Inside WealthTech – from the technology powering the advisor’s stack to the WealthTech companies defining the industry, we deliver the stories and strategies behind smarter advice. Each episode features candid conversations with industry leaders about the technologies, ideas, and partnerships transforming the way advisors serve clients, grow their practices, and redefine financial outcomes.
In this episode, filmed live at Future Proof 2025, Envestnet’s Molly Weiss, Group President, Wealth Management Platform, and Blake Wood, Head of Platform Strategy, speak with Judah Schulman, Managing Director and Head of RIA, Bank and Trust for Alternative Investments at CAIS, an alternative investment platform serving advisors and RIAs.
Advisors believe in alternatives, but still hesitate
Across wealth management, advisor interest in private markets has never been higher. Firms of all sizes are exploring ways to bring non-traditional exposures into their existing planning and portfolio processes.
However, enthusiasm doesn’t always translate into adoption. Many advisors find that the practical steps required to implement alternatives introduce unfamiliar risks, new documentation requirements, and client conversations that feel outside their comfort zone.
This is the backdrop for Schulman’s perspective. The industry has spent years highlighting the benefits of alternatives. The next challenge is helping advisors move from curiosity to confident, repeatable use across their books of business. Education, workflow clarity, and the ability to connect alternatives to everyday portfolio tasks are now central to that shift.
“96% of them said alternatives provide value to our clients. However, 51% of them said they use alternatives.”
Referencing a recent Cerulli study of roughly 2,000 advisors, Schulman underscores a persistent conviction gap. Nearly all advisors recognize the value of alternatives, yet only about half actually allocate to them.
The reasons, he explains, often stem from uncertainty. Some advisors worry about entering product categories they have never used before and how those decisions might affect client relationships. “I’ve never done this before, and should I do it? And what’s it going to mean for my relationship with the clients?”
Education becomes the first lever for closing this gap. Advisors want clarity on structures, liquidity, risk, and the mechanics of implementation. Platforms across the industry have responded by building structured learning tools that help advisors progress at their own pace, while giving home offices a way to set expectations and confirm readiness before allocation.
This emphasis on preparedness aligns with how Envestnet incorporates alternatives into the advisor workflow. By connecting training, curated models, advisor-traded capabilities, and monitoring tools inside a unified system, alternatives can slot more naturally into the same processes advisors already use for traditional assets.
When education and workflow support reinforce each other, alternatives become easier to implement and maintain at scale.
Remove friction by unifying alts within your existing workflows
“It’s not about a transaction, but it’s about a broader allocation.”
Even when advisors understand alternatives, the operational lift can introduce friction. Schulman outlines the typical lifecycle of pre trade research, trade execution, and post trade oversight.
The friction tends to emerge in the middle. As Schulman explains, advisors now manage allocations across larger groups of clients and a wider range of funds, which creates significant data and documentation demands. The administrative process becomes more complex as the number of accounts and investment structures increases.
Technology providers across the ecosystem have focused on automating data flows to reduce that burden. Schulman highlights direct custodial APIs that let advisors pull client information directly from custodians into allocation workflows so hundreds of accounts can be populated more efficiently and with fewer manual steps.
Across integrated advisory platforms, this evolution reflects a growing expectation that alternatives should move through the same plan, proposal, and monitoring lifecycle that supports traditional assets. When workflows are unified, alternatives feel less like an exception and more like a natural part of portfolio construction.
Explore alternative assets in 401(k) plans
“You’re looking at hundreds of basis points of premium that are now potentially being offered to investors that never had that.”
A new frontier emerged in the conversation: the growing possibility of alternatives inside 401(k) plans, in reference to a recent executive order that could open the door for private credit, private real estate, and similar exposures in defined-contribution accounts.
Schulman says he sees it “a fantastic development,” pointing to return potential and diversification through muted volatility and uncorrelated profiles.
He highlights three industry forces shaping this opportunity:
- Policy momentum as advocacy groups push for expanded access.
- Product innovation where traditional and alternative asset managers are creating structures that combine public and private exposures.
- The need for scale which requires platforms across the ecosystem to support public private structures within UMA and model-based architectures.
Schulman notes that pure play private market funds still fit investors who meet eligibility and illiquidity requirements. Public private structures, however, offer a bridge for smaller accounts and retirement savers who want exposure without taking on the full illiquidity burden.
He adds that building these structures into scalable, advisor friendly workflows will require coordination across the industry. As he puts it, “…thinking about the other ecosystem players like Envestnet and others that are thinking about putting these types of public private products into UMAs…” the opportunity hinges on how well platforms can support these models inside unified portfolio environments.
This direction aligns with how alternative ETFs, interval funds, and semi-liquid models are starting to appear in unified advisor workflows. The goal is to let advisors match structure to suitability without having to reinvent their process.
Custodial innovation can power more integration
"The custodial space is this… old guard of a world that’s sort of ripe for disruption and more efficiencies.”
Schulman frames custodial innovation as one of the most consequential, albeit underappreciated, forces shaping the advisor technology ecosystem.
For decades, custodians sat largely in the background of advisor workflows. Today, they’re increasingly central to how data, products, and processes move across the wealth management stack.
As advisor expectations rise, custodians are under growing pressure to modernize how their platforms connect with the broader ecosystem. That pressure isn’t limited to surface-level enhancements, either. It extends into data accessibility, operational partnerships, and the ability to support more complex investment structures without adding friction.
Schulman points to a noticeable acceleration in how custodians are approaching integration. Rather than operating as closed systems, many are expanding how third-party platforms interact with custody environments, allowing advisors to manage activity across fewer touchpoints.
“Historically, that was only done through a custodian,” Schulman notes.
What’s changing is not just where transactions occur, but how workflows are designed. New models are emerging that allow advisors to initiate, manage, and monitor certain allocations through integrated platforms, with custodians playing a more connective role behind the scenes.
These shifts signal a broader convergence. Custodial innovation, model-based allocation, and alternatives access are increasingly intertwined. As those elements come together, the competitive differentiator will be less about individual features and more about the quality, consistency, and portability of data flowing through advisor workflows.
In that environment, integration is no longer a nice-to-have. It’s becoming a prerequisite for scale.
Develop multi-asset frameworks that support public and private markets
“In a world where there's…folks charging into alts full force, things like compliance around these structures becomes really important.”
As the conversation progresses, Schulman turns from education and workflow friction to the deeper infrastructure required to manage alternatives at scale.
Advisor expectations continue to evolve. Firms want to move beyond isolated transactions and instead place diversified allocations across many clients in a consistent way. This requires repeatable processes, reliable data flow, and a smoother experience for both operations teams and end clients.
He illustrates the shift with a simple example. Rather than allocating one client, or even one hundred clients, into a single fund, advisors increasingly need the operational ability to allocate many clients across many funds without multiplying paperwork and administrative friction.
“The concept of many clients going into many funds,” he says, ”is much more streamlined and efficient.”
To support this, Schulman notes that the industry is building infrastructure that brings sourcing, allocation, and monitoring into a single connected environment. This includes stronger custodial integrations, support for a wider range of product structures, and more efficient administrative workflows behind multi-client allocations.
These developments matter because they complement how advisors increasingly prefer to build portfolios. Models, sleeve-based approaches, and multi-asset frameworks require alternatives to fit neatly into the same systems that support public markets.
As the technology ecosystem evolves, platforms that offer a unified view of public and private assets will make it easier for advisors to incorporate alternatives into familiar workflows.
Rapid-fire reflections
As part of Inside WealthTech’s speed round, Schulman offers quick takes on topics reshaping advisor conversations:
- Crypto in portfolios: “Here to stay.”
- AI and advisors: Schulman frames AI as a practical utility that strengthens advisor workflow and learning rather than a force that replaces human judgment.
- Influencers and advisors: “New channel for advisors.”
- Royalty income: “A massive opportunity for growth.”
- What wealth management should retire: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Schulman challenges this mindset, arguing that with rapid innovation in products and technology, status quo thinking is a missed opportunity.
Across all answers, he returns to a consistent message: innovation should support better advice—not disrupt it for its own sake.
Stay Inside WealthTech
Watch the full episode of Inside WealthTech with Judah Schulman to learn more about how education, workflow efficiency, and new product structures are shaping the next era of alternative investing.
And make sure to follow along on LinkedIn for new episodes featuring leaders redefining wealth management through technology, data, and collaboration
Learn more about Envestnet’s wealth management technology platform and how it enhances the fundamentals of advice and support team-based advisory models.
