In this Swift Chat conversation, Marie Swift speaks with Stacy Chitty of Blue Vault and Henry Zelikovsky of Softlab360 to discuss how better data and modern technology are transforming the way financial advisors and asset managers evaluate alternative investments.
The conversation explores Blue Vault’s new research portal, built to bring greater transparency, usability, and depth to alternative investment data. With a Snowflake-backed data infrastructure and standardized performance metrics, the portal helps users analyze and compare offerings across non-traded REITs, BDCs, interval funds, tender offer funds, DSTs, and more.
Chitty shares his thoughts on why the market needed a better way to access alternative investment research and how Blue Vault has been collecting and vetting performance-based data since 2009. He emphasizes that the portal makes it easier to access standardized performance metrics, compare offerings, and evaluate risk, leverage, distributions, and other details that matter when assessing alternative investments. Zelikovsky highlights how Softlab360 helped build the portal’s underlying technology and data architecture to support more flexible, scalable, and granular analysis. He sees the portal as a foundation for future capabilities like comparative analysis and more interactive, conversational ways to work with the data.
Learn more about Stacy Chitty and Blue Vault at www.BlueVaultPartners.com.
Learn more about Henry Zelikovsky and www.Softlab360.com.
Summary of the Conversation
The conversation highlights Blue Vault’s new research portal for alternative investments and how it gives advisors and asset managers better access to standardized, fact-based performance data. Chitty highlights that Blue Vault has been collecting and vetting alt data since 2009 and that the new portal makes it far easier to use, compare, and analyze metrics across products such as non-traded REITs, BDCs, interval funds, tender offer funds, and DSTs. Zelikovsky explains the technology behind the portal, including the Snowflake-backed data architecture and an emphasis on cleaning, organizing, and classifying data to support deeper analysis and future capabilities. Together, they frame the portal as a tool that improves transparency, supports better investment decisions, and helps the industry move toward more informed education around alternative investments.
Insights and Takeaways
The new portal solves a long-standing usability problem in alternative investments
- BlueVault already had years of vetted performance data, but it was previously difficult to access and use efficiently.
- The portal turns that data into a more practical experience for advisors and asset managers, replacing bulky reports and manual workflows with easier access.
Transparency is a central benefit of the platform
- The conversation repeatedly notes that alternative investments have lacked the kind of standardized transparency common in ETFs, mutual funds, stocks, and bonds.
- The portal helps close that gap by presenting fact-based performance data in a more consistent and comparable format.
Advisors can make better decisions when they look beyond surface-level metrics
- Chitty emphasizes that capital raise alone is not enough; advisors also need distribution, coverage, leverage, risk layers, and portfolio composition.
- The portal makes it easier to compare and filter across these metrics, which supports more informed asset allocation decisions.
Better data improves client conversations and advisor credibility
- Chitty points out that advisors often have to explain poor outcomes to clients when they lacked enough information at the time of selection.
- With deeper data and regular updates, advisors can have more substantive conversations and reduce the chance of avoidable surprises.
The technology architecture is designed for scale, flexibility, and future use cases
- Zelikovsky explains that the Snowflake-backed structure allows the data to be stored, organized, and shared in a way that supports multiple applications.
- He also suggests the platform is built to expand into more advanced features like comparative analysis and more interactive forms of data exploration.
Alternative investments are becoming a more permanent part of portfolio construction
- Chitty argues that private markets and alternative investments are not a temporary trend but a structural shift in how investors think about long-term allocation.
- He also believes there is growing demand for education and support, and that Blue Vault’s data and portal help meet that need for advisors, asset managers, and larger firms.
About This Blog
Welcome to the “Best Practices in the Financial Services Industry” blog, where you will find ideas and tips from Marie Swift, a nationally-recognized marketing communications consultant who’s worked with some of the top financial services and financial advisory firms in the nation over the course of her career. The “Swift Chat” series, which is available in both a video and a podcast format, is co-hosted by Impact Communications Vice President Jonny Swift, who selects his own guests and brings a Millennial perspective to the show. This blog spotlights financial services firms and allied institutions that the Swifts deem as adopting “Best Practices” in the industry. You will find numerous posts with tools and ideas aimed at helping independent financial advisors communicate better, scale, and grow.