Description
This program is designed to provide a foundational knowledge of alternative investments. The program is meant to help wealth management professionals better understand alternative investments' role in a diversified portfolio based on a client’s goals and objectives.
The curriculum is organized into eight modules1, which fall into three categories: foundations, strategy introductions, and portfolio applications.
Foundations
Module 1: An Introduction to Alternative Investments (1.5 Hour)
Module 2: Risk and Return of Alternative Investments (1 Hour)
Module 3: Accessing Alternative Investments (1.5Hour)
Strategy Introductions
Module 4: Equity Strategies (2.25 Hours)
Module 5: Credit Strategies (2.25 Hours)
Module 6: Real Assets Strategies (2.25 Hours)
Module 7: Diversifying Strategies (2.5 Hours)
Portfolio Applications
Module 8: Portfolio Implementation (2 Hours)
Total Time to complete: 15 hours
Each of these modules takes the perspective of a client-facing professional and follows a goals-based approach. The goals of growth, income, capital preservation, and inflation protection are introduced at the very beginning of the program and carried throughout the program.
The Foundations section provides foundational knowledge on alternative investments necessary to better understand these asset classes and strategies. These include common features across all alternative investments, such as unique risk and return considerations, illiquidity profiles, and return dispersion. Additionally, fund vehicles that range from fully illiquid, to semi-liquid, to liquid, are introduced.
The Strategy Introductions section of the program organizes alternative investments into four risk and return categories. Within each of these categories, multiple sub-strategies are introduced, all of which cover the characteristics, objectives, risks, performance, and appropriateness for a client to better explain how they might be integrated into a diversified portfolio.
The Portfolio Applications section of the program focuses entirely on allocating and implementing alternative investments to a diversified portfolio. Topics in this section focus on different asset allocation and portfolio construction methods, managing liquidity across a portfolio, operational considerations, and client communication.
Learning Objectives
Module 1: An Introduction to Alternative Investments
Define alternative investments by inclusion, exclusion, and characteristics, significant strategies, relevance in today’s marketplace, and diversified portfolios, given the impact and implications of illiquidity
Module 2: Risk and Return of Alternative Investments
Understand the importance of grouping alternative investments by common risk and return drivers, implications of these drivers, common performance metrics, and benchmarking.
Module 3: Accessing Alternative Investments
Describe and define important fund vehicle concepts such as net asset value, J-curve, accredited investor, and qualified purchaser, as well as the mechanics, benefits, and drawbacks of the various illiquid, semi-liquid, and liquid fund structures, including client appropriateness,
Module 4: Equity Strategies
Understand common considerations across alternative investments that invest primarily in public and/or private equity securities, the history of these, relevance to today’s market, unique characteristics of numerous equity strategies, and how they fit into a diversified portfolio.
Module 5: Credit Strategies
Understand common considerations across alternative investments that invest primarily in credit strategies, the history of these, relevance to today’s market, unique characteristics of numerous credit strategies, and how they fit into a diversified portfolio.
Module 6: Real Assets Strategies
Understand common considerations across alternative investments that invest primarily in real assets, the history of real assets, relevance to today’s market, unique characteristics of numerous real assets strategies, and how they fit into a diversified portfolio.
Module 7: Diversifying Strategies
Understand common considerations across alternative investments that have flexible mandates or invest across multiple asset classes, describe the unique characteristics of these various strategies, and how they fit into a diversified portfolio.
Module 8: Portfolio Implementation
Describe the importance of following a goals-based investment philosophy when allocating to alternative investments, given liquidity risk, operational needs and communication expectations with clients, given the evolution of asset allocation for institutional and wealth management portfolios.