MassMutual strikes new alts partnership with CAIS

The financial giant is tapping the leading alternatives provider as it doubles down on support for its advisors.

MassMutual has just taken another step to broaden its advisors’ access to alternative investments.

The life insurance giant announced that financial advisors affiliated with its broker-dealer subsidiary, MML Investors Services, will now have access to the CAIS alternative investment platform.

The new partnership aims to provide advisors with a broader range of alternative investment options as well as enhance the efficiency of investment processes.

“Alternative investment offerings are more important than ever for advisors and their clients,” Vaughn Bowman, head of wealth management at MassMutual said in a statement Wednesday. “By teaming up with industry leaders like CAIS, we are providing more options for advisors to offer clients differentiated investments to complement their traditional portfolios.”

Earlier this month, MassMutual unveiled a partnership with iCapital to offer its advisors streamlined access to alternative investments, structured notes, and annuities.

The CAIS platform delivers an end-to-end technology solution for the pre-trade, trade, and post-trade phases of alternative investing. It offers a wide array of alternative investment strategies, including hedge funds, private equity, private debt, real estate, infrastructure, and structured notes.

The platform also integrates with leading custodians and reporting providers to streamline reporting and document workflow processes.

Drawing from a 2023 survey, a recent report by Cerulli found 98 percent of high-net-worth practices offer consolidated performance reporting, with 31 percent of wealth managers developing it internally to help attract and retain advisors.

“CAIS remains dedicated to supporting the unique needs of the independent wealth channel, leveraging our industry-leading technology and advisor experience teams to streamline the alternative investment lifecycle,” said Matt Brown, founder and CEO at CAIS.

In addition to investment solutions, the partnership grants advisors access to CAIS IQ, an online learning platform designed to enhance advisors’ understanding and confidence in alternative investment strategies.

CAIS has been broadening its platform to reach more advisors over the past few months, with new partnerships including a new relationship with Captrust formed in April and an extension of its longtime alliance with Baird announced the same month.

“As investors continue to embrace alternatives, we are excited to be collaborating with MassMutual to offer a streamlined and customizable investing experience,” Brown said.