NEW YORK, NY, Feb 15, 2024 – iCapital, the global fintech platform driving the world’s alternative investment marketplace for the wealth management industry, announces its groundbreaking portfolio construction tool, Architect, is available on iCapital Marketplace. With the launch, more than 350,000 US financial advisors can access Architect – which combines a user-friendly interface with sophisticated analytics – to evaluate alternatives and structured investments alongside traditional assets and seamlessly design portfolios that align with their clients’ return objectives and risk profiles.
Architect’s advanced analytics and visualizations allow advisors to evaluate the impact of adding alternatives – such as private equity, private credit, hedge funds, private real estate funds – and structured investments, to an existing portfolio that includes traditional investments, including equity, fixed income, ETFs, and mutual funds. Advisors can also fold in custom assets and run them through Architect’s models, allowing advisors to evaluate non-traditional client assets. The new tool compares scenarios and simulates historical performance; identifies macroeconomic portfolio return drivers; and evaluates the projected portfolio against a client’s investment objectives.
“In building out the industry operating system for investing in private markets, we’ve been very thoughtful about how to give advisors an enhanced set of tools to supplement the ones they already have in the 60/40 world,” said Lawrence Calcano, chairman and CEO of iCapital. “Architect is a real-time tool for advisors to explore allocations to alternatives, support diversification goals, and ultimately build holistic portfolios that offer enhanced return and income opportunities.”
Today’s launch on iCapital Marketplace follows a highly successful six-month beta phase with over 300 wealth managers, including more than 150 RIA firms. Additionally, iCapital announced the strategic relationship with Morningstar last month, and through this integration once completed, more than 170,000 advisors can subscribe to Architect through Morningstar Advisor Workstation.
“Our goal is to make alternative assets available to all for whom the assets are suitable and appropriate because we believe that advisors and clients can benefit from exposure to these asset classes. But expanding access requires a comprehensive platform that optimizes the process with the right technology, and a richer set of portfolio analytics tools and data. Architect is an important part of that equation, and helps advisors analyze and explain how the inclusion of alternative strategies can diversify and strengthen client portfolios,” Mr. Calcano added.
Advisors who took part in the beta phase said it helped elevate the investment experience and better align with client objectives. The analysis allowed advisors to evaluate a potential asset allocation in terms of the opportunity for returns, liquidity, ability to protect from downside, the simplicity or complexity of the asset’s structure, along with a historical evaluation of asset performance.
For more information about iCapital Architect, visit https://architect.icapital.com.
About iCapital
iCapital1 powers the world’s alternative investment marketplace offering a complete suite of tools, end-to-end enterprise solutions, and an innovative operating system. iCapital is the trusted technology partner to independent financial advisors, wealth managers, and asset managers, offering unrivaled access, technology, and education to incorporate alternative assets into the core portfolio strategies for their clients.
At the forefront of the digital transformation in alternative investing, iCapital’s secure platform delivers a complete portfolio of management capabilities for education, transactions, data flows, analytics, and client support throughout the investment lifecycle. With $1762 billion in global platform assets, the iCapital operating system automates and streamlines the complex process of private market investing and seamlessly integrates with clients’ existing infrastructure platform and tools.
iCapital employs more than 1200 people globally, and has 13 offices worldwide including New York, Greenwich, Zurich, Lisbon, London, Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo, and Toronto.
For more information, visit https://icapital.com.
1. iCapital, Inc. together with its affiliates, “iCapital”
2. As of December 31, 2023
