Wealth Advisor Magazine - Sep/Oct 2025 - Magazine - Page 20
Rethinking
Alternatives:
Scaling the Next Generation
of Diversi cation
Alternative investments are no longer a niche play. For today’s forward-looking
advisor, “alts” have become essential tools in portfolio construction—and the
appetite for them is only growing. Platform pioneers talk shop.
BYMADELINEGARFINKLE
FROMPRIVATEEQUITY
and credit to semiliquid interval
funds, alternative ETFs and even less conventional plays like crypto
or aircraft leasing, a wider range of strategies is now on the table. But
with that expansion comes complexity: education gaps, operational
hurdles and client-speci c considerations that advisors must navigate
carefully. Across the industry, leading platforms are stepping up to
meet this moment, building out infrastructure to make alternatives
more accessible, actionable and scalable.
Whether through fully integrated
UMA portfolios, streamlined fund
selection tools or robust due diligence
engines, these solutions aim to help
advisors harness alternatives without
compromising on customization, compliance or client experience.
“Alternatives is a hot topic within the
advisor community today for a number
of reasons,” says Michael Maroon, Managing Partner at GLASfunds. “Advisors
are allocating more to alternative funds
20|SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2025
and in larger volumes. But there’s an
education curve that comes with that.”
THE DEMAND IS REAL—AND SO IS
THE OPERATIONAL CHALLENGE
Maroon’s point speaks to what many
advisors feel: growing client interest
in alts paired with uncertainty about
how to implement them. Alts require
nuanced planning, a deep understanding
of liquidity and duration and—critically—an ef cient back of ce.
“An advisor’s value-add is a unique
offering for each client, and alts should
be no different,” says Maroon. At
GLASfunds, he and his team are trying
to remove the friction from the entire
process, offering a platform that helps
advisors assess client readiness, simplify
fund selection and remove paperwork
headaches. “Ultimately, you can learn as
much as you want to learn about alternatives, but if it’s not actionable for a client
portfolio, then there really is no bene t.”
That scalability piece is the cornerstone of several new enterprise-level
alts initiatives working to meet advisors
where they are—and help them go further. Envestnet, long known for its open
architecture and UMA leadership, has
rolled out a major expansion of its alternatives platform in 2025. That includes
professionally managed model portfolios
with built-in allocations to semiliquid
CONTINUEDONPAGE22
TheWealthAdvisor.com
