Ares Wealth Management Solutions has announced that it will offer its funds on iCapital’s platform through a newly created client portal.
The two firms have been working together for years, with Ares rolling out the occasional fund for iCapital to distribute on its platform. However, within the past year, Los Angeles-based Ares has been making an active push into the high-net-worth investor space and last year launched Ares Wealth Management Solutions.
Its latest move came Tuesday, when it announced an expansion of its relationship with iCapital. Ares will launch its own branded web portal on the iCapital site, leveraging the sales force and technology of iCapital.
“We are now able to have the full suite of Ares’ wealth management solutions (both domestically and overseas) available through iCapital’s portal,” said Raj Dhanda, global head of Wealth Management in Ares Wealth Management Solutions. “We now have a portal that allows us to seamlessly deliver compelling solutions to our wealth management clients.”
In the arrangement with iCapital, Ares will gain greater access to more than 3,000 independent registered investment advisors who manage at least $100 million in investable assets. Ares will offer all the funds in its wealth management arm on the portal giving advisors.
“The financial advisor today only has so much time so if you are providing a suite of solutions to the advisor and you’re doing it in a way that is technologically advanced then you have made the sale much easier and you can focus on the investment merits,” Dhanda said.
For New York-based iCapital, it is its second major deal within the last month. In August the firm announced it had acquired UBS’s AlphaKeys Funds in a deal that saw more than $7 billion in assets transferred. Lawrence Calcano, chairman and CEO of iCapital, said the expansion of the relationship was a logical progression after years of working well together.
Calcano said he was impressed with the progress Ares has been making in the high-net worth client space as well as its commitment to the advisor and their client.
“These relationships are long term in terms of the advisor and their client,” he said. “You have to be transparent in how you treat investors and Ares takes that to heart.”
Ares will continue to run and manage its own funds while its sales force will continue to sell funds on the iCapital platform, the company said. In addition, iCapital’s sales team will sell Ares funds on iCapital’s flagship main site, according to Calcano.