investments operational infrastructure and to provide access to direct investments and feeder funds at lower minimums through simplified digital workflows. iCapital-managed platforms offer wealth advisors and their high-net-worth clients access to an extensive menu of private investments including equity, credit, real estate, infrastructure, structured investments, annuities and risk-managed solutions. iCapital has been recognized on the Forbes FinTech 50 list in each year 2018 through 2022, the Forbes America’s Best Startup Employers in 2021 and 2022, and MMI/Barron’s Industry Awards as Solutions Provider of the Year in 2020 and 2021. As of August 31, 2022, iCapital services more than US$138 billion in global client assets, of which more than US$32.7 billion are from international investors (non-US Domestic), across more than 1,100 funds. Employing more than 1,000 people globally, iCapital is headquartered in NYC and has offices worldwide including in Zurich, London, Lisbon, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Toronto.

For additional information, please visit the iCapital website at www.icapitalnetwork.com | LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/icapital-network-inc | Twitter: @icapitalnetwork

See disclosures here.

1 Institutional Capital Network, Inc. and its affiliates (together, “iCapital”)

Contacts

Ardian Media Contacts
United Kingdom, Headland
ardian@headlandconsultancy.co.uk / +44 (0)20 3435 7469

North America, The Neibart Group, Rachelle Gaynor
ardian@neibartgroup.com / + 1 631 278 2046

iCapital Media Contacts
United Kingdom, Viktor Tsvetanov
icapital@headlandconsultancy.com / +44 (0)20 3435 7469

North America, Morgan Miller
icapital@neibartgroup.com / +1 919- 602-2806

Switzerland, Tanja Kocher
tanja.kocher@holisticom.ch / +41 31 311 43 48

Italy, Marina Riva
m.riva@barabino.it / +39 02/72.02.35.35

Asia, Marylene Guernier
icapital@secnewgate.hk / + 852 5225 7820

 

CAIS Summit Announces Final Lineup as Interest in Alternatives Soars Among Financial Advisors

AltsTech, AltsTech Announcements

CAIS Summit Announces Final Lineup as Interest in Alternatives Soars Among Financial Advisors

September 29, 2022 | CAIS

CAIS, the leading alternative investment marketplace for independent financial advisors, today announced the final agenda for its inaugural Alternative Investment Summit, which will take place October 17 to 19, 2022 at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles, California.

“As we enter this ‘New Era of Access’ with advisors shifting away from public markets to alternatives, CAIS is eager to connect the independent wealth channel with leading alternative asset managers in a way that’s never been done before,” said Matt Brown, Founder and CEO at CAIS. “The CAIS Summit will be tailored to the unique needs and priorities of the independent financial advisor community, giving them knowledge, insights, and access to managers so that they can more confidently embrace alternative investment strategies and seek to grow their businesses.”

In addition to over 40 leading alternative investment managers, the summit will host hundreds of independent financial advisors from RIAs and IBDs who oversee more than $2 trillion in assets including Marty Bicknell, President and CEO of Mariner Wealth Advisors, Rajini Kodialam, Co-Founder, Board Member and Chief Operating Officer of Focus Financial Partners, and Jeff Dekko, CEO of Wealth Enhancement Group, who are slated to present.

Notable general sessions include:

• What’s the Alternative? How Today’s Economy may be Making the Argument for Alts: Jenny Johnson, President and CEO, Franklin Templeton; Mike Arougheti, Director, Co-Founder, CEO and President, Ares; Jim Zelter, Co-President, Apollo; Michael Milken, Chairman, Milken Institute (Moderator)

• Market Update with Marko Kolanovic: Marko Kolanovic, PhD, Chief Global Markets Strategist, J.P. Morgan

• Get in the Game: Why Pro Sports may be an Attractive Asset Class: Todd Boehly, Co-Founder, Chairman and CEO, Eldridge; Marc Lasry, Co-Founder and CEO, Avenue Capital Group; Dr. Frank Luntz, American Political and Communications Consultant (Moderator)

• Zoom Out: The Macro-Forces Potentially Impacting the Wealth Management Industry’s Evolution: Aaron Hodari, Managing Director, Schechter; Hunter Satterfield, Partner, Cain Watters; Cameron Dawson, Chief Investment Officer, NewEdge Wealth; Chip Roame, Founder and Managing Partner, Tiburon Strategic Advisors (Moderator)

• Mid-Terms in Mind: How November’s Election Outcomes Could Impact Advisors: Dr. Frank Luntz, American Political and Communications Consultant

• A Conversation with Jay Clayton: Jay Clayton, Apollo Chair and Former SEC Chair

• Blockchain Beyond the Bulls and Bears: Mike Novogratz, Founder and CEO, Galaxy; Dan Tapiero, CEO, 10T; Jennifer Prosek, Managing Partner, Prosek (Moderator)

In addition to general sessions, attendees will benefit from a variety of discussion formats including breakfast roundtables and ‘CAIS Talks’ spread over six different session times. These 30-minute mini sessions will run concurrently on three stages, with a focus on a wide range of alternative asset categories, and will be led by industry leaders including:

• Angelo Gordon – TJ Durkin, Head of Structured Credit, Co-Portfolio Manager for MVP

• Apollo Global Management – Stephanie Drescher, Global Head of Client Products and Solutions

• Ares – Raj Dhanda, Partner and Global Head of Wealth Management

• Avenue Capital Group – Marc Lasry, Co-Founder and CEO

• Benefit Street Partners – Richard Byrne, President

• Bluerock – Miguel Sosa, Research and Product Strategist

• Carlson Capital – Thad Teaford Jr., Portfolio Manager and Partner

• Davidson Kempner – Eric Epstein, President

• EQT – Eric Liu, Partner and Head of North American Private Equity

• Hamilton Lane – Erik Hirsch, Vice Chairman and Head of Strategic Initiatives

• HarbourVest – Drew Snow, Principal, QIS Client Strategist

• ICG – Andrew Hawkins, Vice Chairman, Strategic Equity

• J.P. Morgan – Marko Kolanovic, PhD, Chief Global Markets Strategist

• Mercer – Amy Ridge, Partner; Gregg Sommer, Partner

• Monroe Capital – Theodore Koenig, Chairman and CEO

• Silicon Valley Bank – John China, President

• The Carlyle Group – Brian Marcus, Managing Director and Portfolio Manager

• WorldQuant, Millennium – Andy Kreuz, Deputy Chief Investment Officer

CAIS Summit is an invite-only event. To view the agenda and inquire to join us, click here.

About CAIS

CAIS is the leading alternative investment platform for financial advisors who seek improved access to, and education about, alternative investment funds and products. CAIS provides financial advisors with a broad selection of alternative investment strategies, including hedge funds, private equity, private credit, real estate, digital assets, and structured notes, allowing them to capitalize on opportunities and/or withstand ever-changing markets. CAIS also offers custom solutions for advisors seeking to create custom fund vehicles around ideas they source.

CAIS also provides an industry-leading learning system, CAIS IQ, to help advisors learn faster, remember longer, and improve client outcomes.

All funds listed on CAIS undergo Mercer’s independent due diligence and ongoing monitoring. Mercer diligence reports and fund ratings are available to advisors on the CAIS password-protected platform. CAIS streamlines the end-to-end transaction process through digital subscriptions and integrated reporting with Fidelity, Schwab, and Pershing, which make investing in alternatives simple.

Founded in 2009, CAIS, a fintech leader, is empowering over 6,600+ unique advisor firms/teams who oversee more than $2.5T+ in network assets. Since its inception, CAIS has facilitated over $18B+ in transaction volume as the first truly open marketplace where financial advisors and alternative asset managers engage and transact directly on a massive scale. CAIS has offices in New York, Los Angeles, Austin, and San Francisco. For more information about CAIS, please visit www.caisgroup.com.

Securities offered through CAIS Capital LLC, member FINRA, SIPC.

Contacts:

For CAIS
Nadia Damouni
Pro-CAISPR@Prosek.com

 

 

SS&C Rolls Out Unified SS&C Blue Prism Intelligent Automation Platform

AltsTech, AltsTech Announcements, SS&C

SS&C Rolls Out Unified SS&C Blue Prism Intelligent Automation Platform

October 3, 2022 | SS&C

SS&C Technologies Holdings, Inc.(Nasdaq: SSNC) today announced at its SS&C Deliver Conference the rollout of its intelligent automation portfolio under the SS&C Blue Prism brand. SS&C Blue Prismcombines RPA, BPM and low and no-code capabilities to provide a comprehensive menu of intelligent automation (IA) services.

“SS&C Blue Prism’s comprehensive suite of products and second-to-none support options are a critical part of our business processes. By utilizing its intelligent automation platform and extensive industry expertise, we’re able to deliver high quality and innovative services.” Giovanni GentileManaging Director, Bionics, State Street Bank

Supported by technologies such as Process Intelligence, AI/ML, and Intelligent Document Processing, the portfolio enables businesses to unify the workforce, transform customer, employee and user journeys and scale enterprise-wide.

SS&C Blue Prism’s recent integrations and developments include:

• SS&C | Blue Prism® Intelligent Automation Platform – Blue Prism’s enterprise platform integrates with Chorus BPM, now branded SS&C Blue Prism® Chorus, enabling simplified workflow management and greater visibility and control.

• SS&C | Blue Prism® UX Builder – the new intuitive no-code development capability enables business users to rapidly build enterprise applications and automate processes without relying on developers. Simple drag-and-drop functionality allows users to choose app elements from SS&C Blue Prism’s robust menu assets, supported by built-in governance and security controls.

In addition, SS&C Blue Prism will release several key product enhancements and delivery options in the coming months, with more information being released to customers attending the SS&C Deliver conference.

• SS&C Blue Prism® Capture includes process definition, optimization, and solution design, helping organizations unify their workforces and transform their journeys.

• SS&C Blue Prism® Director, a new workforce coordination capability that organizes work items by business priority and SLA, scaling IA by ensuring the most important items are completed first.

• SS&C Blue Prism® Email AI will transform journeys by providing significant time savings through extracting and classifying information from emails.

• SS&C Blue Prism® Cloud will now also be available on Amazon Web Services (AWS) and can be purchased on AWS Marketplace, enabling organizations to adopt and scale IA in the cloud with a fully managed and hosted solution.

“We are proud of the progress we’ve made in the seven months since SS&C closed on the Blue Prism acquisition, delivering a comprehensive IA solution with BPM, RPA, no code and AI capabilities. The flexibility of our model ensures we can tailor versatile, scalable solutions to our client’s businesses. Our deep expertise and industry experience ensures we can support our clients’ accelerated business growth.” Bill StoneChairman and CEO, SS&C Technologies

More than 2,800 customers worldwide run their operations on SS&C Blue Prism, digitizing operations across financial services, insurance, health and pharma, banking, and more.

 

SS&C Acquires Tier1’s CRM Business

AltsTech, AltsTech Announcements, SS&C

SS&C Acquires Tier1’s CRM Business

August 23, 2022 | SS&C

SS&C Technologies Holdings, Inc. announced it has acquired the sell-side Tier1 CRM business and related assets from Tier1 Financial Solutions in an all-cash transaction. Tier1 CRM is a leading provider of sell-side CRM solutions targeting capital markets and investment banks.

Based in Toronto, Canada, Tier1 CRM supplies CRM capabilities to sell-side financial services firms, including research, trading, and sales teams within capital markets groups, and provides a deal management CRM experience to investment banks. The acquisition will expand SS&C’s CRM capabilities, targeting capital markets and investment banks, adding 30+ enterprise clients across the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. Tier1 CRM’s 60+ employees in Canada and the U.S. will join SS&C, reporting to Derek Landi, Vice President and General Manager, SS&C Salentica.

“The sell-side Tier1 CRM business will be a strong addition to our CRM solutions business,” said Landi. “We will add talented employees and respected clients to our roster with like-minded product architecture and deep client expertise. The combination of the Tier1 business and Salentica will allow us to better serve clients with CRM solutions purpose-built for their market.”

“We are delighted to join the SS&C family,” said Doug Christensen, Chief Operating Officer of Tier1 CRM. “Joining forces with SS&C allows the business to scale as the customer base grows, and provides complementary solutions to many of SS&C’s existing products and businesses.”

Four Ways To Communicate With Clients Amid Market Volatility

AltsTech, AltsTech Announcements

Four Ways To Communicate With Clients Amid Market Volatility

August 2, 2022 | Abby Salameh, Chief Marketing Officer, CAIS & Head of CAIS IQ | Forbes

If you’ve been paying attention to the news lately, you’ve probably heard the word “recession” being thrown around. Inflation is at a 40-year high and is affecting everything from the cost of groceries to the price of gas. In addition to those higher bills, we’ve officially entered a bear market.

Volatile markets and an uncertain economy can combine to create a breeding ground for nervous clients—clients who may then turn to their advisors for reassurance. Sure, you can remind them that market downturns recover, but some clients need more—and the more you can communicate, the better.

Communication can be so critical when it comes to engaging and retaining clients—and yet it can be so easily overlooked. According to one 2019 report from YCharts, more than 1 in 4 clients reports that their advisor contacts them “very infrequently,” and more than half stated that more frequent contact would increase confidence in their financial plan.
 
Think those stats don’t apply to you? Here’s another that might make you do a double take: A 2021 study (via RIA Intel) showed that advisors rated their own performance 15%–36% higher than their clients did in all categories—including how well they kept clients informed about investment performance in down markets.

I can’t understate the importance of regular communication with your clients, especially in today’s market. Let’s explore some steps one can take to increase effective communication and boost client confidence in their financial plans.

Keeping In Touch

Increased communication can help advisors maintain stronger relationships, retain clients and build more rapport in the industry. But what does that increased communication look like? And will it take time and money away from your firm’s other tasks?

Thanks to today’s tech, you can create more frequent communication with your clients without adding much to your workload. Here are a few tried-and-true strategies you can use to get in touch with your clients:

1. Emails

One mode of communication that spans every generation is email.

Emails can be an effective way to send out quick reminders, newsletters and important announcements. It’s easy to access, has options for personalization and is appropriate for professional purposes. You can also schedule emails, making it easier to fit them into your schedule and optimize when your clients will receive them.

Beyond that, emails can also support the ability to send different types of data, such as charts, tables, images and more—something that’s just not possible over the phone.

My recommendation: When in doubt, you can’t go wrong with an email.

Bonus Tip: Don’t skip the email personalization. It’s a quick and painless addition that your clients will appreciate (and likely expect).

2. Texts And Phone Calls

Phone calls and texts might be more time-consuming than emails, but they also offer the opportunity for one-on-one conversations in real time. And while texting might be restricted or prohibited for compliance reasons, many platforms now create additional flexibility for you to reach clients wherever they prefer—from WhatsApp to Facebook Messenger to plain old text messages.

For top-tier clients that need truly personalized communication, you can always pick up the phone or schedule a time to talk.

Bonus Tip: While I’ve found that text messaging is becoming an increasingly popular mode of communication between clients and their advisors, it’s best to get the go-ahead from your compliance department and client before you begin. A great way to address this is to allow clients to opt in or out of texts during your onboarding process.

3. In-Person Meetings

I know: Regular in-person meetings with every client wouldn’t leave much room in your schedule for running your business. But when the markets are acting up, sometimes a face-to-face meeting is the only thing that will ease their anxiety.

In-person meetings may allow you to truly get to know your clients, and I’ve found that they build more trust than any other form of communication. Your clients are entrusting you with their financial future—they will likely want to get to know you, too.

Bonus Tip: Want to meet one on one with your clients but can’t find the time? Consider hosting an annual event for your staff and clients to meet and mingle. This can be a great way to put a face to those names without eating up too much of your schedule.

Send out a thank you and add a couple of posts to your social media afterward, and you’re golden.

4. Blogs

Lastly, blogs are a great way to engage with clients and communicate your ideas to a larger audience all at once. If you write one article addressing your thoughts and approach to the current market and a quarter or even half of your clients read it, that cuts the number of individual conversations you may need to have down considerably.

And chances are good that your advice won’t change that much from one period of volatility to the next, so you will ultimately be able to reuse content for the next time. For that reason, you may not want to go into too much detail about the specifics in your articles.

Bonus Tip: Your blogs don’t just have to live on your website—you can create social media posts leading back to your blog or even add links to your newsletters. If you’re going to spend time creating quality content, you want to make sure that people are reading it, right?

Talking The Talk With Confidence

An important thing to remember when you’re speaking with your clients about a down market is to remain calm. You are the fountain of financial knowledge, and if you’re nervous, your clients may also feel uneasy. Address their concerns head-on and remain transparent in your communications.

Most importantly: Remind your clients of their long-term goals and talk about how you can aim to stay on track to meet those goals.

Volatile markets can make for nervous clients and an increased need for regular communication. With these strategies in place, you can more easily calm their fears and keep your cool.

 

 

Marketing Intent: Overcoming Obstacles When Managing Marketing And Delegating

AltsTech, AltsTech Announcements, Marketing Intent

Marketing Intent: Overcoming Obstacles When Managing Marketing And Delegating

August 17, 2022 | Marketing Intent

You’re short staffed, buried in work and you know you should delegate to get out from underneath it and get caught up on your marketing tasks, but you’re not. Why aren’t you delegating? Even seasoned marketing managers fall victim to the “I can do everything myself” or “I can do it better myself” mentality.

LET’S DISCUSS WAYS TO OVERCOME SOME OF THE OBSTACLES WE FEEL WHEN MANAGING MARKETING AND DELEGATING – AS WELL AS OPPORTUNITIES TO POTENTIALLY OUTSOURCE DELEGATION TO AN OUTSIDE MARKETING FIRM.

Some managers fear delegation because it hasn’t worked out well for them in the past. In my 25+ years of managing marketing teams, I have found that it comes down to delegating to the right people.

There are four different personality traits that I found are critical when you’re choosing who you’re delegating to. 

Strong Sense of Responsibility

First is a strong sense of responsibility and a commitment to the company. You want somebody who is dedicated and interested in their career growth, as well as the mission of the company and feels excited about it. That energy then translates into wanting to accept the additional responsibility of delegation.

Intuitive Communication Skills

Next is intuitive communication skills. I always think of this as understanding the communication needs of the target audience, which in this case is myself, or you, if you’re the manager. You want to make sure that the person you’re delegating to understands what you need to know and when you need to know it. They need to give you updates that make you feel comfortable, without feeling like you have to pry for information, or that you aren’t getting what you need.

Strong Project Management Skills

The next is really strong project management skills. It’s important for whoever you’re delegating to, to understand the overall project and how to move it along. I like to know that the person understands “Plan A,” but that they also have a “Plan B” and even a “Plan C” at times, in their back pocket. They can then keep the project going and moving along if they encounter any obstacles.

Confident Individuals

Next are individuals who are confident in themselves. You want to make sure that you have a team or a person you’re delegating to that is solutions oriented. They need to be trying to solve a problem that comes up versus coming to you as a safety net when things get hard.  They figure out how to address red flags and put projects back on track. This is somebody who feels comfortable and confident in challenging situations, but also makes solutions a reality.

Self Reflection

Let’s move on to our next topic – which can be harder because it requires self-reflection. Oftentimes managers want to take credit for everything the team does, and they feel like in order to do that, they have to do all of the work. They take more of an “I” approach to managing marketing than a “WE” approach.

What I found in my career is that a “WE” approach is much more effective in motivating a team, as well as lightening your own workload, so you can dedicate your time to the tasks and projects that require your attention. If you think about how to motivate your team and elevate each member to work to their maximum potential, there’s much more that a marketing team can accomplish, than if everyone is working on their own.

Delegation to an Outside Firm

When it comes to delegation, marketing managers don’t often think about using an outside marketing resource. Consider projects you just aren’t getting to, or projects that you need help with to push them across the finish line. These are great areas where an outside marketing resource can help. 

An outside marketing firm can also help fill in areas that aren’t your strong suit.

If you’re not an organized person, try to find a marketing firm that is. If you’re looking for a little bit more creativity, then make it criteria to select a firm. Once you have that alignment, you can start out with a small project to make sure you’re developing trust, and then you can move on to delegating out bigger projects.

IF YOU’RE FINDING YOURSELF UNDERWATER AND NEED HELP MANAGING YOUR MARKETING LOAD, WE AT MARKETING INTENT WOULD BE HAPPY TO EXPLORE DELEGATION TO US, WITH YOU.

LET’S HAVE A CONVERSATION.

SS&C: Closing the Customer Knowledge Gap

AltsTech, AltsTech Announcements, SS&C

SS&C: Closing the Customer Knowledge Gap

August 17, 2022 | SS&C

Asset managers have access to more data today than ever before. By harnessing it, savvy firms can unlock powerful insights into their customers’ profiles, preferences and priorities. These insights, in turn, can enable firms to design more efficient and effective distribution strategies built on a solid and accurate foundation of customer knowledge.

Closing the customer knowledge gap is a top priority for asset managers, and with the wealth of data now available, it is a goal that is increasingly within reach.

How well do you know your customer? Download our whitepaper to learn more.

Download White Paper

CAIS and BNY Mellon’s Pershing Unveil New Features to Streamline Alternative Investing for Financial Advisors

AltsTech, AltsTech Announcements, AltsTech News, BNY Mellon | Pershing, CAIS

CAIS and BNY Mellon’s Pershing Unveil New Features to Streamline Alternative Investing for Financial Advisors

June 30, 2022 | CAIS

New integrations including SSO, enhanced Document APIs, and automated Order Entry will help to tackle challenges and improve advisor experiences

CAIS, the leading alternative investment platform, and BNY Mellon’s Pershing (“Pershing”), a leading provider of clearing and custody services, today announced a series of updates to the CAIS platform that will seek to enhance alternative investment product access and order processes, as broker-dealers and financial advisors allocate to new asset classes on behalf of their clients.

“Outdated manual processes have been one of the major barriers to alternative investment fund allocation for the independent wealth management community,” said Matt Brown, Founder and CEO, CAIS. “As access to alternatives goes mainstream, our collaboration with Pershing highlights CAIS’s ongoing commitment to supporting advisors as they transact, and report on, the full spectrum of alternative investments.”

The expanded partnership between CAIS and Pershing offers a new level of integration that seeks to make investing in alternatives faster, more secure, and convenient for advisors. Among its new features is the automation of submitting order forms, enabled by API connectivity between CAIS and Pershing’s NetX360® investment platform. Eliminating the need for manual order entry is intended to lower the risk of transfer errors or lost forms, increase data security, and reduce the number of steps required by advisors, investors, and fund providers.

“We are pleased to expand on this partnership with CAIS that will enhance the alternative investing capabilities being offered to advisors,” said Justin Fay, Director, Global Strategy and Product Management, BNY Mellon’s Pershing. “As investor demand for alternatives continues to grow, our priority is to make all aspects of the process more efficient and less time consuming.”

The updates build on CAIS and Pershing’s existing partnership, which automated manual transaction and documentation processes to reduce human error potential and improve advisors’ ability to browse, research, and allocate to alternative investments. CAIS has also introduced Single Sign-On (SSO) for broker-dealers and RIAs working with Pershing. The authentication scheme should allow users to securely access independent software applications using a single set of credentials. CAIS anticipates that the result will be improved time management, lower IT costs inside advisory and brokerage firms, and mitigation of risks tied to enterprise fragmentation.

CAIS offers broker-dealers and financial advisors a choice between a complete end-to-end platform solution or a customized, modular service for specific advisor-sourced funds and strategies. Financial advisors and independent broker-dealers who use CAIS via Netx360® also have access to CAIS IQ, a proprietary learning system that helps users learn faster and retain information longer. Private funds available through CAIS undergo independent investment and operational due diligence performed by Mercer.

This announcement follows CAIS securing over $325 million in growth capital from Apollo, Motive Partners, Franklin Templeton, Reverence Capital Partners, Stone Point Ventures, and Hamilton Lane, which values the Company at more than $1.1 billion.

About CAIS

CAIS is the leading alternative investment platform for financial advisors who seek improved access to, and education about, alternative investment funds and products. CAIS provides financial advisors with a broad selection of alternative investment strategies, including hedge funds, private equity, private credit, real estate, digital assets, and structured notes, allowing them to capitalize on opportunities and/or withstand ever-changing markets. CAIS also offers custom solutions for advisors seeking to create custom fund vehicles around ideas they source.

CAIS also provides an industry-leading learning system, CAIS IQ, to help advisors learn faster, remember longer, and improve client outcomes.

All funds listed on CAIS undergo Mercer’s independent due diligence and ongoing monitoring. Mercer diligence reports and fund ratings are available to advisors on the CAIS password-protected platform. CAIS streamlines the end-to-end transaction process through digital subscriptions and integrated reporting with Fidelity, Schwab, and Pershing, which make investing in alternatives simple.

Founded in 2009, CAIS, a fintech leader, is empowering over 5,300+ unique advisor firms/teams who oversee more than $2.5+ trillion in network assets. Since its inception, CAIS has facilitated over $17+ billion in transaction volume as the first truly open marketplace where financial advisors and asset managers engage and transact directly on a massive scale. CAIS has offices in New York, Los Angeles, Austin, and San Francisco. For more information about CAIS, please visit www.caisgroup.com.

Securities offered through CAIS Capital LLC, member FINRA, SIPC.

About BNY Mellon’s Pershing

BNY Mellon’s Pershing is a leading provider of clearing and custody services. We are uniquely positioned to help complex financial services firms transform their businesses, drive growth, maximize efficiency, and manage risk and regulation.

Wealth management and institutional firms outsource to us for trading and settlement services, investment solutions, bank and brokerage custody, middle and back office support, data insights, and business consulting.

Pershing brings together high-touch service, an open digital platform and the BNY Mellon enterprise to deliver a differentiated experience for every client.

Pershing LLC (member FINRA, NYSE, SIPC) is a BNY Mellon company. With offices around the world, Pershing has over $2 trillion in assets and millions of investor accounts. Pershing affiliates include Albridge Solutions, Inc. and Lockwood Advisors, Inc., an investment adviser registered in the United States under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940. Additional information is available on pershing.com, or follow us on LinkedIn or Twitter @Pershing.

Media Contact

For CAIS
Nadia Damouni
pro-CAISPR@Prosek.com

CAIS Receives Strategic Investment from Hamilton Lane

AltsTech, AltsTech Announcements, CAIS

CAIS Receives Strategic Investment from Hamilton Lane

June 28, 2022 | CAIS

Latest capital infusion underscores heightened demand for alternative investments access amid growing economic uncertainty

CAIS, the leading alternative investment platform, today announced a strategic investment from Hamilton Lane (NASDAQ: HLNE), a leading private markets investment management firm with more than $901 billion in assets under management and supervision. Hamilton Lane is the latest in a series of CAIS investors that have participated in the most recent financing, including Apollo, Motive Partners, Franklin Templeton, Reverence Capital Partners and Stone Point Ventures, which has resulted in the Company’s enterprise valuation exceeding $1.1 billion. Terms of the investment were not disclosed.

“We are thrilled to welcome another strong partner that shares our mission to level the playing field for RIAs, independent broker dealers, aggregators, and custodians looking to allocate to alternative investments,” said Matt Brown, Founder and CEO of CAIS. “Hamilton Lane brings tremendous value to CAIS as a strategic partner that is well-versed across private markets investing and data-driven innovation.”

The new capital will further CAIS’s mission to modernize how the independent advisor community can access and learn about alternative investments, while also connecting asset managers with the multi-trillion-dollar private wealth channel. Specifically, CAIS will continue to develop technology, expand its global team, enhance the advisor experience through personalized learning, and automate back-end processes for financial advisors and fund managers alike. It is Hamilton Lane’s intention to onboard some of its evergreen and closed-end products to the CAIS platform over time.

“We are seeing significant macroeconomic tailwinds that highlight the urgency for improved access to alternative investments, especially for the independent wealth and non-institutional channels,” said Erik Hirsch, Vice Chairman and Head of Strategic Initiatives at Hamilton Lane. “We are big believers that technology can serve as a powerful tool in solving for some of the traditional accessibility challenges, and look forward to supporting CAIS in that shared goal.”

The announcement follows CAIS’s release of results from an independent survey of financial professionals conducted at the 2022 Morningstar Conference, which validate the industry challenges it is addressing. Most notably, the survey found that more than 80% believed retail investors should have access to alternative investments, 76% argued that the traditional 60/40 portfolio is ineffective or less effective in today’s economic climate, and 69% cited a lack of educational resources as a hurdle to navigating private markets.

About CAIS

CAIS is the leading alternative investment platform for financial advisors who seek improved access to, and education about, alternative investment funds and products. CAIS provides financial advisors with a broad selection of alternative investment strategies, including hedge funds, private equity, private credit, real estate, digital assets, and structured notes, allowing them to capitalize on opportunities and/or withstand ever-changing markets. CAIS also offers custom solutions for advisors seeking to create custom fund vehicles around ideas they source.

CAIS also provides an industry-leading learning system, CAIS IQ, to help advisors learn faster, remember longer, and improve client outcomes.

All funds listed on CAIS undergo Mercer’s independent due diligence and ongoing monitoring. Mercer diligence reports and fund ratings are available to advisors on the CAIS password-protected platform. CAIS streamlines the end-to-end transaction process through digital subscriptions and integrated reporting with Fidelity, Schwab, and Pershing, which make investing in alternatives simple.

Founded in 2009, CAIS, a fintech leader, is empowering over 5,300+ unique advisor firms/teams who oversee more than $2.5+ trillion in network assets. Since its inception, CAIS has facilitated over $17+ billion in transaction volume as the first truly open marketplace where financial advisors and asset managers engage and transact directly on a massive scale. CAIS has offices in New York, Los Angeles, Austin, and San Francisco. For more information about CAIS, please visit www.caisgroup.com.

Securities offered through CAIS Capital LLC, member FINRA, SIPC.

About Hamilton Lane

Hamilton Lane (NASDAQ: HLNE) is a leading private markets investment management firm providing innovative solutions to institutional and private wealth investors around the world. Dedicated exclusively to private markets investing for 30 years, the firm currently employs approximately 530 professionals operating in offices throughout North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and the Middle East. Hamilton Lane has over $901 billion in assets under management and supervision, composed of more than $106 billion in discretionary assets and nearly $795 billion in advisory assets, as of March 31, 2022. Hamilton Lane specializes in building flexible investment programs that provide clients access to the full spectrum of private markets strategies, sectors and geographies. For more information, please visit www.hamiltonlane.com or follow Hamilton Lane on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/hamilton-lane.

Contacts

For CAIS
Nadia Damouni
pro-CAISPR@Prosek.com

For Hamilton Lane
Kate McGann
kmcgann@hamiltonlane.com

Headroom in Tech Budgets Offers Long-term Upside for Private Capital

AltsTech, AltsTech Announcements, iCapital Network

Headroom in Tech Budgets Offers Long-term Upside for Private Capital

June 13, 2022 | iCapital

 

Key takeaways from this white paper:

• Current valuations for tech providers may seem high, but the headroom for increases in corporate tech expenditures suggests that this is a long-term trend to stay invested in.

• Financial companies are leading corporate spending on technology, but investment from other sectors is surprisingly low. Taking finance as a benchmark and looking at upward trends in business IT budgets suggests there is the potential for sustained upside.

• As tech budgets increasingly focus on digital transformation, budgets for innovation are likely to continue to rise. Private capital is best placed to provide funding for these innovative sectors and to take advantage of the opportunity that these investments offer.

Read White Paper

 

Market Pulse: Rising chance of a soft-ish landing an opportunity for financials

AltsTech, AltsTech Announcements, AltsTech News, iCapital Network

Market Pulse: Rising chance of a soft-ish landing an opportunity for financials

June 8, 2022 | Anastasia Amoroso | iCapital

A combination of growth expectations remaining in positive territory, signs of inflation peaking, and the Fed’s apparent willingness to take a balanced approach to tightening collectively offer hope that we can avoid an economic crash landing. In this scenario, financials start to look like good value.

There has been relative calm in the markets lately. No one is particularly excited about chasing stocks higher near term given the precarious economic backdrop, but at the same time, no one is panicking about an imminent recession. The question is—is it a calm before a coming storm or could it last a while longer? We think the main reason for the relative peace of mind is a higher chance of a soft landing than previously perceived—and this could remain the case for weeks or even months. As a result, we see an opportunity in financial stocks as a cyclical trade that can perform as concerns about an end-of-cycle recession get pushed back and the benefits of rising rates ripple through into second quarter earnings.

A higher chance of avoiding a crash landing

What specifically has been giving the markets this peace of mind lately? Three things, all of which seem to show that, as narrow as a path is to a soft or “soft-ish” landing, there is a path.

First, growth is slowing but not falling off a cliff. Sure, GDP expectations have been revised down but they are not in negative territory yet. The 2022 consensus forecast is for growth to slow to 2.6% and fall marginally to 2.0% in 2023.1 And that might be precisely what is needed to cool the jobs market but avoid an outright contraction.

Second, there are signs that suggest inflation could be peaking. For one, this Friday the core Consumer Price Index is expected to come in at 5.9% in May vs 6.2% in April.2 Year-over-year wage growth cooled to 5.2% in May from 5.5% in April.3 The index of supply chain bottlenecks has shown definitive signs of easing and the return to relative normality in Shanghai should also help.4 Used car price growth is falling.5Lastly, businesses are finally flagging a pause in price rise intentions.6

(1) Source: Bloomberg, as of June 6, 2022.
(2) Source: Bloomberg, as of June 6, 2022.
(3) Source: Bloomberg, as of June 6, 2022.
(4) Source: Bloomberg, as of June 6, 2022.
(5) Source: Bloomberg, as of June 6, 2022.
(6) Source: Bloomberg, NFIB, as of June 6, 2022.

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iCapital Market Pulse: Parsing credit risk as rates rise and spreads widen

AltsTech, AltsTech Announcements, AltsTech News, iCapital Network,

iCapital Market Pulse: Parsing credit risk as rates rise and spreads widen

June 2, 2022 | Anastasia Amoroso | iCapital

Anxiety about potential credit defaults has risen on the back of equity volatility, rate rises, credit spreads widening, and recessionary concerns. Thankfully, data on high yield and leveraged loan credit quality suggests borrowers are entering a volatile period from a position of relative strength, though investors should stay vigilant.

In recent weeks, as equities whipsawed, rates rose, and credit spreads widened, one question has kept coming up—how concerned should investors be about default risk in credit, especially among issuers that took on a lot of floating-rate debt?

In this week’s commentary, we look at the key metrics of health in high yield debt and leveraged loans. Bottom line—a slower economy and rising rates are sure to pinch some issuers, but by and large we believe strong corporate fundamentals and higher margins in sectors that relied on floating-rate debt should mitigate a surge in defaults.

Less about credit quality, more about macro sentiment

On the back of U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed) tightening and the accompanying rate volatility, credit markets have seen the greatest spread widening since 2020. So far this year, the spread on U.S. investment grade corporates (IG Corps) has widened 38bps to 130bps, with high yield (HY) and leveraged loan (Lev Loan) spreads also widening.1 A net 55% of IG and net 68% of HY investors expect spreads to widen further in the coming months.2 That said, spreads remain significantly below levels associated with recessions.3 For HY, for example, spreads would need to widen another 400bps to roughly 800bps before flashing a recessionary signal.4

(1) Source: Bloomberg, iCapital Investment Strategy, as of May 31, 2022.
(2) Source: BofA US Credit Investor Survey, as of May 12, 2022.
(3) Source: Bloomberg, iCapital Investment Strategy, as of May 31, 2022.
(4) Source: Bloomberg, Morgan Stanley, US Credit Strategy Mid-Year Outlook, as of May 19, 2022.

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What does investor servicing and transfer agency cost for a non-traded REIT or BDC?

AltsTech, AltsTech Announcements, AltsTech News, UMB Bank

What does investor servicing and transfer agency cost for a non-traded REIT or BDC?

May 31, 2022 | Mike Huisman | UMB

In my role leading UMB’s transfer agency, alternatives sponsors call me and say, “Here’s an NDA; let’s talk pricing for this non-traded REIT (NTR) or business development company (BDC) we’re bringing out.” One reason servicing cost is on their mind is they recognize product sizes are different from years ago.

Most new NTRs and BDCs today are far smaller than they were 10 years ago. It used to be common for products to launch with 50,000 investors—and sometimes many more. Many sponsors are aware that the transfer agency business model for investor servicing is built around volume. They understand the economies of scale aren’t the same for a product with 50,000 investors and one with just 10 investors, and they aren’t sure what to expect when it comes to transfer agency costs for their BDC or NTR.

Look to bundle smaller products

Small investor numbers are especially common in the real estate space. Private-placement 1031 exchange products are a good example. Tax rules require that the investors in these products—who have just sold real estate and want to reinvest the proceeds—need to do so within 45 days of their sale.

Sponsors work hard to gather together groups of people in similar situations, including similar timelines. But that’s necessarily going to be a small group of people. For the sponsor, the business focus is to launch one product and move quickly onto the next. The next one may be very similar, but legally it’s a different instrument, with a different investor base.

Let’s take a hypothetical manager who has called me to talk about a real estate product. The trend these days is toward smaller products – products already in existence or planned or both – and are likely part of a larger strategic plan.

That strategic plan is important when I talk with the manager about pricing, since the cost of transfer agency services depends on volume.

That’s where bundling comes in. We are sometimes able to apply a stairstep-type pricing structure, in which the sponsor pays $X per investor in the initial product but then a lesser amount of $Y per investor as the volume grows in related products. There may also be a lower $Z level as well.

That structure can be a mutual fit, as closing multiple similar products is fundamental to the manager’s business model. And on our side, the structure brings some sensitivity to how supporting a whole system of investor services—call centers, transaction processing, commission payments, investor notifications and more—depends on achieving economies of scale.

Maximum efficiency is the new baseline

Sponsors may recall historical transfer agency pricing in which discounts were available when higher-efficiency practices were employed. For example, servicing contracts may have been designed to provide discounts when higher-efficiency practices were employed by a sponsor, such as digital account onboarding.

Today, pricing anticipates that all parties will adopt processes to maximize efficiencies. And, if not, more manual processes could be introduced at an extra fee.

Digital onboarding, which benefits both sponsors and the transfer agency, must be a standard operating procedure. The good news is that using digital systems has gotten easier, thanks to a variety of new platforms on the market and, on the sponsor side, an investor base that is much more comfortable and familiar with digital account-opening processes.

Other technology that benefits economies of scale—and therefore a transaction processor’s ability to price competitively—includes optical character recognition (OCR) and robotic process automation (RPA). Service providers are makingsignificant investments in both these areas to speed up onboarding, freeing service teams to focus on reviewing exceptions rather than data entry and manual processing.

Digitalization means progress for both transfer agent and sponsor

The bottom line is, as in so many other areas of business, digitalization is making a huge difference. It’s making it possible for us to price transfer agency services for NTRs and BDCs in innovative ways, because everyone is on board with maximizing efficiency. So, while the per-investor pricing for a small product is necessarily higher than with a large product, you don’t have to worry so much about sticker shock.

Learn more about UMB Fund Services and how we can support your firm’s registered and alternative investment fund servicing needs, or contact us to be connected with a fund services team member.

iCapital® to Acquire SIMON Markets, a Leading Advisor Platform for Structured Investments, Annuities, and Risk-Managed Solutions

AltsTech, AltsTech Announcements, AltsTech News, iCapital Network

iCapital® to Acquire SIMON Markets, a Leading Advisor Platform for Structured Investments, Annuities, and Risk-Managed Solutions

May 25, 2022 | iCapital

iCapital1, the leading global fintech platform driving access and efficiency in alternative investing for the asset and wealth management industries, and SIMON Markets2, the award-winning3 fintech company offering a digital platform designed to help financial advisors understand and manage structured investments, annuities, and other risk-managed products, today announced they have entered into a definitive agreement under which iCapital will acquire SIMON. Joining these companies will meaningfully enhance the alternative investing experience for advisors and their clients.

SIMON is a preeminent technology platform facilitating structured investments and annuity products with more than $48 billion of issuances in 2021. Through deeply embedded technology, SIMON delivers integrations across 50 plus product manufacturers and 50 plus wealth managers – including the largest IBDs, bank/regional broker dealers and private banks, and more than 100 RIAs, as well as platform access to more than 100,000 advisors. SIMON brings transparency to the industry, streamlines workflows for advisors, and creates scalable distribution for product manufacturers.

“Today’s wealth management professionals seek a premium technology platform and access to a broader range of alternative investment strategies that provide thoughtful ways to diversify and potentially enhance long-term returns in client portfolios,” said Lawrence Calcano, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of iCapital. “SIMON is a recognized leader in structured investments and annuities offering an exceptional user experience and a distribution network of impressive depth and breadth. We are thrilled to welcome the highly accomplished SIMON team to iCapital with whom we share a mission to expand access and efficiency of alternative investing across the industry. This acquisition provides our advisors with a much more robust platform and suite of tools to help them pursue successful investment outcomes for their clients.”

Under the agreement, Jason Broder, Chief Executive Officer of SIMON, will join iCapital as Managing Director, Head of iCapital Solutions and member of the Operating Committee. In this capacity, he will oversee the combined platform’s integration, market development, and sales of iCapital’s full suite of technology offerings. Additionally, iCapital will extend offers of employment to the nearly 200 SIMON team members.

“We have long-admired iCapital and everything it has accomplished in the alternative investing space,” said Mr. Broder. “After a highly collaborative exploratory process over recent months, it became abundantly clear that together we can create an unrivaled experience for our clients and set the stage for iCapital’s continued expansion of investment opportunities and support services for advisors. Together we’re delivering something the wealth management industry has wanted for a very long time – access to all alternative solutions under one, centralized platform.”

Engaging Advisors with Educational and Analytical Resources

Developing industry knowledge has been a priority for iCapital since its founding. iCapital provides the wealth management community with comprehensive research, education, and portfolio analytics tools to support advisors in understanding alternatives and incorporating them into their practices. iCapital offers AltsEdge, AI Insight and iCapital Portfolio Intelligence alongside a robust library of articles with insights on market trends, various asset classes within alternatives, the mechanics of private investing, emerging product strategies and practice management.

SIMON has been a leader in the development of educational resources and analytical tools to further financial advisors’ understanding of structured investments, annuities, target return ETFs, and alternative investment solutions, including digital assets. With the acquisition, SIMON’s advisor education and analytical resources – which includes SIMON Spectrum, as well as an extensive video collection with interactive product training and a dashboard to track advisor progress, product training for all levels, and custom compliance tracking – will further build out iCapital’s already robust education and analytics capabilities.

“Everything we do is about setting advisors up for success, and we are enormously excited to integrate the robust offerings of SIMON into the iCapital suite of analytical and educational resources providing a comprehensive resource to support advisor efforts to drive positive client outcomes,” said Mr. Calcano.

The transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2022 after the necessary regulatory approvals have been granted. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC and UBS Investment Bank are serving as financial advisors to iCapital. Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC is serving as the exclusive financial advisor to SIMON.

About iCapital

Founded in 2013 in NYC, iCapital is the leading global fintech company powering the world’s alternative investment marketplace. It has transformed the way the wealth management, banking, and asset management industries facilitate access to private markets investments for their high-net-worth clients by providing intuitive, end-to-end technology and service solutions. Wealth management firms use iCapital’s solutions to provide clients with quality funds at lower minimums and simplified digital workflows. Asset managers, RIAs and banks leverage iCapital’s technology to streamline and scale their alternative investments operational infrastructure. Additionally, the iCapital ‘flagship’ platform offers wealth advisors and their high-net-worth clients access to a curated menu of private equity, private credit, hedge funds, structured investments, and other alternatives to help meet their investing needs for return and diversification. iCapital’s research and diligence team offers robust analysis alongside the firm’s extensive suite of advisor education, compliance, portfolio management, and portfolio analytics tools and services. iCapital was recognized on the Forbes FinTech 50 list in 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021, the Forbes America’s Best Startup Employers in 2021, and MMI/Barron’s Industry Awards as Solutions Provider of the Year in 2020 and 2021. As of April 30, 2022, iCapital services more than US$125 billion in global client assets, of which more than US$30 billion are from international investors (non-US Domestic), across more than 1,000 funds. Employing more than 800 people globally, iCapital is headquartered in NYC and has offices worldwide including in Zurich, London, Lisbon, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Toronto.

For additional information, please visit the iCapital website at www.icapitalnetwork.com | LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/icapital-network-inc | Twitter: @icapitalnetwork

See disclosures here.

About SIMON

Launched in 2018, SIMON helps financial advisors build the portfolio of tomorrow by giving them access to more investment opportunities. The SIMON platform offers a marketplace for risk-managed and alternative solutions, including structured investments, annuities, and traditional and progressive alternatives. With education and analytics breaking down the complexity inherent in these products, and a centralized workflow for lifecycle management, financial advisors can learn, transact, and manage client portfolios with confidence.

Over 100,000 financial professionals with $5 trillion in combined client assets turn to SIMON to stay ahead in an ever-evolving investment landscape. SIMON is an independently operating fintech company with backing from market participants Barclays, Citi, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, J.P. Morgan, Prudential, and Wells Fargo, and growth equity firm WestCap. To learn more about SIMON, visit www.simon.io and follow the company on Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

Securities products and services offered by SIMON Markets LLC, a broker-dealer registered with the SEC, Member FINRA / SIPC. Annuities and insurance services provided by SIMON Annuities and Insurance Services LLC.

iCapital Media Contacts
Morgan Miller / Emma Murphy
919-602-2806 / 347-968-6800
icapital@neibartgroup.com

SIMON Media Contact
Francie Rawson
877.317.4666
francie@simonmarkets.com

(1) Institutional Capital Network, Inc. and its affiliates (together, “iCapital”)
(2) SIMON Markets, LLP., and its affiliates (together, “SIMON”)
(3) 2021 SRP Americas Award Winner “Best Issuance Platform” and “Best Technology Platform”

 

Alternative Investments: From Friends & Family To Reg D Private Placements

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Alternative Investments: From Friends & Family To Reg D Private Placements

May 25, 2022 | Marketing Intent

Are you looking for ways to ensure success in raising capital? Simplifying your sales story, syncing up marketing and sales efforts, and updating your PPM regularly are a few ways to help you achieve these goals, maximize your marketing and make sure your offering stands out.

TODAY, LET’S TALK ABOUT:
How to help your offering stand out with financial advisors, how to sync your sales and marketing efforts and how your PPM can help develop advisors’ trust.

Simplicity and a Good Story

Standing out among the growing number of alternative investment offerings can be difficult. We see many firms dive deep into the jargon of their asset classes to try to explain investment offerings to advisors. And their eyes glaze over.  Simplicity and a good story is the key to helping advisors quickly grasp what you’re doing and why.

For example:

• Industrial buildings = Amazon packages

• Farmland = the need for food

• Residential = solving the housing crisis

Sync Marketing & Sales

Once you have your simple story down, it’s time to make sure that your marketing and sales efforts are synced up. I know this can be a sensitive topic for people, because of the battle that marketing and sales can have. 

It is really important for us to re-think marketing and sales and how they can help each other be successful with a feedback loop. Whether it’s sales getting feedback on what’s resonating with advisors, what a common objection is, or how something should be explained, marketing can help answer those questions for advisors and help engage them for the sales team. 

This can often result in more warm leads and conversations that lead to capital being raised. 

Use Your PPM to Build Trust

Once those conversations start leading to capital raising, the next most important thing to do is develop trust with advisors. We don’t often think of the PPM as being a marketing tool, but it needs to be updated continually. Especially depending on how rigid your law firm is on what you can say with or without it being updated in the PPM. For example, if you’ve acquired properties and you haven’t updated your PPM, you may not be able to discuss them with advisors. That looks like a communication gap from their standpoint, versus you being proactive and letting them know what’s happening with your offering. 

Updating your PPM can provide advisors with what they need to give their clients updates –and to continue to present your offering and raise capital for it. Get ahead of the curve and think about how you can regularly update your PPM so you can get updates out to advisors and continue to develop their trust.

To recap…

• Simplify your sales story. Think about your asset class and what it means to advisors and how it translates –to sync up your marketing and sales efforts, because it is really important for them to have open communication and have a feedback loop.

• Plan for your PPM to be updated regularly. This enables you to get information out to advisors quickly, which helps develop trust.

CONTACT US FOR MARKETING HELP

If you need help maximizing your marketing to raise capital, contact Marketing Intent. We have deep experience in the financial services and the alternative investments space. 

iCapital Market Pulse: Five crypto questions as stablecoins prove not so stable

AltsTech, AltsTech Announcements, AltsTech News

iCapital Market Pulse: Five crypto questions as stablecoins prove not so stable

May 19, 2022 | Anastasia Amoroso | iCapital

Investors are understandably concerned about the future of crypto in the wake of the collapse of stablecoin Terra and given continued weak performance of cryptocurrencies. In this week’s blog, we take a step back and answer key questions on the current state of crypto, finding reasons for optimism over the longer term.

Last Thursday, as the price of stablecoin Terra dropped to near $0, Tether “broke the buck” and traded at $0.9964, and cryptocurrencies fell more than 10% or more across the board, we hosted our Cryptocurrency Education webinar.1 Bitcoin has since rebounded somewhat to around $30,0002, but several questions raised during the webinar continue to bear examination. In this week’s commentary we take the opportunity to answer the five crypto questions top of mind for investors right now.
 
1. Do the current market conditions change any aspects of this asset class?
 
This was the number one question that was asked. And the answer is yes. As with many other assets, the pivot by the U. S. Federal Reserve (the Fed) from November was a turning point. With the Fed no longer willing to sit idly by in the face of sky-high inflation, and with cash yields bound to move, the inflation protection argument for Bitcoin weakened as the dollar strengthened.

Over time, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have also become much more highly correlated with equities3—which is warranted since the crypto ecosystem is innovative technology above all else. Like equities, cryptocurrencies have suffered because for the first time in two years cash and parts of fixed income started to become viable alternatives. The effective fed funds rate is now at 1.00% and the three-year AAA municipal bond yield-to-maturity is 2.46%, while growth stocks yield 0.9% and bitcoin yields nothing.4 You’d have to lend it out to earn a yield but would be taking credit risk to do so. Additionally, unlike tech companies, cryptocurrencies do not have readily available projected cash flows that could be discounted back to present value. Of course, miners do earn revenue for validating transactions, but that accrues to the miners and not the bitcoin asset holders. In this absence, cryptocurrencies are likely to trade as unprofitable tech and indeed, their correlation with that index has risen over the past year from +0.22 to +0.72.5 Longer term, cryptocurrencies should derive value from their use cases and adoption, but that takes time. Near term, like for stocks, it would take a stabilization of growth expectations and/or a Fed pivot to justify a move higher in crypto assets.

≡ Continue Reading

(1) Source: Bloomberg, as of May 17, 2022.
(2) Source: Ibid.
(3) Source: Ibid.
(4) Source: Ibid.
(5) Source: Ibid.

CION Investments, Man Group, and iCapital Partner to Scale Alternative Investing Access

AltsTech, AltsTech Announcements, iCapital Network

CION Investments, Man Group, and iCapital Partner to Scale Alternative Investing Access

May 10, 2022 | CION Investments

CION Investments (CION), a leading manager and distributor of alternative investment solutions, and Man Group, a global active asset manager with $151.4 billion1 in AUM, announced today that they have partnered with iCapital2, the leading global fintech platform driving access and efficiency in alternative investing for the asset and wealth management industries.

CION and Man Group are teaming up to create unique, scalable, and accessible investment solutions offered through a joint venture partnership, CION Man Management (CMM). CMM pairs Man Group’s origination, operational, and asset management expertise and CION’s investment acumen, retail product management and distribution experience. The initial collaboration began with Man Global Private Markets (Man GPM), Man Group’s private markets business.

CMM will leverage iCapital’s customized technology, services platform, and diligence solutions for financial advisors and their high-net-worth clients seeking access to alternative strategies.

“Advisors are responding to the changing, more volatile economic landscape by incorporating alternatives in their client portfolios. Products that simplify access to institutional-caliber investments and managers are seeing increased demand,” said Michael A. Reisner, co-Chief Executive Officer, CION Man Management.

iCapital has transformed how wealth management, banking, and asset management industries facilitate access to private markets investments for their high-net-worth clients by providing intuitive, end-to-end technology and service solutions that digitize the subscription, administration, operational and reporting processes of alternative investing.

“We are pleased to support CION and Man Group in their venture to meet the needs of advisors for accessible alternative investments,” said Lawrence Calcano, Chairman and CEO of iCapital. “As the industry continues to expand, tech-forward, scalable solutions will support increased appetite.”

ABOUT CION INVESTMENTS

CION Investments is a leading manager of alternative investment solutions designed to redefine the way individual investors can build their portfolios and help meet their long-term investment goals.

CION Investments currently sponsors CION Investment Corporation (NYSE: CION), a leading publicly listed business development company that currently manages approximately $1.8 billion in assets, and also sponsors, through CION Ares Management, CION Ares Diversified Credit Fund, a globally diversified interval fund that currently manages approximately $3.1 billion in assets. CION Investments has also partnered with the Man Group to create unique, scalable, and accessible investment solutions.

For more information, please visit www.cioninvestments.com.

ABOUT MAN GPM

Man Global Private Markets (Man GPM) is the private markets business of Man Group. Man GPM is focused on investing in real and corporate assets in differentiated markets with high barriers to entry. We have long-standing experience in residential real estate and private credit and seek to deliver attractive risk-adjusted returns to clients globally.

Our specialist investment teams in the US and UK have deep local market expertise, with established track records in building and managing large-scale real estate and credit businesses. Operating from New York, Charlotte, North Carolina and London, Man GPM’s funds under management were $3.7 billion including committed capital at March 31, 2022, across commingled, separately managed accounts and joint venture structures. For more information, visit www.man.com/gpm.

ABOUT MAN GROUP

Man Group is a global, technology-empowered active investment management firm focused on delivering alpha and portfolio solutions for clients. Headquartered in London, the firm manages $151.4 billion* and operates across multiple offices globally.

Man Group invests across a diverse range of strategies and asset classes, with a mix of long only and alternative strategies run on a discretionary and quantitative basis, across liquid and private markets. The firm’s investment teams work within Man Group’s single operating platform, enabling them to invest with a high degree of empowerment while benefiting from the collaboration, strength and resources of the entire firm. Man Group’s platform is underpinned by advanced technology, supporting our investment teams at every stage of their process, including alpha generation, portfolio management, trade execution and risk management.

Man Group plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange under the ticker EMG.LN and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. Further information can be found at www.man.com.

* As of March 31, 2022. All investment management and advisory services are offered through the investment “engines” of Man AHL, Man Numeric, Man GLG, Man Solutions / FRM and Man GPM.

1 As of March 31, 2022
2 Institutional Capital Network, Inc. and its affiliates (together, “iCapital Network” or “iCapital”)
 
Contact
For more information:

Alex Cavalieri
Head of Marketing & Strategy
E: acavalieri@cioninvestments.com

Opportunity Zone Experts, USG Realty Capital, Select WealthForge for Managing Broker-Dealer Services and Technology Solutions to Streamline Investment Process

AltsTech, AltsTech Announcements, WealthForge

Opportunity Zone Experts, USG Realty Capital, Select WealthForge for Managing Broker-Dealer Services and Technology Solutions to Streamline Investment Process

May 6, 2022 | USG Realty Capital

USG Realty Capital, a leading investment sponsor specializing in opportunity zones, announced today that they have selected WealthForge, a registered broker-dealer and developer of Altigo, a subscription automation platform for investing in alternatives, as their managing broker-dealer and will utilize their technology solutions to streamline the investment process.

“WealthForge brings a level of expertise and turn-key solutions with their managing broker-dealer services and Altigo platform, which is unmatched in our industry,” said Greg Genovese, CEO and founder of USG Realty Capital. “As our platform continues to grow and add more products, bringing on WealthForge was the ideal next step in our evolution.”   

“We focus on increasing efficiencies and streamlining the investment process with our automated straight-through processing platform to increase adoption of alternatives,” said Michael Roman, managing director, managing broker-dealer services, of WealthForge. “We are excited to work with an industry leader like Greg Genovese and his stellar team at USG Realty Capital.”

Through USG’s unique proprietary investor-directed platform, accredited investors have the capability to choose as much diversification or project concentration as they please, all under a single-fund platform. This platform provides quantitatively aligned asset management with the fund’s investors, delivers proper oversight of the fund’s developers through co-partnership, and honors the spirit and intent of the opportunity zone initiative by ongoing third-party social impact reporting throughout the life of the project.

In March of this year, USG Realty Capital held a groundbreaking ceremony for KindCare at Bristol, part of its investor-directed, multi-asset opportunity zone fund offering. The 117-unit assisted living and memory care senior housing development, located in Bristol, Connecticut is being developed by Senior Living Development, an experienced commercial real estate development company specializing in the senior living space. This qualified opportunity zone project is scheduled for completion in 2023.

Investors Choice OZ Fund launched in June 2021. Since that time, the qualified opportunity zone fund has grown to four current projects and continues to add qualified, viable ground-up multifamily, senior living, storage, and manufactured housing projects to add to its platform. The focus is on infill projects with barriers to entry and equity targets ranging from $5 million to $10 million per project, on average. The fund intends to raise $50 million in new investment equity and can expand the offering to $100 million if needed.

About USG Realty Capital

USG Realty Capital is co-headquartered in Santa Barbara, California and Silverdale, Washington. USG Realty Capital is an alternative investment company launched by industry veteran Greg Genovese, who has successfully launched several opportunity zone funds since 2018. To learn more, please visit www.investorschoiceoz.com.

Tax-Incentivized refers to any type of investment that is either exempt from taxation, tax-deferred, or that offers other types of tax benefits. USG Realty Capital is a sponsor of investment opportunities that can provide such benefits via our opportunity zone funds and 1031 exchange offerings, among others. Securities offered through WealthForge Securities, LLC, the managing broker-dealer for the Investors Choice OZ Fund, LLC offering and member FINRA/SIPC. USG Realty Capital and WealthForge are not affiliated. Private Placements are speculative.