Brinker Capital's newly launched alternative mutual funds are already being picked up by several well-known custodial bank platforms, including Fidelity's, Pershing's, TD's and LPL Financial's. They will be going on the Charles Schwab and InvestNet platforms soon as well, said John Coyne, vice chairman at the firm.

Brinker Capital is also pitching the new funds to broker dealers and other channels. It uses ALPS for distribution services.

"We partnered with ALPS in launching these funds, they provide infrastructure support and they have been very helpful in providing guidance in entering the mutual fund world," Coyne said.

Investment platforms and wealth managers will often require a three-year track record in a fund before bringing it on or recommending it to investors, but when it comes to alternatives, the rules are a little less cut and dry. Only 51 percent of alternative funds have three-year track records and only 36 percent can vouch for five years, according to Morningstar.

"In the alts world, it's a bit of a new fish and a lot of due diligence teams are willing to look under the hood, see who's in charge and how experienced they are in managing the strategy," Coyne said.

In the case of Brinker's funds, Bill Miller, who is also the firm-wide CIO, will be managing the strategies. He has been in the investment business for 30 years and has held senior roles at Putnam Investments, Delaware Capital Management and what is now Aberdeen Asset Management. Stuart Quint, senior investment manager and international strategies, and Andy Rosenberger, senior portfolio manager, who are also well-tenured in the investment business, are the other PMs of the funds.

The firm already manages the Crystal Strategies in separate account form and Brinker Capital also runs mutual funds that employ asset allocation strategies and sub-advisors. The new mutual funds would be combining the expertise of both of these lines of business, Coyne explained.

Noreen Beaman, the firm's CEO, is also coming up on her one year anniversary and "has done a fantastic job of repositioning the organization, so we can take advantage of this space," Coyne said. The firm also brought on Bill Simon as head of distribution and Edward Kelly as national sales director over the past few years. They've also been instrumental in Brinker's sales push on its new offerings. "We're in a strong position to be launching these funds," Coyne said.

The firm launched its three mutual funds last week.The Crystal Strategy Absolute Income Fund (CSTFX) seeks to provide income and downside protection to conventional equity markets. The Crystal Strategy Absolute Return Fund (CSRAX) aims for absolute returns over full market cycles. And the Crystal Strategy Leveraged Alternative Fund (CSLFX) focuses on long-term positive returns, with reduced correlation to conventional equity markets as a secondary goal.

The firm has $4 billion in the separately managed account strategies, $8 billion in the asset allocation mutual funds and $2 billion in the existing crystal strategies. It also manages another $2 billion in 401k assets and a couple of smaller programs, Coyne said. 

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