Alternative investments are making headlines these days — but managing them can be an operational hassle, thanks to fragmented experiences, legacy infrastructure, and cumbersome workflows. If you’re reviewing your alts options or putting together an RFP (Request for Proposal), you need sharp questions that can reveal real functionality. Here are 16 RFP follow-up questions we recently answered about our modern alternative investment solution, known as Apex Alts.

1. How does Apex Alts compare to other alternative investment solutions?

We designed the whole Apex Alts experience from the ground up to feel as familiar as trading an equity for both you and your clients. With Apex Alts, the entire alternative investment subscription lifecycle — from investor accreditation and fund discovery to settlement and investor communications — happens in one environment on Apex AscendOS™. No more toggling between systems, manually managing subscriptions, or reconciling accounts by hand. Instead, your workflows are digital, and your clients can see alts alongside traditional asset classes in one unified brokerage account experience. To support this unified experience, Apex Alts is integrated with DTCC AIP, which provides an automated platform for processing, trading, and reporting alternative assets. It connects all parties in the investment process, such as fund managers, broker-dealers, and custodians, to standardize the exchange of data and the settlement of money. Furthermore, Apex Alts isn’t locked into a single third-party marketplace. Instead, you get access to funds from multiple issuers, all presented in a unified solution.

2. What does “unified brokerage account experience” really mean?

Simply put, it means an investor can buy and sell both alternative and traditional assets in a single brokerage account. (Of course, they can always set up a separate account if they want to.) We intentionally fixed the bifurcated client experiences of the past that required separate alternative investment accounts (often with a different firm) that came with separate logins, processes, and statements and documents. And while you didn’t ask about “one unified UI experience for advisors and broker-dealers,” we’d like you to know that we also fixed many of their administrative and operational hassles. With Apex Alts, if a client wants to subscribe, there’s no need to launch and log into a different system (or three) just to get it done. Plus, robust automations and streamlined digital workflows help reduce administrative burdens.

3. How does Apex Alts support the entire subscription lifecycle of alternatives?

The entire subscription lifecycle is built into the Apex Alts workflows. You can qualify, subscribe, fund, and settle — all in-platform. For post-trade workflows, Apex provides reconciliation, valuation, tax reporting (K-1 or 1099), capital calls and redemption management, corporate actions, and dividend reinvestment plans (DRIPs). It all happens on AscendOS, Apex’s cloud-native core infrastructure, which means you also get real-time document management and reporting.

4. Can alternative investments be held together with traditional investments?

Yes. That’s actually one of the primary innovations here. Your clients can see all their assets in a single account and a single statement, so the alternative allocation doesn’t feel like a separate investing experience. Your ops and compliance teams will appreciate the unified reporting and single account, too.

5. How does Apex Alts handle investor accreditation validation?

Apex provides digital self-attestation forms and customizable workflows for collecting accreditation information from investors. You can capture these responses at the right time, and Apex will transmit the data to the broker-dealer, advisor, or the fund sponsor. The ultimate responsibility for validation still sits with the issuer — but Apex helps take the tedium out of tracking and transmitting paperwork.

6. Can Apex lock cash for capital calls?

Yes. You can lock funds (via memo entries) in the brokerage account to restrict investors from using those funds for other securities trading until the capital call is completed.

7. What’s the process for capital calls and cash management?

Apex handles the entire capital call process — sending notices, verifying available funds, executing the transaction, and providing status updates to all parties. The platform even supports warehousing orders and holding subscriptions until a fund closes, helping to optimize cash management for all involved.

8. How does reconciliation work — and what if there are breaks?

If your fund sponsors provide daily data, reconciliation happens daily; otherwise, it defaults to monthly or quarterly as data is released. Because everything runs in real time on AscendOS, individual files (not your entire batch) get flagged for issues. This flagging process means that most reconciliations are completed on the first attempt, which can dramatically reduce operational friction and the risk of lingering breaks.

9. Can IBDs and RIAs expose only the alternative funds that are available to their investors?

Yes, IBDs and RIAs can choose which funds to expose based on investor suitability.

10. What’s the timeline to get Apex Alts and what’s live right now?

IBDs and RIAs can start offering Apex Alts now with exposure to Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) for pre-IPO companies such as OpenAI, SpaceX, Anthropic, Stripe, and more. The Apex Alts solution is available to open, fund, and subscribe to select SPVs directly from the Apex Alts Marketplace, supported by back-end clearing, custody, and processing operations. You can test Apex Alts for yourself in the Apex Developer Portal, using APIs. During 2026, we will continue to enhance the Apex Alts platform by adding more assets from a variety of fund issuers. Our roadmap also includes integrating with more of the largest and most reputable transfer agents, including LODAS Transfer and SS&C Technologies.

11. How are alts pricing and valuations managed?

Fund-level pricing is integrated into Apex Alts to help streamline pricing and valuation research. We use a pricing provider that gathers updated valuations each month (or quarterly or annually as the underlying funds report), and Apex posts the most recent prices as soon as they’re available. This way, your statements reflect the latest data the issuers have provided.

12. Where and how is fund performance reported?

Your team can use the performance reporting tools available in the Ascend Workstation. These tools, provided through integration with BridgeFT, automate the complex process of data aggregation, normalization, and performance calculation — helping reduce manual effort and potential errors.

13. Is Apex Alts available to firms that don’t clear and custody with Apex?

Yes. Apex Alts can be used as a SaaS solution, even if you don’t custody with Apex. You can plug your existing systems into Apex Alts, and the platform can function as your unified hub for alternatives across multiple integrations.

14. Where can PPMs, Subscription Agreements, and other relevant documentation be found in Apex Alts?

The PPMs (Private Placement Memorandums), Subscription Agreements and other relevant documentation provided by the alts fund issuer will be stored within the Apex Alts UI on the Ascend Workstation and available via APIs for IBDs.

15. Specifically, what types of funds and accounts can be supported?

At the time this blog is being written in Q4 2025, the initial funds available are SPVs. Over the next months, we are planning to expand available funds to include REITs, direct participation programs (DPPs), hedge funds, funds-of-funds, business development companies (BDCs), private equity, private debt, sports team, infrastructure, and more. Currently, for Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs), Apex Alts supports these account types:

Individual, including Nonresident Alien (NRA) accounts if the specific fund allows NRAs
IRA (Traditional, Roth, SEP/Simple, Rollover)
Entity (Trust, Partnership, LLC, S/C Corp, Sole Prop)

If you want to bring your own fund to the marketplace via an Apex referred partner, we can support joint accounts in addition to the account types listed above for SPVs. Please note that investing in alternative investments is limited to accredited investors who meet at least one of these criteria established by the SEC:

Income: An annual income of over $200,000 (or $300,000 combined with a spouse) for the past two years, with the expectation of the same for the current year
Net worth: A net worth of over $1 million, either individually or with a spouse (excluding the value of your primary residence)
Professional criteria: Holding certain professional certifications, designations, or licenses in good standing (e.g., Series 7, 65, or 82)

Some funds require a higher level of financial sophistication and have additional SEC requirements. To be deemed a qualified investor:

Individuals must have at least $5 million in investments
Entities must have at least $25 million in investments

Note that it’s possible for specific funds to have their own unique suitability requirements outlined in their documentation, which is available in the Apex Alts Marketplace.

16. What is the highest-level functionality of Apex Alts?

Client-facing API functionality

Can be used from the advisor's or the end investor’s point of view
Set account eligible for Alts
Customize eligibility questions and capture responses to send to funds
Display funds and fund details in the Alts Marketplace, with IBD or RIA control over which funds are shown
Place an order for fund purchase or redemption with eSignature capture
Alternative order status
Show all alternative investment holdings

Overall Apex Alts functionality for the full subscription lifecycle

Introduce Apex Alts clients to transfer agents to arrange fund administrator and transfer agent relationship
Control which funds to expose through security setup in Asset Services, our security master
Deliver investor orders and submit sub docs or purchase agreements to BitGo
Settle purchase order and receive purchase confirmation via BitGo
Book position in the investor’s brokerage account
List position on Account Statement
Create trade confirmation document
If desired, bring your own fund via an Apex referred partner

Offer alternatives with greater operational confidence

Apex Alts brings alternative investments and traditional assets together in one unified experience. Reduce disjointed manual tasks, automate workflows, and streamline reporting — so your firm can offer alts to all eligible investors without worrying about the operational burdens of the past. Talk to Sales

Apex Next Investor Outlook: Q1 2022 Infographic