Alternative investment platform CAIS has announced that CAIS IQ is supporting independent broker dealers and home offices through its membership and sponsorship of two leading trade associations: the Alternative and Direct Investment Securities Association (ADISA) and Institute for Portfolio Advisors (IPA).
These sponsorships represent CAIS’s commitment to empowering financial advisors with the education they need to allocate to alternative investments.
“We are happy to have CAIS join ADISA as a new member and sponsor as they work to broaden their relationships throughout the broker-dealer community,” says John Harrison, DBA, Executive Director of ADISA. “ADISA prides itself on broadening access to quality alternative investments by facilitating education, relationships and advocacy. As such, we welcome CAIS to our large coalition and look forward to working with them in the coming years.”
The CAIS IQ platform provides independent broker dealer firms with personalised learning and development opportunities on topics ranging from the science of client motivation to courses on strategies, such as private equity, hedge funds and digital assets. In addition, many broker dealer firms have independently elected to use the CAIS IQ platform to meet certain regulatory requirements related to education of their registered representatives. “CAIS IQ provides home offices with the control, oversight, and permissions they need in order to learn about and allocate to alternative investments,” says Andrew Smith Lewis, Chief Innovation Officer at CAIS.
The platform uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to scale proven cognitive science and empower financial advisors to learn faster and remember longer. For each individual advisor, the platform measures the rate of information absorption and knowledge decay, simultaneously calculating the precise moment to review to achieve maximum retention. Users have seen up to 50 per cent reduction in time spent learning through the platform compared to traditional methods of learning.
Most recently, the CAIS IQ Center, a dedicated, interactive community, was launched for the SALT NY conference. The CAIS IQ Center featured a live stream of content from the alternative investment track, relevant videos, articles and CAIS IQ learning courses. The CAIS IQ Center acted as the virtual passport to exclusive interviews with industry leaders, topical investment themes, and curated modules on all things alternatives.
“The IPA has long supported the advancement of fintech solutions and alternative investment education that empower wealth managers to drive better outcomes for main street investors,” says Tony Chereso, President/CEO of the Institute for Portfolio Alternatives. “CAIS has been a driving force behind these critical strategic initiatives and will be valuable thought leader among the IPA Community.”
CAIS IQ recently added rich media formats such as video, webinars, and podcasts to accelerate advisor engagement, resulting in the number of active users increasing by 21 per cent over the last month alone. The platform brings content from industry leaders to independent broker dealers via web and mobile applications designed to deliver durable and usable knowledge. CAIS IQ is modular and works best when consumed in short bursts to accommodate the busy schedules of financial advisors.
“We have found that advisors not only want to learn from industry peers and colleagues, but that they want to learn in different ways and formats than our industry has traditionally offered. By partnering with top independent broker dealers, and truly personalising the learning experience CAIS IQ breaks the paradigm for advisor education,” says Michelle Browning, Business Development Director, CAIS IQ. Browning recently joined the CAIS team to accelerate CAIS IQ’s mission to transform advisor education.
Nearly 20,000 advisors on the CAIS platform have access to CAIS IQ. Since the launch of CAIS IQ in November 2019, active advisors have accumulated more than 5,800 hours and learned over 280,000 financial concepts. Both the Investment Wealth Institute (IWI) and Certified Financial Planner Board (CFP) accept select CAIS IQ courses and webinars for continuing education (CE) credit. CAIS IQ is provided at no charge to registered clients of CAIS, which span RIAs and independent broker dealers across the country.
