Company: Sequoia Financial

Scaling In-House Investment Processes, While Preserving Client Experience

With over 30 years of experience serving the wealth management sector, Sequoia Financial began seeing rising demand from clients eager to access more alternative investments. At first, the firm build custom portfolios that subscribed directly to underlying investments, a hands-on approach that worked well when the firm was smaller.

But as Sequoia grew, so did the operational burden. “We ran into issues with combinatorial explosion,” recalls Zhang, describing the complexity that came with managing a growing number of individualized investments. “Going from zero to a fully scaled in-house alternatives investment model would probably take years of time that we didn’t have.” 

Sequoia recognized the need for a more efficient, scalable solution—one that would preserve their client-first philosophy while reducing manual processes, paperwork, and operational friction. The firm needed a partner that could help them evolve their model, without compromising the integrity of their client experience. 

A Purpose-Built Solution for Operational Efficiency and Customization

After evaluating several options, Sequoia Financial chose to work with the CAIS Custom Funds team and was drawn to a shared commitment to transparency, flexibility, and putting the client first. “We wanted to partner with a firm that was aligned in values, that we felt we could grow with and that could offer us a customization for where we wanted to go,” Zhang shares.  

Through this collaboration, CAIS delivered a solution tailored to Sequoia’s needs, helping the firm consolidate documentation, simplify client reporting, and enable direct custodial data feeds.  

“There [are] three primary ways that CAIS has benefited the team,” Zhang explains. “The first is consolidated subscription documents; the second is direct custodial feeds; and the third is simplified line-item reporting.” 

By leveraging CAIS technology and operational infrastructure, Sequoia not only avoided the complexity and time required to build an in-house system but also created a more efficient model that could scale with client demand.

Delivering Client-First Innovation at Scale

By working with CAIS, Sequoia found the right partner to help design and deliver a hybrid model. 

With CAIS Custom Funds, Sequoia transformed operational complexity into a streamlined, tech-enabled experience.  

“As this industry keeps growing, I believe that clients, more and more, will demand it,” Zhang says. “The client benefit and that the client experience has been improved considerably ... Sequoia is now able to offer alternative investments in a way that’s very scalable to the marketplace.”