FPA Teams With CAIA to Help Advisors Look Beyond Stocks and Bonds

The Financial Planning Association and Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst Association have teamed up on an initiative designed to make it easier for advisors to offer their clients alternative investments, the groups said Tuesday.

As part of the initiative, the UniFi by CAIA specialized learning platform for advisors and other professionals across the private wealth management industry is now available to all FPA members at a discount, they said.

UniFi was “built to meet the needs of client- and advisor-facing professionals in asset and wealth management” and “provide access to essential educational materials as they work to stay ahead of the fast-moving and rapidly-expanding alternative investment universe,” the organizations said in a news release.

Private debt and digital assets microcredentials are now available and “many more offerings and enhancements [are] in the pipeline for 2H 2023 and beyond,” they said.

This year alone, UniFi by CAIA added microcredentials focused on private debt and digital assets, respectively, with “more in the works in the months to come, along with a series of forthcoming enhancements to its Fundamentals of Alternative Investments certificate program,” the organizations noted.

CCAIA looks forward to helping FPA members “stay ahead of the latest trends and developments across the full spectrum of alternative investments,” Aaron Filbeck, CAIA managing director and head of UniFi by CAI, said in a statement.

The partnership also follows the recent release of the latest iteration of FPA’s annual Trends in Investing Survey report, which it said revealed a growing interest among financial professionals in putting alternative approaches to work in client portfolios.

This year’s survey revealed that 28% of investment professionals actively invest in or search for alternative investments that meet the needs of their clients, according to FPA. In comparison, just 30% are familiar with alternative investments but don’t plan to invest in them or recommend them to their clients.