Ashton Thomas Private Wealth, a Scottsdale, Ariz.-based RIA. with $2.9 billion in AUM and part of Arax Investment Partners, has become the latest advisory practice to sign on the iCapital alternative investment platform. The addition of Ashton caps a busy first six months for Capital, which has had 170 new advisory firms join the platform year-to-date, according to iCapital Chairman and CEO Lawrence Calcano.
Overall, iCapital now has 2,500 wealth managers using its services, of which approximately 2,250 are independent wealth advisors.
Ashton Thomas and iCapital announced a strategic partnership that will give RIAs access to iCapital's suite of alternative investment options and technology operating system. This will allow Ashton Thomas to improve its data collection and management, reporting and other processes.
“As a high-growth platform, technology is a core aspect of how we're going to be successful—which is an area where I think iCapital has been exceptional,” Arax Investment Partners CEO Haig said in a statement. Ariyan. “This strategic alliance will allow our independent advisors to access an expanded set of solutions, capabilities and analytics.”
According to Calcano, over the past year, iCapital has seen an acceleration in the onboarding of both advisors to the platform and a reduction in the amount of time it takes them to start closing transactions. In the previous 12 months, there were about 102,000 users on the iCapital platform, he said. During the last quarter, the average monthly number of users has reached somewhere between 43,000 and 44,000. Approximately 62% of those users are independent advisors, Calcano said.
“In the early days of this company, freelancers would come to the platform and they would spend time researching offers and it could be months or a year before they transacted,” he said. “And now what is happening is that the independents are very active and have a clear strategic agenda. They're coming in and activating very quickly.”
For advisors primarily interested in accessing iCapital's alternative products, private credit and private equity are currently receiving the most attention. In the first quarter, 39% of inflows to the platform went to private credit strategies, up from 35% in 2023 and 35% to various private equity investments, according to Binoy Talati, managing director of enterprise solutions. Another 13% of inflows were dedicated to real assets and hedge funds each.
According to Talati, as Ashton Thomas Private Wealth grows its alternative investments, it will leverage iCapital's end-to-end alternative products, structured investments and technology platforms.
“There's this evolution around the RIA market that we're very excited about,” Talati noted. “There is a lot of growth in the space and a lot of consolidation and investors are pouring money and attention into the space. What it has brought about is increased sophistication and demand for alternatives. And iCapital has been really well positioned, I think, to handle that.”