How do you feel advisors are adapting to the facet of fintech that your company operates within?
The demand for private investments among advisors and their high-net-worth clients has been growing in recent years amid a two-decade shift that has irrevocably changed the composition of the public markets. Compared to public markets, alternative investments have the potential to offer unique benefits such as reduced portfolio volatility and enhanced returns. This makes alternatives very appealing in the current market environment, and we continue to see a larger number of high-net-worth advisors seeking access to these strategies. Furthermore, the benefits of smart and scalable technology – especially at this moment in time – for connecting parties, streamlining administration, and supporting operations, cannot be overstated.
As advisors consider alternatives, we know that a comprehensive understanding of these investments is essential, and we are committed to providing educational resources to help advisors learn about strategies and understand how to incorporate them into a portfolio. The SEC recognizes the interest in increased access to alternatives and is considering changes to the definition of an accredited investor, which would broaden the population of investors who can invest in these types of products. This makes education more important than ever to ensure that advisors and their clients are fully aware of, and comfortable with the nuances of these investments. As more advisors are thinking about alternatives and how they might help investors meet their financial goals, I think they are going to be looking to members of the industry for educational tools that can help build their expertise.
What has been the biggest success in your firm to date?
The goal of everything that we do at iCapital is ultimately to make it easier for the wealth and asset management industries to support alternative investing for advisors and their high-net-worth clients, so I consider our biggest success to be the successes of our clients, partners and advisors.
I personally believe that our focus on making our customers successful drives our own success. Our growth in 2019 is a testament to this. We developed new relationships across the industry, resulting in a more than 400% increase in assets serviced by the iCapital platform. We also nearly doubled the size of our team to improve upon the high-quality service and technical innovations we provide to our clients.
Providing advisors with educational content and timely insights to help them understand the opportunities in the alternative investment market has always been top of mind for us, and especially now in the current environment, so we continue to think about new ways in which we can provide resources to support and help contribute to our clients’ successes.