With RIAs and other wealth managers knowing that they need to put alternative assets on client menus, a challenge is doing this in a scalable, affordable way.

With a regular drumbeat of noise about how wealth advisors are being urged to increase client access to alternative investments – for example private equity and venture capital – customizing such investments at scale is increasingly important. 

GLASfunds, a Cleveland, Ohio-based alternative investment platform for financial advisors in the US, enables users to mass-customize private market programs for their clients, enabling them to scale up their business offerings. It works with RIAs, private banks and other firms in the US, and some outside the country.

The business recently announced that it was working with Clearstead, a financial advisory firm in the US serving wealthy families and institutions. In May, they unveiled enhancements to Clearstead’s private market investments platform “ClearAccess.” The platform will allow qualified clients to invest in Clearstead selected private market investments through a new client dedicated fund on the GLASfunds platform.

“Part of our growth strategy has been to partner with large, serial allocators in the wealth management space to launch their own GLASfunds infrastructure solution,” James Ouderkirk, director at GLASfunds, told Family Wealth Report in a recent call. “They get their name and branding on a dedicated structure, with all the unique operational and administrative features of GLASfunds – one evergreen subscription, mass customization of alternative holdings by client, low minimums for any investment, one aggregated statement and a single K-1 for taxable clients – but none of the overhead demands to operate the structure [i.e. it’s fully outsourced to GLASfunds]. 

“The result is advisors get to stay in the investment selection and portfolio management business with their end clients, not the fund operations business,” Ouderkirk continued. 

GLASfunds, which was founded in 2008, has more than $4.5 billion of platform assets (including invested capital and unfunded commitments).

An adventure
The alternative investment space is a “brave new world” for a lot of wealth managers, Ouderkirk said. 

The business can offer a legal infrastructure through which an advisor can bring private market assets to clients at scale.

The firm enables users to mass-customize private market programs for their clients, enabling them to scale up their business offerings. This business model gives GLASfunds a ringside seat on what end clients want in their portfolios – and what they’re not so keen about. 

“We see continued appetite for traditional private equity buyouts, in the lower and middle market,” Ouderkirk said. On the other hand, the firm is not seeing big moves into private credit at the moment. 

Interest is showing itself in co-investing and direct deal opportunities. Advisors are taking a more sophisticated approach to how they want to implement strategies, he said. Another area that the firm is looking at is reinsurance-based investment strategy.

The firm is in the process of building a platform to boost opportunities for accredited investors, in the form of a perpetual structure. 

“We are launching a subscription as a service solution for advisors to get clients invested in evergreen, perpetual funds from leading asset management firms. These funds are generally suitable for accredited investors and qualified clients, issue 1099s, and are held directly at the custodians like Schwab, Fidelity, etc,” he said.  

Technology is vital in making this kind of business model work, Ouderkirk said. 

FWR asked whether there are other asset classes in the “alternative” space getting interest?

“We have seen active interest in digital infrastructure/data centers, as well as AI and defense-focused venture capital opportunities. Opportunities for us, or our advisors, to use scale in negotiating enhanced economics as either a stake in GP or revenue share for ‘seeding’ strategies are also getting a lot of attention from advisors,” Ouderkirk said. 

Having no ability to offer access to clients is often a deal-breaker for some clients, so this publication has heard. We asked Ouderkirk whether this is a point he makes to RIAs.

“Yes, having a highly curated and scalable alternatives program is a strategic imperative for advisors who are looking to grow and remain competitive in today’s market. Further, private markets are an underrepresented part of the investment universe for most people and should feature more prominently in portfolios. 

“An important distinction for us versus our competitors is our solution is entirely open architecture (i.e. advisors can bring their own ideas) and we give them that scale execution solution at only $1 million-plus of total client interest (i.e. 20 clients at $50,000 investment sizes). Most feeder fund type providers will need $25 million or more to support this at the same cost structure, so it’s a lot more manageable for smaller firms growing into alternatives,” he said. 

Ouderkirk is bullish for the future.

“We have no reason to believe our business won’t double again in the next 12 to 24 months, especially considering the forthcoming accredited investor solutions. We have seen well over $500 million-plus in new allocations from existing clients in the first few months of 2025, and are just getting started with some large new advisor relationships,” he added.

In November last year, this publication held a summit in Manhattan to discuss family offices's use of alternative assets, and the issues this gives rise to.