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iCapital, a leading global fintech platform, announced today that it agreed to acquire UBS Fund Advisor LLC, UBS’s legacy proprietary US alternative investment manager. The agreement also includes the feeder fund platform that UBS manages. The platform, which is also referred to as “AlphaKeys Funds,” represents more than $7 billion in client assets. It includes private equity, hedge fund, and real estate feeder funds. iCapital will now manage and operate the platform, while UBS Financial Advisors continue to serve their high and ultra-high net worth clients that hold feeder funds. UBS became an investor in iCapital in 2017 and entered into a strategic relationship to structure new feeder funds going forward. It also integrated iCapital’s proprietary technology into its private fund operations. In 2021, the partnership was enhanced to further digitize the UBS Advisor experience. The transaction is expected to close sometime this year.

Finsum:iCapital, which has had a long-standing relationship with UBS, is acquiring its Alternative Investments Feeder Fund Platform which represents more than $7 billion in client assets.

There are several threats that are targeting portfolios right now in terms of volatility. The first is inflation, and investors need to make considerations like planning ahead for the near term for big financial costs. Advisors can also help investors with rising interest rates. Rising interest rates mean variable debt will become more costly so more payments are better in the short run, and locking in fixed rates could be smart before yields climb too high. Finally, concerning general volatility due to slowing growth, it really depends on demographics. For young investors, advisors should steer them through market difficulty by bringing their experience with it previously. For more seasoned investors nearer to retirement, investors should consider pivoting to safer assets in order to avoid sharp losses in market swings.

Finsum: There are intricate strategies or specific funds to help in terms of volatility that advisors should consider.

Model portfolios have been a hot topic with advisors and asset managers over the last couple years. Models tend to have nice benefits for both advisors and fund providers as they save advisors time gather up assets for managers. To back this up a new survey by Escalent shows that models are growing in popularity. Models are growing in number and in assets but they are primarily expanding among a small group of advisor power users. 4 out of 5 advisors say they don’t plan to expand their model use in the near term. The power users on the other hand say they love models because they free up their time to grow their client base and spend time on other planning.

FINSUM: Models are a major opportunity for advisors since they can outsource a very time consuming task—portfolio construction—thus freeing time and capacity to take on more clients.

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