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 Mike Doniger, SVP of Platform Partnerships at iCapital, a leading alternative investment platform serving advisors and RIAs.
The discussion also highlights how iCapital’s partnership with Envestnet helps bring alternatives (“alts”) directly into advisor workflows, making private markets easier to access, model, and manage inside the systems advisors use every day.
Keep reading for an overview of the discussion, or watch it in full, here.
Integrate alternative investments into advisor workflows
As interest in alts accelerates, many firms still struggle with the practical elements of implementation — from sourcing and diligence to workflow integration and client readiness.
This conversation focuses on scaling access to alternatives, removing operational friction, and helping advisors bring private markets into the real-world wealth conversation — moving beyond curiosity toward consistent, disciplined use at scale.
"We’re focused on partnering with advisor technology platforms and being where the advisor is."
Rather than adding another tool to an already crowded tech stack, iCapital embeds alternatives within the advisor’s existing workflow, a shift Doniger believes is overdue.
Historically, he explains, private markets were treated as separate, positioned outside the core wealth management process.
“Traditionally, it’s been another asset class or conversation with advisors that was off to the side,” he says.
But that’s changing. The growing demand for alts isn’t just about access, it’s about integration, and Doniger believes advisors need to see alternatives in the same models, screens, and workflows they already use for public assets.
“There’s been a big focus on bringing that together with traditional wealth management, enabling that to be part of the core wealth management conversation, and part of the same portfolio with public assets,” he says.
That shift is what makes alternatives actionable: when they stop being a separate conversation.
Use turnkey solutions for private investments
"iCapital provides tools for the full investment lifecycle—and really an ecosystem for private investments."
iCapital’s platform isn’t just a marketplace of products. Doniger emphasizes that its value lies in the entire lifecycle of private-market investing: education, compliance, subscription processing, capital calls, reporting, and advisor workflows that traditionally live in separate systems.
Through acquisitions, iCapital has broadened the definition of alternatives, integrating structured products and annuities alongside private equity and credit.
“With some of the acquisitions we've done, we’ve expanded alternatives to include structured investments and annuities,” Doniger says. “Anything that’s non-traditional, bringing it together on one platform.”
The goal, he adds, is not to reinvent terminology but to make private investments easier to implement.
By streamlining process inefficiencies and embedding alts into existing advisor workflows, iCapital is shifting alternatives from a specialty conversation to something portfolio-ready.
Through its partnership with Envestnet, these capabilities show up directly within the advisor’s core operating environment, with automated subscription, servicing, and integrated reporting reducing swivel-chair risk and allowing private investments to move through the same end-to-end lifecycle advisors already depend on.
Understand new offerings and their tradeoffs
"A big component of our platform is education."
Expanding access to alternatives carries a clear responsibility: as products become easier to allocate, they must also become easier to understand.
That’s why education is built directly into the iCapital experience. Many broker-dealers require advisors to complete asset-class-specific training before using certain products with clients, and iCapital embeds these controls into the workflow to ensure readiness.
Through programs like the AltsEdge™ Certificate Program—jointly developed by iCapital and the CAIA Association and available to advisors using Envestnet’s Alternatives Exchange—education becomes part of the workflow rather than an afterthought, helping advisors build confidence before they allocate.
This emphasis on readiness parallels how product design has evolved. Doniger points to the rise of registered vehicles and evergreen funds with lower minimums—structures that make alts easier to place into real portfolios rather than theoretical allocations.
“There's been a lot of product innovation,” he says, “and these newer structures have broadened the types of clients who can access them.”
Access alone, however, is not enough, Doniger adds. Advisors must understand the tradeoffs before implementation.
“Our platform is configured to create blocks and the right checkpoints to make sure advisors are up to speed before leveraging it with clients.”
Integrate alts with other portfolio platforms
"It has to be part of the same portfolio view and thought process [as] the rest of the portfolio."
Advisors increasingly hear that they should add alternatives, but Doniger stresses that intention is not the issue. What slows adoption is operational reality.
The friction comes from workflows. Alternatives often sit outside the advisor’s normal process, in separate tools and separate conversations. iCapital’s focus, he explains, is to close that gap.
“Being where the advisor is, and having it be part of the same portfolio views and thought process,” Doniger says, is the way to do it.
That’s why integration with portfolio platforms and model-based strategies plays such a central role. Models give advisors an entry point that mirrors how they already build portfolios.
On Envestnet, that vision comes to life through initiatives like the Alternatives Exchange, which uses iCapital’s technology to deliver curated private-market strategies and streamlined subscription workflows directly within the advisor’s existing platform experience.
Doniger notes that this is exactly why iCapital prioritizes partnerships with advisor platforms like Envestnet, ensuring alternatives appear inside the same model framework advisors already rely on.
“If there’s a public-private model they can take off the shelf, it lowers the burden,” he says.
Paired with more digestible products and smaller minimums, advisors can begin allocating without reinventing their process, and build education as they go instead of having to start there.
“We’re not quite at SMAs yet,” Doniger says, “but I think models are the first step.”
The result of this approach is that alternatives don’t replace existing workflows. They slot into them, moving from theory to something usable inside the advisor’s day-to-day practice.
Explain the value of alternatives to clients
"There’s still an educational need for advisors to be able to tell the story to clients."
Once alternatives are integrated into workflows, another challenge emerges: explaining them. The hesitation, Doniger notes, often isn’t around thesis but translation—how advisors turn complex mechanics into a clear client conversation.
The pain points are familiar: subscriptions, capital calls, reporting, illiquidity, timing. Advisors may understand the mechanics themselves, but communicating tradeoffs with confidence remains difficult.
That’s where tools like iCapital’s Architect come in.
“It helps explain the tradeoffs of having a less liquid investment… and why it can make sense,” Doniger says.
The platform isn’t just a transactional layer. It helps advisors build context, positioning alternatives within a broader narrative rather than as isolated products. The client conversation becomes simpler: not just what to invest in, but why, when, and how it fits into the full portfolio.
For advisors working on the Envestnet platform, this kind of narrative-based approach to alternatives can complement the planning and analytics tools they already use, helping them align private-market allocations back to a unified portfolio view.
In Doniger’s view, education isn’t a hurdle. It’s the glue that connects innovation to adoption.
Expand access with practical guardrails
"It was traditionally ultra high net worth. It’s probably now high net worth."
Doniger acknowledges that alternatives are moving down the wealth spectrum, but not without boundaries. Allocation size remains the key constraint.
iCapital’s models typically assume portfolios of about $1 million, with allocations in the $100K–$150K range. This positions them for clients at the lower end of the high net worth and upper tier mass affluent, which is where adoption is actively growing.
“I don’t know how much further down it makes sense to go from there,” he says. “But it’s definitely a wider audience than it previously was.”
The signal is clear: access is expanding, but suitability still governs the conversation. In Doniger’s view, scaling should be intentional rather than universal. The right clients need appropriate structures, liquidity expectations, and allocation discipline.
Thoughtful expansion, he suggests, is more important than unlimited access when real client outcomes are involved.
Innovate with purpose, not hype
"It’s pretty interesting to see how different firms are trying to work that in and add value."
Doniger views emerging technology through a pragmatic lens. AI may dominate the conversation, but he cautions that it’s still early.
Digital assets are resurfacing. New tools are constantly appearing. The next breakthrough, he suggests, is less about naming a winner and more about staying close to where innovation meets real advisor workflows.
Rather than chasing headlines, Doniger sees value in testing ideas, observing how firms apply them, and keeping innovation tied to judgment.
Advisor trust remains the differentiator. Technology should enhance that trust, not try to replace it. The excitement around what’s next is clear, but discernment is what makes it useful.
Rapid-fire reflections
As part of Inside WealthTech’s speed round, here are a few of Doniger’s quick takes on the trends shaping investment advice:
- Crypto in portfolios: “An opportunistic type investment… some segment of clients are always going to have interest in it. I’m not sure it’s a portfolio allocation.”
- Royalty income (music, energy, patents): “A niche solution and an esoteric sub-asset class… but it plays a role. It’s another search for yield and cash flow.”
- Finfluencers: Attention matters, but depth still matters more.
- Great wealth transfer: “I think people like having that trusted human they can bounce ideas off of.”
- What should old wealth management retire? “Paper is one of them. No more PDFs, manual process risk, and paper.”
Across all answers, one theme emerged: technology may evolve, but human judgment is still the anchor.
“I think you’re talking about more than just the investments,” Doniger says. “It’s a broader conversation.”
Stay Inside WealthTech
Watch the full episode of Inside WealthTech with Mike Doniger to learn more about how iCapital is helping advisors scale capacity, modernize alternatives workflows, and integrate private markets into unified portfolios on Envestnet’s platform.
And make sure to follow Envestnet for upcoming episodes featuring leaders redefining wealth management through technology, data, and collaboration
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