Crystal Capital Partners, the operator of an alternative investments platforms for financial advisors and their qualified purchaser (QP) investors, has reported 46 per cent growth in its advisory partnerships since January 2018.
CEI Steven Brod says: “With 25 years of alternative investment experience, it is our ongoing commitment to remove the complexities and barriers to entry associated with alternative investments, and work with a network of willing partners that want to leverage our expertise, technology and infrastructure. We are forever grateful to all of our partners, and fully intend to evolve and flourish with them every step of the way.”
The number of breakaway RIAs soared by 59 per cent from 2012-2017, according to Financial Planning’s Wealth Management Trends to Watch in 2019. The study reveals that nearly 27,000 advisors – 9 per cent of the industry’s more than 310,000 advisors – made the transition to independent firms in 2018, approximately two-thirds of which went fully independent. There is no doubt that the independent movement is only gaining momentum — with no sign of letting up anytime soon.
As this evolution progresses, independent advisors are refashioning themselves as generalists, extending their capabilities to include a robust range of investment offerings, as well as advanced financial planning and lifestyle support. They achieve this by creating a network of outsourced specialists who can help them deliver on a variety of complex strategies, rather than exclusively focusing on a single in-house approach which can be inefficient and costly to modify.
Operating this way is an effective way to deploy comprehensive financial solutions, ensuring that the full range of products and services work cohesively toward the same goals while at the same time eliminating any redundancies in portfolio exposures and fees. This outsourced approach helps independent advisors solve the tedious administrative, operational and managerial tasks associated with running a business.
Crystal’s turn-key solution is designed to address the alternative investment needs of independent advisors as it relates to access, technology, reporting, operations and administration. Which is why over the last 18 months, many independent RIAs, private banks, broker-dealers and multi-family offices have continued to adopt Crystal’s private equity and hedge fund platform. Today, Crystal’s growing community of advisors consists of over 100 independent firms across the United States, who represent over USD100 billion in assets collectively.
Crystal’s team of 20-plus multi-faceted professionals — with diverse backgrounds in finance, technology, sales and marketing — takes a personal and hands-on approach to supporting financial advisors through every step of their alternative investment journey. The platform arms advisors with an experienced team, exposure to 60+ institutional private equity and hedge funds, qualitative and quantitative tools, intelligent portfolio optimisation and rebalancing software, a simple electronic subscription process, consolidated reporting (statements, audits, K-1s), and private label client-facing deliverables. In sum, Crystal provides financial advisors all the services needed to navigate the alternative investment journey.
