Alternative investments have been democratized but not necessarily demystified. So as the aftermath of the financial crisis has spawned a proliferation of ’40 Act funds employing a range of alternative strategies formerly reserved for institutional and high-net-worth investors, many retail investors—and some of their financial advisors—are still trying to get the knack for these investments.

To help educate financial advisors on the nuances of alts and how to employ them in client portfolios, the CAIA Association (pronounced “ki-a”) in March 2014 launched its Fundamentals of Alternative Investments Certificate Program consisting of 20 modules, each about an hour long. This is a shorter version of the CAIA Charter program, a comprehensive course study that leads to the CAIA, or Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst designation. The longer program has two exam levels that both entail about 200 hours of study, and has a pass rate of 65%.

“People told us we have a lot of good content but they couldn’t make the time commitment for the exam program, so there was demand for a sort of executive summary for our material,” says Keith Black, managing director of curriculum and exams at the CAIA Association.

The Fundamentals of Alternative Investments Certificate Program is delivered via the Investment Management Consultant Association’s (IMCA) web-based educational platform. The self-paced course explains the core concepts of alts and includes a range of topics such as portfolio construction, risk management, due diligence, hedge funds, private equity and real estate, among others. As the name implies, completing the program earns a certificate, but not a certification designation. It is accepted for continuing education hours for holders of the CIMA (certified investment management analyst), CIMC (certified investment management consultant), CPWA (certified private wealth advisor) and CFP (certified financial planner) designations.

The course costs $895 ($795 for IMCA members).

Based in Amherst, Mass., the CAIA Association began in 2002 with the collaboration of Thomas Schneeweis, then a professor at the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and AIMA (the Alternative Investment Management Association) in London. “They realized there wasn’t a designation focused exclusively on alternative investments, particularly as alternatives gained steam among institutional investors and people needed to wrap their heads around this space,” says William Kelly, CEO of the CAIA Association. He notes about 7,500 people in 83 countries hold the CAIA designation.

Sean Walters, IMCA’s executive director and CEO, says his organization covers alternative investments in its CIMA program, but some of its members want to learn more. “Rather than develop our own educational offerings on alternatives, we decided to reach out and form a partnership with CAIA to leverage their expertise in alternative investments and host the online education on our platform,” he says, adding that of the 600 people who studied for the certificate program on his organization’s website last year, about half of them were IMCA members.

Robert Kendall, managing director in the global client group at Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management, says his company made the Fundamentals of Alternative Investments Certificate Program mandatory training for all of its wholesalers.

“We saw a huge proliferation of liquid alternative products in the market, but we didn’t see a lot of education being done for financial advisors about how they should be using those products with their end users,” he says. “We thought if we could make our people highly educated in this space, they can create value for our financial advisor clients and ultimately create value for investors.”