CAIS Announces Rapid Advisor Adoption for New Learning Platform

Distributed by Business Wire
13th August 2020

CAIS IQ is driving education of alternative investments, CE credits for Financial Advisors Everywhere

NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–CAIS, the industry-leading alternative investment platform, today announced growth and momentum for CAIS IQ, the company’s modern learning system for financial advisors, that helps them learn faster, remember longer and enhance client outcomes.

CAIS IQ combines artificial intelligence with peer-reviewed learning science that’s proven to work on web and mobile.

“CAIS IQ helps financial advisors get smart on what they need to know in just minutes a day,” said CAIS Founder and CEO Matthew Brown. “The system actively helps advisors learn faster and retain knowledge. We’re enormously proud to be leading the industry with education and help financial advisors drive enhanced client outcomes.”

This video explains the vision behind CAIS IQ and shows the system in action. CAIS IQ was announced to the industry in Q4 of 2019 and was made generally available in Q2 of this year.

By The Numbers

Since launching in June 2020 CAIS IQ has been rolled out to more than 9,000 financial advisors.

Overall, 56% of advisors active in CAIS IQ engage frequently to learn about alternative investments and to earn CE credits for both CIMA® and CFP®. All CAIS IQ content has been exclusively developed in collaboration with third-party industry leaders, including Mercer. Over the past sixty days, it has taken users an average of just 10 minutes a day to establish a base knowledge, as determined by CAIS IQ, of the Fundamentals of Alternative Investments.

“CAIS IQ is modular, mobile, and works best in short bursts. Our mobile CAIS IQ learners are spending 24% less time than our web-based learners and are achieving a 56% higher rate of mastery,” said Chief Innovation Officer Andrew Smith Lewis. “This parallels research findings that mobile is a superior way to engage, and that little and often is the recipe for driving effective and lasting learning. Many don’t have the time these days to consume whitepaper after whitepaper, especially when clients are calling,” Smith Lewis continued. “With CAIS IQ, you can cover more ground in-between meetings and on the fly than you can with traditional educational 1.0 approaches.”

Since June, CAIS IQ has launched over 40 courses covering not only the basics of alternative investments but dozens of specific products and product types as well. The most popular courses on CAIS IQ are:

Fundamentals of Alternative Investments (72% of active users)
Fundamentals of Private Credit (65% of active users)
Fundamentals of Hedge Funds (62% of active users)

CAIS IQ’s machine learning algorithms track ‘time to grasp,’ a metric of return-on-learning that demonstrates the value of the system’s adaptive approach.

Private Equity was the easiest Asset Class to grasp since June, with learners requiring an average of 49 seconds per item; Digital Assets was the hardest Asset Class to grasp, with learners requiring an average of 2 minutes and 5 seconds per item.

Leading With Learning

In these challenging times, CAIS IQ seeks to ensure that advisors retain access to fund managers, industry experts and thought leaders. Advisors can not only see and hear directly from fund managers but also earn CE credits¹ from the safety of their homes. CAIS believes that empowering advisors with relevant and timely knowledge about alternative asset classes, products and strategies for implementation is critical. CAIS IQ was designed to help advisors both protect and enhance their clients’ portfolios.

The breadth of content offered by CAIS IQ has expanded rapidly into a variety of formats to accommodate the varying learning preferences of advisors. Most recently, CAIS IQ launched the “200 from Zero” visual podcast series that features renowned credit investor Marc Lasry CEO and Founder of Avenue Capital, talking about credit and distress opportunities arising from the pandemic and recent market dislocations.

“CAIS IQ is a gamechanger for education. Equipping our financial advisors with the best tools and resources is a top priority,” said Tim Maurer, Director of Advisor Development at Buckingham Strategic Wealth, LLC. “At Buckingham, a higher level of complexity requires a higher level of experience. CAIS IQ is a powerful learning system, empowering advisors to solve the unique needs of our clients because it is intuitive and quite simply, it just works.”

The CAIS platform surpassed $10.1 billion in transaction volume in Q2, with volume up 28% YoY. Over $1.1 billion in transactions have taken place in 2020 alone, representing a 16% increase YoY.

CAIS now supports more than 3,200 unique advisor firms/teams, who collectively oversee more than $1.2T in assets. More than 100 alternative investment funds and products across six categories are available today on the CAIS platform, including hedge funds, private equity, private real estate, private credit, structured notes, and digital assets.

“Many of the most effective advisors in the world use CAIS IQ to stay relevant 24/7,” said CAIS Founder and CEO, Matt Brown. “Our modern learning system for advisors powers extraordinary client conversations. If you’re not talking to your clients about alts, someone else probably is.”

To get started with CAIS IQ, please visit www.caisgroup.com/learn

About CAIS

CAIS is the leading alternative investment platform for financial advisors who seek improved access to and education about alternative investment funds and products.

CAIS provides financial advisors with a broad selection of alternative investment strategies including, hedge funds, private equity, private credit, real estate and structured notes, allowing them to capitalize on opportunities and/or withstand ever-changing markets. Additionally, CAIS provides an industry leading learning system, CAIS IQ, that helps advisors learn faster, remember longer and improve client outcomes.

All funds listed on CAIS undergo Mercer’s independent due diligence and ongoing monitoring. Mercer diligence reports and fund ratings are available to advisors on the CAIS password protected platform. CAIS streamlines the end-to-end transaction process through digital subscriptions and integrated reporting with Fidelity, Schwab and Pershing, making investing in alternatives simple.

Founded in 2009, CAIS, a fintech leader, is empowering wealth management by leveling the playing field for financial advisors everywhere.

Securities offered through CAIS Capital LLC, member FINRA, SIPC.

*The following courses have been accepted for continuing education by the Investment & Wealth Institute (CIMA) and CFP Board (CFP) – Fundamentals of Alternatives, Fundamentals of Private Equity, Fundamentals of Private Credit, Fundamentals of Real Estate, Overview of Opportunity Zones, Fundamentals of Digital Assets, Alternative Investments in the Age of COVID-19, Fundamentals of Structured Products.