Mercer and CAIS have expanded their existing relationship by making Mercer's suite of institutional investment advice, research, products, and tools available through CAIS.

Mercer will continue to provide due diligence and ongoing monitoring for all funds that list on CAIS.

Mercer will provide CAIS member firms thematic portfolio construction guidance, analytic tools, model portfolios, fund and industry research, and ongoing educational resources and support. Additionally, CAIS and Mercer will host a series of alternative investment focused advisor educational sessions globally in 2013.

"With their longstanding commitment to servicing the wealth management industry and over 150 research professionals globally, Mercer's research-driven approach brings advisors a distinct advantage in identifying unique managers and trends across all strategies and regions," says Matthew Brown, CAIS co-founder and chief executive. "This collaboration offers advisors a complete solution, combining industry leading institutional advice with streamlined access and execution."

Mercer has provided investment advice and research to some of the largest and most sophisticated global institutions. Mercer currently advises over USD6trn in assets and actively rates over 7,800 investment strategies. These strategies include long/short equity, multi-strategy, global macro, credit/distressed, merger arbitrage, CTA, relative value, commodities, and event driven across established and emerging markets, in addition to traditional investments.

"CAIS has rapidly become the industry's preferred independent marketplace for alternative investments and we are pleased to bring our deep institutional resources and intellectual capital to CAIS," says Cara Williams (pictured), global head of wealth management at Mercer. "We believe the Mercer-CAIS combined solution will benefit our existing and prospective wealth management clients both in the US and internationally."