this Financial Planning Association A new partnership has been established to help its members improve their knowledge of alternative investments.
This week, the FPA announced an agreement with Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA) Association to Provide Discounted Access to All FPA Members CAIA’s UniFia line of online education products designed to meet the needs of client-facing and advisor-facing financial professionals.
CAIA describes UniFi as a dedicated learning platform aimed at educating professionals in the private wealth management industry. The first certificate offered on UniFi is Alternative Investing Fundamentals.
The program provides a foundation in the core concepts of alternative investing and fills an educational gap when advisors need to understand the rapidly changing alternative investing landscape.
UniFi by CAIA also offers micro-certificates focused on private debt and digital assets, with more certificates coming in 2024.
According to the CAIA Association, earning a certificate requires an investment of 10 to 20 hours. Depending on the microcredential, mastering the material will take anywhere from four to six hours.
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“We are delighted to be partnering with an organization of FPA’s size and stature and look forward to helping its members stay ahead in a variety of alternative investment fields,” said Aaron Filbeck, Head of UniFi, CAIA. “At CAIA, we continually strive to solve the greatest educational challenges facing practitioners in the asset and wealth sector, while always putting our clients first. Through FPA, we have found an exceptional partner who shares our mission and values.”
This collaboration follows the release of the latest version of the FPA Annual Report. Investment Trend Survey Reportindicating a growing interest among financial professionals in adopting alternative approaches in client portfolios.
This year’s survey found that 28% of investment professionals actively invest or are looking for alternative investments that are suitable for their clients. In contrast, 30% are familiar with alternative investments but do not plan to invest in them or recommend them to clients.
Half of investment professionals are investing or advising clients to invest in funds that offer alternative investment classes or strategies (50%), while one in five investment professionals is investing directly in products, projects or companies.
The CAIA Association is a global professional body representing nearly 13,000 professionals in 100 countries.
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“Our research shows that the use or referrals of alternative investments has doubled in some cases since the outbreak. These numbers could be even higher if more professionals had access to quality education, which is why we partnered with UniFi by CAIA,” FPA CEO Patrick D. Mahoney said in a statement. “Access to the platform will help FPA members educate themselves, allowing them to help clients understand this increasingly popular asset class.”
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