Global fintech platform iCapital and Boston-based Wellington Management have inked a deal to allow Wellington to offer its suite of alternative investments on iCapital’s platform.
“iCapital has built a tremendous footprint of clients globally and so the partnership for us was really a natural fit,” said Chris Farrell director of alternatives for wealth at Wellington.
Wellington, which has been building its business the past 15 years, pursued the partnership in response to customer demand, the firm said.
“The combination of new product designs at Wellington and desire from our existing clients to work with us across a larger number of asset classes drove us to look for solutions that would help individual investors access Wellington’s institutional alternatives platform through their intermediaries,” Farrell said.
As part of the arrangement, iCapital will provide three main components. The first is access to iCapital’s global network, which includes Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America.
“Our distribution relationships right now are truly global,” Farrell said. “What iCapital and our partnership will allow us to do is to service and provide access points for the distributors that we already work with in a new asset class.”
The second point is the use of iCapital’s technology, which will make it easier for investors to access Wellington’s funds through iCapital’s platform, according to Marco Bizzozero, head of International at iCapital.
“We know that with our technology solution, we make it easier for an advisor and their clients to invest in this asset class,” he said. “But it’s important also to give them the right educational tools to make sure that the investment opportunities are properly selected and diversified.”
The third aspect iCapital will offer is education in two forms. First, it will provide educational tools about alternative investments in general, focusing on what they are, how they work in a portfolio, their benefits, and how to construct a portfolio around them, Bizzozero said. The other aspect will highlight Wellington’s products specifically and how advisors can use them in a portfolio, he added.
The products Wellington will offer on iCapital’s product include private funds and hedge funds, Farrell said. That includes five verticals, four private equity funds, and one private credit. There are also hedge funds that have a single-strategy sector and a multi-strategy sector.
“We are spending a lot of time focusing on solutions tailor-made for the wealth channel because not every solution we believe is necessarily a fit for everyone’s client. So we want to make sure that we are meeting the investment objectives and needs of the individual,” Farrell said.