RFG Advisory announced Monday a strategic partnership with iCapital, the global financial technology firm focused on alternatives, to give its partner advisors more streamlined access non-public assets and alternative strategies.
The Birmingham, Alabama-based independent wealth management platform's latest partnership gives its advisors integrated access to private equity, private credit, hedge funds, and structured investments through a single connected interface, it said in an announcement Monday.
iCapital's alternatives infrastructure has been embedded directly into ClickONE, RFG's proprietary technology platform, providing single sign-on access and unified portfolio visibility across asset classes.
RFG said the integration is aimed squarely at reducing operational friction for advisors serving high-net-worth clients – a segment that has never been more competitive or more demanding.
"The future of wealth management belongs to firms that can deliver institutional-caliber capabilities without creating more complexity for advisors," RFG Advisory CEO Shannon Spotswood said in the Monday statement.
"iCapital has played an important role in expanding access to alternatives and structured investments, which aligns closely with RFG's vision for the advisor experience," she said.
The partnership arrives at a moment when advisor appetite for alternatives and structured products is accelerating sharply. According to BlackRock's advisor trends survey released earlier this year, private market adoption among advisors stood at approximately 56% in 2025, up from 49% in 2023, with projections pointing to 69% by 2027.
Despite that growth trajectory, the average portfolio allocation to private markets among advisors who use them remains at just 7 percent – a figure the BlackRock report attributed in part to advisor confidence gaps and client concerns about illiquidity.
Meanwhile, the InspereX Spring Advisor Pulse Survey found that 88% of advisors are already incorporating structured products into their practices.More than half (54%) expected to moderately or significantly increase their use of protection-oriented strategies for the remainder of this year, with advisors citing peace of mind, risk reduction, and growth-with-protection as the top reasons for deployment.
Structured products ranked first among asset classes advisors planned to increase in 2026, ahead of dividend-paying stocks, indexed annuities, market-linked CDs, and bond funds. When clients express a need for income, advisors in the InspereX survey said the underlying priority in 59% of cases is stable, predictable cash flow rather than maximum yield.
Ed Swenson, president of RFG Advisory, said the firm's expansion into breakaway wirehouse channels has accelerated the need for institutional-grade capabilities within the platform.
"As we continue to expand into new channels, including the wirehouse breakaway space, advisors need sophisticated alternative investment and structured solution capabilities available directly through the platform," Swenson said.
Citing data from Cerulli Associates, the BlackRock survey said 54% of U.S. household financial assets are now held by high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth families – up from 47% percent just two years ago. That's amped up the pressure for advisors to deliver the full suite of services those clients expect, from estate planning to private market access.
The iCapital partnership is the latest in a series of platform moves by RFG. The firm earlier this year launched ClickONE, made a strategic investment in AI-powered meeting intelligence firm Zocks, and appointed former Envestnet executive Jim Patrick to its board of directors.
Gary Gallagher, president of iCapital, framed the partnership as a response to an industry-wide shift in demand.
"As demand for alternatives and structured investments grows, our platform provides the infrastructure, access, and intelligence advisors need to simplify complexity, manage strategies more effectively, and deliver better client outcomes at scale," he said.
The broker-dealer giant's newest C-suite hire brings 30 years of enterprise technology leadership, including time at Fidelity, to its expanding AI agenda.
Platform move gives retirement savers access to professionally managed products in one place.
No investor losses? The SEC can still claw back every dollar of profit
Plus, Well Fargo hails May recruitment haul totaling more than $3 billion in assets, while UBS recruits a top advisor and women's champion from Lazard.
Robinhood’s invite-only Concierge unit now serves about 60,000 high-net-worth clients with CFP access, tax planning, and estate planning resources as the retail brokerage expands further into wealth management.
As $84 trillion prepares to change hands, advisors who treat estate planning as peripheral are quietly building a sieve, not a book.
In volatile markets, the advisors who win aren't the ones with the best calls - they're the ones whose clients stay the course.
