New York City-based alternative investments specialist CAIS Group said Monday that it launched CAIS Models Marketplace, which is designed to streamline access to alternative investment model portfolios. The new marketplace lets wealth management firms host and access multi-asset and multi-manager alts models, according to the firm.
The models “already launched for a subset of platform clients and will be rolling out to broader network in the coming weeks,” Neil Blundell, Chief Investment Officer at CAIS Advisors and Head of Investments at CAIS, told WSR on Monday. “CAIS Models Marketplace is available to registered investment advisors and home offices to streamline access to alternative investment model portfolios.”
“Designing, implementing, and managing portfolios that include alternatives has historically been a time-intensive and complex process.”
– Neil Blundell
“Designing, implementing, and managing portfolios that include alternatives has historically been a time-intensive and complex process,” Blundell said in a news release. “We are thrilled to enhance our platform capabilities to help with these challenges and provide financial advisors another pathway to integrate alternatives with a suite of alternative investment model portfolios.”
Three Configurations
CAIS Models Marketplace offers three multi-asset and multi-manager model portfolio configurations:
Wealth firm model portfolios: Investment models developed by wealth management firms, tailored to clients’ goals and portfolio needs.
Asset manager model portfolios: Investment models developed by alts managers that provide an additional way to access their funds, initially including single-manager, multi-asset model portfolios from Ares Management, BlackRock, Blue Owl, Carlyle, Franklin Templeton and KKR, with plans to add more managers.
CAIS advisors models: Multi-asset, multi-manager model portfolios developed by CAIS Advisors that feature alts available on the CAIS Marketplace, which will launch in the second quarter.
The Models Marketplace is integrated with CAIS Compass, a portfolio construction tool that analyzes how alternative investments may impact portfolio characteristics, including the impact of model portfolio target asset class weights on risk and return. CAIS Compass also provides AI-driven summaries.
Underscoring the demand for such a platform, CAIS pointed to its 2025 CAIS and Mercer Survey, in which 77% of advisors said they would use or consider model portfolios to streamline allocations, and 47% said that model portfolios are a key resource for portfolio construction.
CAIS serves over 2,000 firms with over 50,000 financial advisors who oversee about $6 trillion in client assets, the firm said.
In January, CAIS said in a Form ADV filing that it would launch a fund tracking the sports and entertainment realm: the CAIS Sports, Media, and Entertainment Fund.
Jeff Berman, Contributing Editor and Reporter at Wealth Solutions Report, can be reached at jeff.berman@wealthsolutionsreport.com.
