In an effort to make alternative assets more accessible to its reps, insurance company MassMutual last month said it had made the alternative investment platform CAIS available to advisors with MML Investors Services, its broker-dealer affiliate.

There’s been growing demand among advisors and investors for alternative investments, and firms have been looking for ways to make these investments easier for advisors to access.

“Alternative investment offerings are more important than ever for advisors and their clients, and by teaming up with industry leaders like CAIS, we are providing more options for advisors to offer clients differentiated investments to complement their traditional portfolios,” said Vaughn Bowman, head of wealth management with Springfield, Mass.-based MassMutual, in an email to Financial Advisor.

The partnership will give MML, whose clients include individuals, families and business owners, access to CAIS’s platform, which offers an end-to-end technology solution that covers transactions from the pre-trade stages through to the post-trade portion of alternative investing, the firms said.

Advisors will get access to a wide selection of alternative investment strategies, including hedge funds, private equity, private debt, real estate, infrastructure and structured notes, Bowman added.

The partnership will also allow for integrations with leading custodians and reporting providers, which helps advisors automate and streamline the reporting and document workflow process. 

Finally, advisors will have access to CAIS IQ, an on-demand, online learning platform. By giving advisors access to educational material, MassMutual’s goal is to help advisors become more comfortable with alternatives and use them more, Bowman said.

“This partnership will provide MassMutual’s affiliated advisors with access to a broad menu of alternative investment funds and products through the CAIS Marketplace, as well as educational resources to better understand how various strategies can benefit client portfolios,” said Brad Walker, chief client and product development officer at New York-based CAIS, in an email to Financial Advisor.

The partnership was made official last month, and MML’s advisors currently have access to all of CAIS’s services.