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Synergy25 Live - Episode 4 - Exploring the Future of Alternative Investments with Scott McSweeney, Vice President of Platform Partnerships at iCapital
28 Plays8 days ago
Even with more access to alternative investments than ever before, only about half of financial advisors are currently incorporating them into client portfolios1.
In this episode, Bill Coppel, Director of Client Growth at TradePMR, and Ryan Neal, Senior Editor at TradePMR, sit down with Scott McSweeney, Vice President of Platform Partnerships at iCapital, to discuss the shifting alternative investment landscape and the new opportunities it’s creating for RIAs.
Listen as they explore:
● What is changing in the world of alternative investments
● iCapital’s new integration with TradePMR’s Fusion
● What tools and resources are available to educate advisors
1The Cerulli Report: U.S. Exchange-Traded Fund Markets 2024. Cerulli Associates, 2024.
Alternative investments are complex, costly, and risky, with potential for total principal loss. They have less regulatory oversight, fewer legal protections, may lack a secondary market, and are illiquid. If you want to join the conversation or connect with us, please visit us at synergizepodcast.com. This content is provided for general information purposes only.The views expressed by non-affiliated guest speakers are their own and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of TradePMR or its affiliates. TradePMR and its affiliates do not endorse any guest speakers or their companies and therefore give no assurances as to the quality of their products and services. This channel is not monitored by TradePMR. TradePMR does not provide investment advice, tax advice or legal advice. TradePMR is a member of FINRA and SIPC. TradePMR, Inc. is registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission {SEC) and the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB). TradePMR provides brokerage and account services to registered investment advisors. Custodial services provided by First Clearing. Clearing is a trade name used by Wells Fargo Clearing Services, LLC, Member SIPC, a registered broker dealer and non-bank affiliate of Wells Fargo & Company. Copyright 2025. TradePMR, Inc. For a transcript of this episode with sources, visit synergizepodcast.com.
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Transcript
Introduction and Synergy 2025 Conference
00:00:05
Speaker
Hi, I'm Bill Capelle, Chief Client Growth Officer at TradePMR, a Robinhood company. And I'm Ryan Neal, Senior Editor at TradePMR slash Robinhood. And welcome to the Synergize Live podcast.
00:00:18
Speaker
And live is right. Here we are at the JW Marriott in Tampa for the TradePMR Synergy 2025 conference.
iCapital's Role and Integration
00:00:27
Speaker
And we had a chance to sit down with Scott McSweeney of iCapital.
00:00:31
Speaker
iCapital is one of our marquee sponsors here for this event. And I want to say that we're fresh off an integration at Trey PMR with iCapital. All right, iCapital is here at Synergy talking about the growing demand for alternative investments and some of those changing client needs.
00:00:48
Speaker
So we wanted to share some of those insights with those of you who weren't able to attend Synergy here on our podcast.
State of Alternative Investments
00:00:54
Speaker
A little more about Scott. He's vice president of platform partnerships at iCapital, a digital alternative investment marketplace.
00:01:03
Speaker
So Scott, thanks for joining us. Thanks for having me. It's really exciting to be here. ah The energy here is great. You know, this is the first full day of the conference and I've had a lot of great conversations with advisors and seen a lot of great content from Robinhood and from TradePMR. So really excited for this. Thanks.
00:01:18
Speaker
So let me start in right off the bat, Scott, with this question. um and want to send little bit of context here for our listeners. What's happening in the alternative investment world and ah how do you see this becoming a major force within the ah RIA space? Sure, thanks Bill. it's ah It's a great way to set the stage and You know, for me, being at iCapital, it's a really exciting time in the alternative investments industry and in the investments industry in general, right?
00:01:48
Speaker
um For alt specifically, there's, everyone knows that IPOs are down, right? The most innovative companies, the fastest growing companies um are staying private, right? So in order to access that growth and that opportunity, you really need to look at the at at the private markets to to capture some of that.
00:02:04
Speaker
Whereas in the past, you know, these companies would IPO, that's not really happening as much anymore. um And we also know that private companies aren't subject to the short-term pressures of the market. So they tend to take a longer view and over the long term ah grow a lot faster, right?
Demand and Technology in Alternative Investments
00:02:18
Speaker
um on On the private equity, or I'm sorry, on the private credit side, banks are stepping away from being those direct lenders and there are firms that have the expertise to end those relationships, to to make those loans to companies.
00:02:30
Speaker
um And the yields that that we're seeing in in private credit tend to be, you know, higher and more reliable sometimes than than what we're seeing in the in the public bond market, especially these days, right? um Not to mention, you know, where look we' we've had a period of long growth, but a lot of people might think that a recession is coming and there's opportunities in the private markets to to hedge against that.
00:02:52
Speaker
We have hedge fund opportunities on our platform and infrastructure is seen as a really recession resistant section of of the market. um There's a lot of different pockets of the alternative investment space that we're really excited to make available to to advisors on TradePMR.
00:03:06
Speaker
um And finally, we view technology as the great equalizer. Giving access to more advisors, streamlining the alternative investment process, that's really why iCapital exists, and that's what I'm really excited to talk more about today. I want to get into that a little bit later. Ryan,
00:03:21
Speaker
Yeah, so you talked a little bit about ah you know markets and and things going on right now, but can you expand on that? like Why now? Why is now the time for advisors and the the investors that they serve to start considering alternatives? Yeah, sure, Ryan. So you know some of the things I just talked about, right, like but there's more growth.
00:03:38
Speaker
ah There tends to be more growth and on the private side. There's some more opportunities on on the private side to diversify portfolios. um I think I look at it it and and I think I capital and not always looks at it as, you know, we're a two sided marketplace. so I'll start with, you know, kind of the buy side, the demand side, the, the, the the wealth side, the advisor side, um, clients are are coming with more awareness of private equity opportunities, you know, private credit they're hearing about in the news.
00:04:03
Speaker
Um, they want access, right? So advisors, you know, i was just reading a, uh, Cerule study only about half of advisors today actually have alternative investments in client portfolios, but many, many more are looking to add to that allocation in in the coming few years.
00:04:20
Speaker
um So it's ah there's a lot of great tailwinds for from from the demand side, right? On the supply side, on the asset manager side, they're coming out with a lot more structures to appeal to ah more advisors and more investors. Minimums are coming down, liquidity is going up, right? So there's things like ah interval funds, tender offer funds that are making it you know easier for investors for clients to get money in and out of these funds that weren't really there as as much or as accessible before.
00:04:49
Speaker
um So, you know, from both sides of the market, we're seeing a lot of great, like I said, tailwinds for the industry that we're really excited about.
iCapital's Platform Offerings
00:04:55
Speaker
Well, I want to drill down a minute on iCapital little bit deeper. You have been a a leader in, let's call it the democratization of access, if you will. Yeah, sure.
00:05:06
Speaker
We love that phrase, yeah. Two alternatives. But take a moment to share with our listeners what exactly are is available on the iCapital platform. Sure. So right now we have our marketplace, our flagship platform integrated with TradePMR.
00:05:22
Speaker
on there as of today and in in May 2025. And when you're listening to this, it's going to be the number is going to be a lot higher. But as of today, there's almost 300 private investment opportunities listed on our marketplace.
00:05:34
Speaker
um That is across domestic and offshore. That's across feeder funds that iCapital structures and and creates alongside our our asset manager partners and direct fund offerings that we just list um directly, i I should say.
00:05:48
Speaker
um And there's the most well-known asset managers in the industry, all the way down to very niche and specialized managers that have something really unique and differentiated that we have on our platform. um That breaks down across asset classes, private equity.
00:06:01
Speaker
So, you know, your traditional private equity where you're doing venture capital all the way into, you know, sector specific like tech and and sports um and secondary offerings to take advantage of, you know, some of the um shifts that we're seeing where some of the holders of private equity have to sell and there ares secondary funds that are well positioned to kind of snap up some of those opportunities.
00:06:19
Speaker
um On the private credit side, you know, those are those are companies that specialize in and making loans to to other businesses, right? B2B lending. um We have strategies that kind of run the gamut across ah different risk profiles and and different sectors there.
00:06:34
Speaker
um Hedge funds is is another great segment there. So we we work with some of the top hedge fund managers um to offer things like multi-strategy funds, long, short, traditional, all that good stuff. That's kind of my background. So I've i've always partial to that one.
00:06:47
Speaker
um Within the real asset space, real estate and you know REITs is obviously the most well-known, but there's infrastructure funds and exchange funds for clients that have um properties that they can actually exchange to get into a REIT structure based on holding a real asset to to come in. So there's a lot of um different structures there.
00:07:06
Speaker
And the thing I'm most excited about that we are starting to roll out over the last year is our model portfolios. So these are collections of four or five individual funds that you can initiate an investment in on our platform with one click using our multi-investment workflow.
00:07:19
Speaker
um And it's kind of like a pre-canned, almost an easy button allocation for an advisor to get started um with a private market allocation and in a client portfolio. What's the minimums on those? So the minimums vary, right? And like I said before, there's different structures that are coming out where the minimums are coming down.
00:07:34
Speaker
In some cases, as low as $2,500. Wow. Right? so but it's a big difference yeah so but i mean More commonly, you're seeing minimums you know a little bit higher, tens of thousands, and we have some you know yeah funds for qualified purchasers that obviously go up even higher. But um on our model portfolios, we we view those as a way for advisors to start to allocate you know some small percentage, five, maybe 10%.
Support for Advisors: Educational Resources and Tools
00:07:56
Speaker
um And for for a minimum there, we're trying to structure it where we have funds in there where the minimums combined for a million-dollar portfolio, you might need 100, 200,000, 250 get started there. Yeah, before I throw it back to Ryan, I have one more question I wanted to go down on, which is due diligence. One of the challenges in the alternative investment space has always been due diligence.
00:08:19
Speaker
um Tell us about what you do as a company yeah to screen product that comes on. It doesn't absolve the actual and advisor yeah from that responsibility, but I think you'd give us a pretty good leg up, if I'm not mistaken. That's the whole idea, right? So we we want to give advisors tools to make the best decision for their clients, right? We're not making investment recommendations, obviously, but but we are giving advisors the tools that they need to ah research, get educated on on not just the asset classes at the high level, private equity, private credit, we have educational modules for those, but then fund-specific education as well. So when you log into our marketplace right at the top,
00:08:55
Speaker
we kind of divide the world into um learn, invest, and and manage. So on the learn side, everything pre-trade, you have your educational courses. We have some that are um developed with the Kaya Association. They account for continuing education for advisors even.
00:09:10
Speaker
um And some firms that work with us actually mandate their advisors take that training before they can invest. um We also have our in-house research team. So this is one of the things that we're really proud of and one of our differentiators with some of our competitors where we have all of our research and diligence in-house. And we we tag funds on our platform where we're publishing those research reports and we make those available for advisors to download right from the the digital fund profile that we offer.
00:09:35
Speaker
um We also have Architect, a tool we we're really proud of that we rolled out last year as well, um which is an analytical tool where advisors can upload ah a portfolio or take a sample and then kind of compare A to B.
00:09:47
Speaker
you You have your starting portfolio. If you add alts, what does it look like? How does it look like it across different scenarios? How does it look like in terms of matching a client's risk profile? um So we really try to, like I said, give advisors as many tools as we can on top of our market insights, our white papers, um and kind of our general market commentary that that we also come out with.
00:10:05
Speaker
Right, because I remember my days as a reporter, ah hearing from, you know talking to companies like iCapital and talking to advisors that education is one of the hardest parts, right? Yeah. Is informing advisors about the products that are available and and how they can work ah into their portfolios. And so that's a ah big part of what you guys do, right, is the that education component. Yeah, absolutely. And that's, you know, like we we we say, it always starts with education because we want, we know plenty of advisors, plenty of investors, you know, haven't traditionally allocated to alternatives.
00:10:35
Speaker
aren't as familiar and they need the confidence to say, this is the right investment for my client. It matches their risk profile. um It matches the rest of the portfolio and and fits really well.
00:10:46
Speaker
so we're trying to give as many tools and and as as many options as we can to advisors to to make those decisions that benefit their
Simplifying the Investment Process
00:10:51
Speaker
clients. Right. So something I want to ask about, you and you touched on this a little bit, um and I know that the that you know these are more complex investments. And traditionally, it could be difficult to access them and and difficult to even get advisors on board with some of them.
00:11:06
Speaker
And so a big part of what you guys do is ah just streamlining that access. um So do you want to talk about that a little bit? i know you touched on earlier, but what is iCapital doing to make it easier for advisors and their clients to to to get access to alternatives? sure Sure.
00:11:23
Speaker
So once you've kind of made a decision and and picked a fund that you want to invest in as an advisor, um the next step really is is creating that investment and using our fully digital subscription workflow.
00:11:34
Speaker
So what that does is it lets you create a client profile. You can link the client's custodian. Obviously Trade PMR is, you know, we're we' we're here because we just rolled out the integration there. yeah um But we we work with lots of the you know major custodians across the space.
00:11:50
Speaker
um And we kind of have our digital subscription workflow, right? So everything is is done through DocuSign. So you'll put in you know how much you're going to allocate, um fill in some basic info about the advisor, and then that'll populate a DocuSign packet that goes out to the investor for them to execute um with their information prefilled.
00:12:09
Speaker
Makes it, you know, obviously, It's not as simple as clicking buy on a brokerage account and an order gets sent out, but we're trying to take as much friction of it out of the process as we can to make it as simple as possible for advisors and and for investors. And we're continuing to invest more and more to keep keep going on that journey to make it you know as as efficient as possible. yeah yeah You know, we know that alternative investments are not all the same, as you've pointed out. Yeah. And they have complexities and uniqueness uniqueness to them.
00:12:39
Speaker
ah It's not a one and done like buying a mutual fund or a stock or a bond. yeah it It has a half life, you will. Yeah, well for sure. so talk to our listeners about what you do to support advisors after the initial purchase is made.
00:12:52
Speaker
Sure. So when you submit an order... Then, you know i kind of broke it down earlier, we have you know learn pre-trade, invest during the trade, and our managed kind of capabilities is everything you know post the that initial allocation.
00:13:05
Speaker
um We have our subscription workflow that'll show the advisor every step of the way from document execution through legal review by all the service providers and everyone that needs to review those documents. If anything gets kicked back, we have workflows on our platform that will alert the advisor that's the case and then direct them to how to take action, whether it's uploading a new driver's license for your investor because the one you uploaded was was expired or you checked the wrong box on the form, go go fix the form. So we kind of guide them through how to remediate anything that might be amiss with a given order.
00:13:40
Speaker
um Once it's completed, we also have support for you know the life cycle of the fund, to your point. So capital calls, we'll send out notices, we'll make sure that you know exactly when when and how much money is is expected and make sure that the wire is is set up to to wire the money over.
00:13:54
Speaker
um And certainly transfers and redemptions, we have a whole team of um humans that actually help help advisors through our investor relations group and and other teams for advisor support, both with existing investments and then also sales support if they want to get into something new. A future opportunity for AI at some point, I imagine. We're definitely looking into how AI can kind of bolster that, but you know, and I'm curious for maybe maybe for your take on this, but i think advisors will always want some level of human support, right, to be told, okay, this is how you're going to work with this, this is how it's going to look.
00:14:26
Speaker
um I think AI can help, but I think we in our industry, AI is you know not a full substitute for for the human touch, which which we still continue to
Post-Investment Support for Advisors
00:14:34
Speaker
invest in as well. Oh, without a doubt. And I assume that includes tax documents in the back end of all that. Yes, we have support for all the documents. So when a new document gets posted, the advisor gets alerted. We have a document center where they can view all documents for all of their clients across their entire book with us.
00:14:48
Speaker
And then we also have integrations um with some of our reporting partners where, because you know i'm I'm under no illusion that advisors want to spend all their time on iCapital, right? They have um traditional assets, public assets that're that they're holding elsewhere that they're doing their reporting elsewhere.
00:15:02
Speaker
We also try to make it as easy as possible for them to get their data out of iCapital, link it up with where the rest of their portfolio lives, and they can do billing, reporting, all that good stuff on their platform of choice. Great. Well, Ryan, why don't you wrap this up?
00:15:14
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, just like Wright, we always say that we're not trying to replace advisors with technology. Clients still want that human relationship. yeah Advisors want it too, right? Advisors still want to talk to people just like their clients do.
00:15:25
Speaker
ah but yeah, I'm going to and wrap up our conversation. I'm sure we can talk about alts for hours here, ah but we've only got a few minutes. So I guess to wrap things up, for any of our listeners out there, if they want to get started with alts and trade PMR today or tomorrow, whenever they hear this, ah where should they get started? Sure. So, I mean, the the first thing I'll mention, which is my favorite part when I talk about iCapital, is that it's it's free for advisors to use. So there's no cost to sign up on our platform and and get started and at least see what we have to offer.
00:15:51
Speaker
um When you're talking about through TradePMR, we're really excited about this new integration, like I mentioned. And it's actually a tri-party integration with Inspira, who TradePMR has contracted to actually handle their alt custody, right?
00:16:03
Speaker
So, um and TradePMR is publishing resources for this for advisors. You can go on their on their website um within the Fusion platform. There's a lot of great documentation on step-by-step how to get started. But really what it is is you create an account on Inspira.
00:16:17
Speaker
You get one-click access from TradePMR into iCapital. You can... shop around the investments, like I said, do your education, do your diligence. When you start an investment, um there will be a dropdown where you can say which custodian your client uses.
00:16:31
Speaker
You choose Inspira from that list, you put in the account number that you opened, and then that gets flowed down into the Inspira private placement document that gets automatically appended to the DocuSign that your client gets.
00:16:45
Speaker
So it's all, you know, like i said, there's still some complexity because it is the private markets, but we're trying to make it as integrated as possible. um So, like I said, start in Trade PMR, make your Inspire account, come over to iCapital.
00:16:56
Speaker
If you have an account with us, you'll get logged in. If not, you'll get prompted to register, with us and our registration team will kind of follow up with you from there, and then you're off to the races.
Free Access and Integration Process
00:17:04
Speaker
So just to be clear, shameless plug, it starts with coming to Trade PMR to set it up. 100%. That's why we're here, and that's ah why we wanted to work with work with Trade PMR, to you know access those advisors and and give them these opportunities. Great. But it all starts there.
Closing Remarks and Sponsorship Messages
00:17:18
Speaker
Fantastic. Well, Scott, thank you so much for ah for joining us here at the Synergize podcast. My pleasure. Thanks for having me. And we hope you enjoyed today's conversation. um If you like what you heard, ahead and take a moment to like, subscribe, follow us, share, all those great digital things. It helps the algorithm get our get our message out there. So we appreciate it. And thanks for listening.
00:17:39
Speaker
I'd also like to extend my thanks. Having been an advisor for many years and struggling with alternatives, it's great that iCapital is here and we really appreciate everything you're doing. Thanks, Bill. Appreciate that. And to our listeners, I want to say thank you as well.
00:17:52
Speaker
And please look for our next episode where we'll share more insights and innovations to help you grow your business. And remember, the challenge is yours to take advantage of the opportunity that the future holds.
00:18:06
Speaker
This special episode of the Synergize podcast was sponsored by Built for efficiency, designed for opportunity. AdviseOn is a transformative all-in-one platform that helps simplify advisor tech and modernizes the way you connect with clients.
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Speaker
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Speaker
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Speaker
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00:20:29
Speaker
Please contact the provider for information about their terms and conditions as well as any fees that may apply.
00:20:42
Speaker
If you want to join the conversation or connect with us, please visit us at synergizedpodcast.com. This content is provided for general information purposes only. The views expressed by non-affiliated guest speakers are their own and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of Trade PMR or its affiliates.
00:21:00
Speaker
Trade PMR and its affiliates do not endorse any guest speakers or their companies and therefore give no assurances as to the quality of their products and services. This channel is not monitored by Trade PMR. Trade PMR does not provide investment advice, tax advice, or legal advice.
00:21:16
Speaker
Trade PMR is a member of FINRA and SIPC. Trade PMR Inc. is registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission s se and the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board. msrb Trade PMR provides brokerage and account services to registered investment advisors. Custodial services provided by First Clearing.
00:21:34
Speaker
First Clearing is a trade name used by Wells Fargo Clearing Services, LLC. Member SIPC, a registered broker dealer and non-bank affiliate of Wells Fargo and Company. Copyright 2025, Trade PMR Inc. For a transcript of this episode with sources, visit synergizedpodcast.com.