CMS Companies looks for proprietary private niche investments in real estate, life insurance and small businesses/special opportunities. Most of the investors are entrepreneurs, lending the firm on "an entrepreneurial, operator-focused spirit." Its clients' number one priority is protecting capital, and the firm focuses on building diversified portfolios across and within asset classes.
It prides itself on never asking anyone to invest in a transaction unless it invests its own capital, and never keeping a transaction for the firm to the exclusion of its investors.