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Alternative Investments Certification (LatAm)
With no daily price to correct it, judgment is the only defense.
Notice
The Alternative Investments Certification (LatAm) carries no regulatory recognition. It certifies knowledge and competence; it does not replace the certifications CONSAR requires of AFORE staff or those required by other regulators in the region. Domains, weights and exam format come from the certification's blueprints and may be adjusted before the exam opens.
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01 — ABSTRACTAlternative Investments Certification (LatAm)
Private markets are no longer a footnote in the institutional portfolio. Across Latin America, pension funds are raising their ceilings on alternatives, local vehicles are multiplying and global capital is arriving through CERPIs, co-investments and mandates. The Alternative Investments Certification (LatAm) certifies the professional who analyzes, structures, oversees or allocates capital in private equity, private credit, hedge funds and real assets, to global standards and with working command of the region's vehicles and regimes.
The certification has three levels and two tracks: a global track in the universal language of alternatives, and a Mexico / AFORE track covering the investment regime, CKDs, CERPIs and FIBRAs that no international credential addresses. Level I tests foundations with 150 items in three hours; Level II combines 100 items with three regional case vignettes; Level III, the mastery level, is defined before it opens. The first exam is scheduled for the third quarter of 2027.
The exam is built and administered by the RiskMathics Certificate Institute at levels 1, 2 and 3 of Bloom's taxonomy. The preparation program, now in design, will be delivered by RiskMathics Financial Institute: it will cover the full syllabus and include mock exams. They are two products with two fees, and the exam can be taken with or without the program. The certification carries no regulatory recognition: it attests to technical competence and does not replace the certifications CONSAR requires of AFORE staff.
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02 — INDUSTRYWhat is happening in the industry
Global alternatives stand near USD 22 trillion, and industry projections take them to USD 32 trillion by 2030: roughly 15 percent of assets under management worldwide and about half of the asset management industry's revenue. The secondaries market set a record of USD 162 billion in 2024, and GP-led continuation vehicles account for nearly half of that activity. More and more value is being decided without a market price, on the judgment of whoever values the asset.
Latin America is the demand engine. In October 2024 CONSAR raised the AFOREs' limit on structured instruments from 20 to 30 percent of assets, with actual exposure at 8.3 percent as of September 2024: the gap between ceiling and use is deployment capacity that demands judgment. J.P. Morgan Asset Management projects that AFOREs will manage USD 659 billion by 2030. Chile is taking its AFPs to 20 percent in alternatives by 2027, and Colombia's pension funds already allocate 14.8 percent.
The supply of credentials has not kept pace. The CAIA Charter, the only global designation dedicated to alternatives, has more than 14,000 charterholders worldwide and an estimated 200 to 500 in all of Latin America; it is offered only in English and does not cover CKDs, CERPIs, FIBRAs or Mexico's investment regime. Local certifications test traditional securities. Meanwhile, only 37 of 133 CKDs report an IRR above 8 percent: dispersion between managers is the risk this certification teaches candidates to read.
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03 — WHYWhy this certification
An alternative asset has no daily price to correct the analyst. The error in a badly structured vehicle or a poorly selected manager surfaces years later: in an IRR that never clears the hurdle, in a capital call that breaches a regime limit, or in a regulator's finding. The critical competence is no longer knowing what a private equity fund is. It is modeling a distribution waterfall to ILPA standards, reading a track record against a public market equivalent and deciding within an AFORE's regime.
No credential today covers both halves of that craft. Global designations teach the universal language without the region's vehicles; local certifications attest to traditional securities. This certification joins the two: the rigor of international standards with working command of CKDs, CERPIs, FIBRAs, FIBRA-Es and Mexico's investment regime, in Spanish, with regional cases and a Mexico / AFORE track found in no other credential.
- Two tracks, global and Mexico / AFORE, tested through regional cases rather than translations.
- Three sequential levels: foundations, vignette-based application and mastery in portfolio construction.
- Items written at Bloom levels 1, 2 and 3 and calibrated under a single psychometric rulebook.
- An item bank independent of the one that supports the certifications registered with the regulator; the certification also curates two of the Institute's common modules: structured vehicles and the SAR regime.
- An exam fee of USD 1,000 plus VAT; the international benchmark designation costs USD 2,390 to 3,190 for its two levels, plus an annual membership, and is offered only in English.
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04 — OUTCOMESWhat it prepares for
- 01
Distinguish and value the alternative asset classes: private equity, venture capital, private credit, hedge funds, real estate, infrastructure and digital assets.
- 02
Calculate and interpret IRR, MOIC, TVPI, DPI, RVPI and PME, and explain why a high IRR can conceal a mediocre fund.
- 03
Model a distribution waterfall with hurdle, catch-up and clawback, and read its effects on carried interest.
- 04
Compare a limited partnership with an issuing trust, and a CKD with a CERPI, on governance, discretion, co-investment and tax treatment.
- 05
Design an AFORE's allocation to alternatives within the 30 percent structured-instrument limit, using DCVaR, investment trajectories and concentration limits.
- 06
Conduct manager due diligence: track record, performance attribution, LPA terms, operational risk and greenwashing signals.
- 07
Anticipate the J-curve, liquidity risk and the commitment pacing of a private markets program.
- 08
Read the frameworks that govern institutional capital in the region: CONSAR, CVM Resolution 175 in Brazil, Chile's AFPs, Colombia's FCPs and the offshore structures that connect them.
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05 — INSTITUTIONSThe cut line
An institution that requires the certification hires people who demonstrated the competence before signing their first capital commitment. The exam measures, with calibrated items, what an interview cannot verify: whether the candidate can model a waterfall with catch-up, tell a FIBRA's tax treatment from a CERPI's, and know which regime limit the next capital call would breach.
For an AFORE, a CKD or CERPI manager, a FIBRA, an alternatives desk or a family office, the credential works as a cut line: it lowers the cost of evaluation, standardizes the technical level of teams that today learn on the job, and gives the investment committee a vocabulary shared with risk, compliance and legal. The performance gap between top-quartile and bottom-quartile managers runs to roughly fourteen percentage points: selecting well is the competence that pays most.
- A shared technical language across investments, risk, compliance and legal.
- Results by domain and by Bloom level to plan a team's development.
- A Mexico / AFORE track that tests the regime in force, not a generic case.
- A public fee and a calendar announced with the call for candidates; no requirement to take the preparation program.
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06 — PROFILEWho it is for
Who it is for
- Investment, risk and compliance teams at AFOREs, insurers and pension funds across the region with a mandate in alternatives.
- Managers and analysts of CKDs, CERPIs, FIBRAs and FIBRA-Es, and of private equity, private credit, infrastructure and real estate funds.
- Alternatives desks at investment banks, brokerages, family offices and independent advisers that structure or distribute vehicles.
- Lawyers, tax specialists and auditors who document, value or oversee private markets funds and vehicles.
- Professionals in Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Peru who invest institutional capital in alternatives and need a standard in Spanish.
Not for
- Anyone who needs the certification CONSAR requires of AFORE roles: this credential carries no regulatory recognition and does not replace it.
- Anyone looking for a general introduction to finance or to liquid portfolio management.
- Anyone expecting a course: the certification is an exam; the preparation program is a separate product with a separate fee.
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07 — KNOWLEDGEBody of knowledge
Eight domains across two tracks. Three draw on the Institute's common modules —structured vehicles, the SAR regime and risk appetite— and already carry fixed weights: together, 36 % of Level I and 30.5 % of Level II; the first two are curated by this certification for the rest of the catalog. The remainder is the certification's own content, 64 % of Level I and 69.5 % of Level II; its distribution by domain is published before the exam opens.
01Foundations and the global alternatives landscapeOwn content · weight to be confirmed
- What makes an asset alternative: illiquidity, valuation, horizon and access
- Investors and mandates: pensions, endowments, sovereign wealth funds, insurers and family offices
- Fund structures: limited partnership, issuing trust, semi-liquid vehicles and tokenized funds
- Fund economics: management fee, carried interest, hurdle, catch-up and clawback
- Fund life cycle, capital calls, distributions and the J-curve
- Global macro and correlations: sticky inflation, higher rates and the role of real assets
- Ethics and professional conduct in private markets
02The Latin American alternatives market and its vehiclesCommon module on structured vehicles · Level I · 20 % · Level II · 16.9 % · additional own content (vehicles in Brazil, Colombia, Chile and Peru) to be confirmed
- CKDs and CERPIs: issuing trust, technical committee, holders' assembly and manager discretion
- Co-investment, the CERPI's international component and exit strategies, including secondaries and continuation funds
- FIBRAs and FIBRA-Es: assets, promoted companies, minimum distribution and tax transparency
- Securitization and structuring: payment waterfalls, capital calls and certificate valuation
- The simplified issuer and recent reforms to the Securities Market Law
- Brazil's FIPs, FIDCs and FIIs; Colombia's FCPs; vehicles in Chile and Peru
- Global managers and regional capital: feeders, funds of funds and mandates
03Private equity, venture capital and private creditOwn content · weight to be confirmed
- Fundraising, investment period and harvest: terms, extensions and the GP commitment
- LBOs: capital structure, leverage, entry and exit multiples
- Value creation: EBITDA growth, deleveraging and multiple expansion
- Performance metrics: IRR, MOIC, TVPI, DPI, RVPI and public market equivalents
- Distribution waterfalls: return of capital, hurdle, catch-up and split, European and deal-by-deal
- Private credit: direct lending, distressed and special situations, venture debt, BDCs and CLOs
- Secondaries, continuation funds and liquidity for the LP
- ILPA reporting and performance templates
04Hedge funds and real assetsOwn content · weight to be confirmed
- Hedge fund strategies, multi-strategy platforms and fee compression
- Real estate: core, core-plus, value-add and opportunistic
- Traditional and digital infrastructure: data centers, energy and transition
- Global REITs, industrial FIBRAs and nearshoring
- Brazil's fundos multimercados and BRL / MXN currency exposure
- Digital assets and tokenized funds
05Risk management: CONSAR's framework and global standardsOwn content · weight to be confirmed
- Risk in illiquid assets: permanent loss of capital, liquidity and valuation, rather than volatility
- DCVaR, tracking error, concentration limits and stress testing under the AFORE regime
- Fair value hierarchy and the IPEV 2025 guidelines for Level 3 assets
- J-curve, vintage diversification, secondaries and co-investment as mitigants
- Concentration, counterparty and currency risk in regional portfolios
- Capital treatment of private equity under Basel III
06Institutional perspective, manager analysis and portfolio constructionCommon module on risk appetite and governance · Level I · 5.3 % · Level II · 6.8 % · additional own content to be confirmed
- The endowment model and pension and sovereign wealth fund allocations to private markets
- Commitment pacing and program liquidity management
- LP-GP governance: risk appetite, investment committee and board reporting
- Manager selection: track record, performance attribution, PME and quartile dispersion
- Operational, legal and tax due diligence; alignment of incentives
- Co-investment, mandates and funds of funds as access routes
07Regulatory, tax and responsible-investment frameworksOwn content · weight to be confirmed
- United States: Investment Company Act exemptions, Form PF and the taxation of carried interest
- European Union: AIFMD II, ELTIF 2.0 and SFDR classification
- Brazil: CVM Resolution 175 and its fund architecture; Chile and Colombia: AFP limits and the structure of FCPs
- Offshore structures: Cayman, Delaware, Luxembourg and Ireland
- Mexican tax regime: FICAP transparency, withholding on FIBRA taxable income and return of capital
- Responsible investment: double materiality, ESG in valuation and greenwashing detection
08Mexico / AFORE track: local specializationCommon module on the SAR regime · Level I · 10.7 % · Level II · 6.8 % (allocation vignette)
- The SIEFORE investment regime and the 30 percent limit on structured instruments
- Generational SIEFOREs, investment trajectories and the glide path
- Single-issue concentration limit and the manager's minimum co-investment
- Investment committee, risk committee and AFORE governance
- CONSAR's ESG obligations and reporting to the regulator
- Allocation vignette: designing the alternatives portfolio within the regime
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08 — TWO PRODUCTSPreparation program · Certification exam
Preparation program
Preparation program
Program delivered by RiskMathics Financial Institute
The preparation program will be delivered by RiskMathics Financial Institute, the group's school since 2005, and is currently in design. It will cover the full syllabus of all three levels and include mock exams built with the exam's own recipe. It is a separate product from the exam: contracted separately, with its own fee, and not a prerequisite for sitting it.
Alternative Investments Certification Program (LatAm)
To be confirmedIn design. It will cover the eight domains across both tracks, global and Mexico / AFORE, through the six case types that underpin the exam's vignettes: an LBO with a nearshoring thesis, due diligence on a regional fund, an AFORE allocation within the regime, CKD versus CERPI, FIBRA valuation and currency risk in a hedge fund. Calendar, format and fee are published before enrollment opens.
- The full syllabus of all three levels, across two tracks.
- Mock exams per level, built with the same recipe and the same Bloom levels as the exam.
- Regional cases rather than translations: CKDs, CERPIs, FIBRAs, FIPs, FIDCs and the AFORE regime.
- Results by domain and by cognitive level to guide preparation.
Program in design · calendar, format and fee to be confirmed · the first Level I exam is scheduled for the third quarter of 2027.
Certification exam
Certification exam
Built, audited and administered by the RiskMathics Certificate Institute. It can be taken with or without the preparation program. Three sequential levels, with a global track and a Mexico / AFORE track.
If the candidate does not pass
The Certification Board is defining the failure and retake policy: how many attempts each window allows, the minimum wait between them, the fee for sitting the exam again and what happens to levels already passed. It is published here as soon as it is approved; in the meantime, the figures may be requested at growth@riskmathics.com. Exam governance →
Items are written at levels 1, 2 and 3 of Bloom's taxonomy: remember, understand and apply. Each form follows a fixed recipe of items per domain and per level; the Level II case vignettes present a regional scenario with data and figures, and their items assess level 3, apply. Every item is calibrated under a single psychometric rulebook: difficulty between 0.20 and 0.90, minimum discrimination of 0.20 and 24-month exposure control per candidate, including across Levels I and II. Bloom's Taxonomy →
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09 — MOCK EXAMSMock exams
The preparation program includes mock exams for each level. Each is assembled with the exam's recipe: the same domains, the same weights and the same proportion of items per cognitive level, from remember to apply. The items are different from those in the certification bank: they measure the same thing without exposing it.
A Level I mock reproduces the 150 items and the three hours; a Level II mock reproduces the 100 items and the three case vignettes. Results are returned by domain and by Bloom level, so that candidates know which domain they are missing and at which level: the concept, the comparison or the calculation.
- Level 1 · Remember: define carried interest, catch-up and clawback; state the regime's limit on structured instruments; identify the parties to an issuing trust.
- Level 2 · Understand: contrast a CKD with a CERPI or a limited partnership with a trust; explain the J-curve and the effect of fees in the early years.
- Level 3 · Apply: calculate a TVPI, run a waterfall with catch-up, estimate the withholding on a FIBRA distribution or allocate an AFORE's alternatives portfolio within the regime.
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10 — PATHLearning path
- Phase 1
Preparing for Level IProgram in design · calendar to be confirmed
Foundations, asset classes, the region's vehicles and the AFORE regime. The RiskMathics Financial Institute program will cover the eight domains and include mock exams; candidates may also prepare on their own.
- Phase 2
Level I examThird quarter of 2027
150 multiple-choice items in three hours. It assesses the global track and the Mexico / AFORE track at the remember, understand and apply levels.
- Phase 3
Level II: application through vignettesTo be confirmed · the catalog slates it for the same window as Level I
100 items and three regional case vignettes: an LBO with a nearshoring thesis, due diligence on a manager, secondaries and an AFORE allocation. Institutional portfolio construction and the valuation of illiquid assets.
- Phase 4
Level III: masteryTo be confirmed
The catalog provides for a third, mastery level focused on institutional portfolio construction. Its structure, content and date are published once the academic committee approves them.
Investment
11Program and exam, priced separately
Program and exam are two products with two fees; neither includes the other. The exam fee is stated in US dollars plus applicable tax; payment terms are published with the call for candidates.
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12 — FAQFrequently asked questions
Can the exam be taken without the preparation program?
Yes. The exam is administered by the RiskMathics Certificate Institute and enrollment is separate. The RiskMathics Financial Institute program covers the full syllabus and includes mock exams, but it is not a prerequisite.
How many levels are there, and when does each open?
Three, taken in sequence. Level I opens in the third quarter of 2027 with 150 items in three hours. Level II, with 100 items and three case vignettes, is slated in the catalog for the same window; its date is confirmed with the calendar. Level III, the mastery level, is defined before it opens.
Does it carry regulatory recognition?
No. It certifies knowledge and competence in alternative investments; it does not replace the certifications CONSAR requires of AFORE staff or any other regulatory credential, and it does not inherit the designation of the Institute's registered certifications.
How does it differ from an international alternatives designation?
In two ways. It is delivered in Spanish with regional cases, and its Mexico / AFORE track tests CKDs, CERPIs, FIBRAs and the AFORE investment regime, which no global credential covers. The CAIA Charter, the international benchmark, is offered only in English and costs between USD 2,390 and USD 3,190 plus an annual membership.
What is the Mexico / AFORE track?
A block of the exam that tests the SIEFORE investment regime, the limits on structured instruments, investment trajectories, DCVaR and AFORE governance. It carries 10.7 % of Level I and 6.8 % of Level II, where it is assessed through an allocation vignette. The blueprint anticipates later tracks for Brazil, Chile and Colombia.
When will the program's calendar and fee be published?
Before enrollment opens. The program is in design; its calendar, format and fee will be announced on this page and by email to anyone who requests information at growth@riskmathics.com.
Alternative Investments Certification (LatAm)
With no daily price to correct it, judgment is the only defense.