Alts Pulse Ep. 16: GeoWealth & iCapital

The Evolution of UMAs: Enabling Customizable, Public-Private Model Portfolios

This interview was filmed at the icapital connect conference in march 2025. watch on youtube.

GeoWealth's President & COO, Jack Hannah, joined iCapital's Monthly Alts Pulse to share how GeoWealth, BlackRock, and iCaptial are powering access to unified managed account (UMA) technology for customizable public-private model portfolios with streamlined administration and integration. Joined by Mike Doniger, Head of Platform Partnerships at iCapital, this conversation was hosted by Michael Sidgmore while on-site at the 2025 iCapital CONNECT Conference in Phoenix, AZ.

Below follows brief excerpts from the conversation. They have been edited for clarity and brevity.

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Excerpts from Alts Pulse EP. 16 

eVOLUTION OF umaS

Alts Pulse: Jack, let’s talk about the evolution of UMAs and how they’re now becoming a part of private markets solutions for the advisor channel.

Jack: GeoWealth started building Unified Managed Account (UMA) capabilities a long time ago and we think UMAs are the next thing that RIAs will move towards. UMAs allow RIAs to access not just one type of model in a single account, but as many types of models in one account as you'd like to. And something new that we’re really excited about is alternatives as a sleeve inside a UMA. So, an advisor does not have to open a bunch of different accounts to get access these portfolio constructs. They can do it all in single account at a traditional custodian. They get access to their ETF models, their mutual fund models, their equity SMAs. Plus, now they can add an alternatives sleeve as a piece of that pie.

democratizing private markets

Alts Pulse: And Mike, how does that actually work? How does the private markets piece fit into a UMA

Mike: Advisors have been moving towards managed platforms for their client portfolios over the last 10 years. And I think that's only accelerating. To Jack's point, up until now, it's been a combination of traditional assets in model portfolios. With the advent of some new fund structures like evergreen funds, we’ve extended the alternatives asset class to more and more investors. Advisors are now looking to combine that with traditional assets as part of one account.

And so that's where our partnership [between iCapital and GeoWealth] comes into play here. Via the connection we've built, advisors can allocate to a model that includes both public and private assets and GeoWealth will handle the oversight and rebalancing on the portfolios. So, for the alternative investments implementation piece, we've created an integration where the advisor selects their model on GeoWealth and then completes the workflow to invest in the alternative investment through iCapital.

breaking barriers

Alts Pulse: We now have hit the point where private markets models can fit into UMA structures. What did it take to get here and why couldn't it have happened until now?

Jack: That's a great question. At GeoWealth, we started out by building – and we’ve written every line of code in our platform – a core piece of our functionality, our portfolio accounting system.

Let’s talk for a moment about portfolio account. That sounds like such a basic thing for an advisor to think about. When a trade happens, it books into the right account. That's easy.

Now, when you have a bunch of trades happening on the same day from different parties doing the trading, well that is more difficult. Trading and getting those trades mapped or accounted for correctly into a single account is complicated. But that is our DNA, our portfolio accounting foundation, are we’re built to do just that.

Whereas at you custodian, you would log in and you see all your positions in a list, on the GeoWealth platform, we break those out into each individual model as part of that overall UMA.

More from iCapital Alts Pulse:

Watch the full discussion on iCapital's YouTube channel to hear Jack and Mike share their perspective on additional questions from Michael. Watch EP. 16 ➜

For further analysis from Michael Sidgmore following the 2025 iCapital CONNECT Conference, visit this recent edition of the Alt Goes Mainstream newsletter ➜

DISCLAIMERS: Information presented on this program is believed to be factual and up-to-date, but we do not guarantee its accuracy and it should not be regarded as a complete analysis of the subjects discussed. Discussions and answers to questions do not involve the rendering of personalized investment advice or a solicitation. GeoWealth has not been compensated for this communication. This is not an endorsement or testimonial of any product or service. The information provided in this blogpost is intended for general information and educational purposes only. Investments are not guaranteed and are subject to investment risk, including possible loss of the principal amount invested. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.