CAIS Expands Independent Broker Dealer Relationships with Alts Education

September 28, 2021 at 10:30 AM EDT

CAIS IQ empowers financial advisors and home offices with personalized alternative investment education, insights, and data analytics

CAIS, the leading alternative investment platform, today announced CAIS IQ is supporting independent broker dealers and home offices through its membership and sponsorship of two leading trade associations: the Alternative and Direct Investment Securities Association (ADISA) and Institute for Portfolio Advisors (IPA). These sponsorships represent CAIS’s commitment to empowering financial advisors with the education they need to allocate to alternative investments.

“We are happy to have CAIS join ADISA as a new member and sponsor as they work to broaden their relationships throughout the broker-dealer community,” said John Harrison, DBA, Executive Director of ADISA. “ADISA prides itself on broadening access to quality alternative investments by facilitating education, relationships and advocacy. As such, we welcome CAIS to our large coalition and look forward to working with them in the coming years.”

The CAIS IQ platform provides independent broker dealer firms with personalized learning and development opportunities on topics ranging from the science of client motivation to courses on strategies, such as private equity, hedge funds and digital assets. In addition, many broker dealer firms have independently elected to use the CAIS IQ platform to meet certain regulatory requirements related to education of their registered representatives. “CAIS IQ provides home offices with the control, oversight, and permissions they need in order to learn about and allocate to alternative investments” said Andrew Smith Lewis, Chief Innovation Officer at CAIS.

The platform uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to scale proven cognitive science and empower financial advisors to learn faster and remember longer. For each individual advisor, the platform measures the rate of information absorption and knowledge decay, simultaneously calculating the precise moment to review to achieve maximum retention. Users have seen up to 50% reduction in time spent learning through the platform compared to traditional methods of learning.¹

Most recently, the CAIS IQ Center, a dedicated, interactive community, was launched for the SALT NY conference. The CAIS IQ Center featured a live stream of content from the alternative investment track, relevant videos, articles and CAIS IQ learning courses. The CAIS IQ Center acted as the virtual passport to exclusive interviews with industry leaders, topical investment themes, and curated modules on all things alternatives.

“The IPA has long supported the advancement of fintech solutions and alternative investment education that empower wealth managers to drive better outcomes for main street investors,” said Tony Chereso, President /CEO of the Institute for Portfolio Alternatives. “CAIS has been a driving force behind these critical strategic initiatives and will be valuable thought leader among the IPA Community.”

CAIS IQ recently added rich media formats such as video, webinars, and podcasts to accelerate advisor engagement, resulting in the number of active users increasing by 21% over the last month alone. The platform brings content from industry leaders to independent broker dealers via web and mobile applications designed to deliver durable and usable knowledge. CAIS IQ is modular and works best when consumed in short bursts to accommodate the busy schedules of financial advisors.

“We have found that advisors not only want to learn from industry peers and colleagues, but that they want to learn in different ways and formats than our industry has traditionally offered. By partnering with top independent broker dealers, and truly personalizing the learning experience CAIS IQ breaks the paradigm for advisor education,” said Michelle Browning, Business Development Director, CAIS IQ. Browning recently joined the CAIS team to accelerate CAIS IQ’s mission to transform advisor education.

Nearly 20,000 advisors on the CAIS platform have access to CAIS IQ. Since the launch of CAIS IQ in November 2019, active advisors have accumulated more than 5,800 hours and learned over 280,000 financial concepts. Both the Investment Wealth Institute (IWI) and Certified Financial Planner Board (CFP) accept select CAIS IQ courses and webinars for continuing education (CE) credit. CAIS IQ is provided at no charge to registered clients of CAIS, which span RIAs and independent broker dealers across the country.

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. Additionally, CAIS provides an industry-leading learning system, CAIS IQ, that helps 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, making investing in alternatives simple.

Founded in 2009, CAIS, a fintech leader, is empowering over 4,200+ unique advisor firms/teams who oversee more than $2T+ in network assets. Since inception, CAIS has facilitated over $13B+ in transaction volume. CAIS is the first truly open marketplace where financial advisors and asset managers engage and transact directly on a massive scale.

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

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.

About Institute for Portfolio Alternatives

The Institute for Portfolio Alternatives seeks to raise awareness of portfolio diversifying investment (PDI) products among stakeholders and market participants, including: investment advisors, public policymakers and the investing public. It supports increased access to investment strategies with low correlation to the equity markets: lifecycle real estate investment trusts (“Lifecycle REITs”), net asset value REITs (NAV REITs), business development companies (BDCs), interval funds and direct participation programs (DPPs). Through advocacy and industry-leading education, the IPA is committed to ensuring all investors have access to real assets and the opportunity to effectively balance their investment portfolios.

1. Source: Cerego, How Cerego Changed the Way Bryan University Learns: From Student to Staff, https://www.cerego.com/customer-stories/how-cerego-changed-the-way-bryan-university-learns-from-students-to-staff