Alt Investments
Scaling Up Alternative Investment Solutions For Clients – In Conversation With GLASfunds

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.