• No commission vs. a true no-load
• How to determine value for billing purposes
• Justifying a fee for illiquid assets
• Hybrid vs. Affiliated:
  • Broker-dealer oversight requirements
  • Matching RIA and broker-dealer approved platforms
  • How does the broker-dealer make money?
• What is the best fee structure for illiquid, non-traded products?

Moderator: Craig Covington, Discipline Advisors
Presenters: Drew Dornbusch, LaSalle Investment Management; Jean Merriman, The Strategic Financial Alliance; David Johan, Altruist Advisors

BDCs provide meaningful structure for a variety of different strategies providing income and capital preservation.

• Investment strategies that fit the BDC structure
• Investor profiles that fit the BDC structure
• Improvements to the BDC structure implemented over the past few years
• Pipeline of new registrations
• Differences between BDCs and other non-traded funds

Presenter: Joey Roth, Prospect Capital

Learn about how automation is being used and impacting the financial industry. How automation has increased quality and sped up many areas in the industry.

Facilitator: Brian Jones, Envision Financial Systems

Presenters: Ryan Gardner, UMB Bank; Chris Shaw, SS&C Technologies; Ramprasad Sandilya, Broadridge

Key takeaways from the session:

1. In-depth analysis of the preferred structure and how it benefits investors

2. Best practices from an adviser and broker-dealer perspective for due diligence

3. Diversification in an investor's portfolio

4. Why would investors want to own preferred stock?

5. What are the potetial pitfalls of preferred stock?

6. How does the underlying real estate affect the preferred stock?

Broker-dealers are required to go beyond a sponsor's claims made in the offering materials when vetting products such as REITs, BDCs, interval funds and oil/gas products. This is especially try after Reg BI, which now requires more in-depth knowledge about a product's risks, rewards and costs. This session will explore important product and sponsor level vetting and due diligence focal points that can help BDs better discharge their duty of "diligence, care and skill" under Reg BI. This session will also be of interest to RIAs, family offices and other constituents that raise money in alternative investments about how they can effectively vet different alternative products from a standpoint of risks and costs.

Wider audience for the investment, advertising advantages and increased transparency create an important business development opportunity. Ease and reduced cost of registration, and less regulatory review hurdles, has led many alternative investment sponsors to register private placements instead of public registrations. Therefore, public registrations are now somewhat unique. The great advantages for advisors who sell public registered investments include a wider audience of non-accredited investors to sell to, and more required transparency from companies that are typically well-funded. In some cases, advisors and investors enjoy greater ease of doing business, including DTC-eligibility with the ability for the investment to show in the brokerage account 'above the line' just like traditional exchange-traded stocks and bonds. We will explore the process, structures, ease of doing business, challenges and rewards. 

Participants: Mark Petersen, MBD Solutions; Merriah Harking, GWG Holdings; Nishil Mehta, Preferred Apartment Communities; Neil Menard, Stepstone Conversus; Josh Hoffman, Bluerock Real Estate

It's almost here. Highly anticipated Regulation Best Interest goes into effect June 30, 2020. Are you ready? Come listen to industry participants discuss the last push to effectiveness of Regulation BI, tricks of the trade for you and your associated persons to become compliant and answers to your most pressing questions.

Our industry is ever-changing and with change, we must work together to bring the best in class offerings, provide strong support and education to advisors, and instill confidence with the firms in which we work. Raising capital is not the only measure of our success. Our performance is the key. Today there are many options to preparing products for distribution and more paths to navigate in working with RIAs and broker-dealers.

Facilitator: Michelle Galenski, Shopoff Realty Investments

Presenters: Tim Witt, Concorde Investment Services; David Sengstock, Mick | Law; Karlton Kleis, Arete Wealth Management

Learn about how development offerings can provide a unique opportunity for investors by positioning a piece of their portfolio in a growth investment. We'll examine opportunities in real estate with respect to developing a few different asset classes, product structure and how they can benefit investors from a growth income and tax perspective.

Moderator: Michelle Moore, Waypoint Real Estate Investments

Participant: Bill Shopoff, Shopoff Realty Investments 

A chance to listen to some of the concerns and steps taken to protect your most valuable assets -- YOUR DATA. Hear how technology firms are continually staying one step ahead of cyber attacks to protects the software and the industry data. 

Moderator: John Castagnozzi, Broadridge

Participants: Ned Montenecourt, Phoenix American Financial Services

Dr. Michael Seiler, J.E. Zollinger Professor of Real Estate & Finance, William & Mary School of Business

Learn about various private equity strategies which will provide a detailed understanding of the current landscape and how to analyze opportunities. Discussion of the investor's appetite for income with respect to alternative investments.

Participant: Grant Mathey, Mick | Law

The new-wave of '40 Act Alternative Investments have promised greater transparency, higher liquidity profiles, lower fees, lower minimums, wider investment mandates and greater share-class flexibility, among other benefits. This panel of '40 Act sponsors and broker-dealers discuss if the industry is delivering on these promises and examine areas for continued improvement. The panel will also debate what investment strategies and asset classes are ideal for a '40 Act structure when compared to purely open-ended and non-traded structures. Looking to the future, panelists will offer their opinions on how these funds are positioned to navigate a potential economic recession in the future.

The total value of the U.S. housing market was approximately $3.6 trillion as of December 2019 according to Zillow, which makes it equal in value to the U.S. equity markets. However, in spite of the scale of the U.S. housing market, this sector has not historically been a component of most individual investment portfolios. The primary reason for this is that individual investors have had little access to the institutional scale necessary to execute investments in the single-family housing market. In recent years, that has changed. Single-family rental home investment opportunities now exist as a compelling investment opportunity for retail investors who wish to allocate into the single larget asset class in the world.

As an asset class, the single-family rental housing market can offer portfolio diversification (relative to conventional equity and fixed-income securities), competitive income, and potentially high total returns ... all of which may be impactful on the overall performace of an investor's portfolio.

Participants: Nolan Rivers, Raymond James Investment Banking Group; Brian Mitts, NexPoint

With all the interest in QOZ investing, what really are the impacts on portfolio construction and portfolio management for clients and investors. This experienced panel will discuss the nuances of considering portfolio strategies for incorporating investments in Qualified Opportunity Zones and the challenges and benefits of the investment decisions.

Presenters: Matthew Leiter, Trilogy Real Estate Group; Shafron Hawkins, Opportunity Funds Association; Mick Manning, Pacific Oak Capital Markets Group; Mark Petersen, MBD Solutions

Listen to the leaders in account on-boarding as the process has gone from concept to prototype and now production. The successes/challenges with the adoption of a paperless application in the industry. Now that this live, what have we learned since implementation and where do we see this process in two to three years? 

Moderator: Angie Fischer, CIM Group

Participants: Bill Robbins, WealthForge; Brad West, Alternative Investment Exchange

The alt industry's top thought-leader previews the emerging "world war" that will determine the future of the investment management industry: the fight for the $45 trillion of assets controlled by individuals in the 90-99th percentile of wealth. Which products and services will determine the outcome? And how can you be on the winning side?

Bob is the pioneer educator in our field: his foundational book The Alternative Answer became a Wall Street Journal bestseller, and his Bloomberg and Fox TV spots, “Bob’s Buzzword,” have explained the lexicon to millions of viewers.

He is a Director of Nasdaq Private Markets; a senior consultant to Wilshire Associates and Neuberger Berman; and serves on the board of the Value Line Funds’ investment advisor and the editorial committee of The Institute of Wealth and Investments.

Bob’s firm, Tangent Capital, advises private equity, hedge, and real asset managers and institutional investors. RicePartners.com hosts Bob’s recent award-winning articles, presentations, events calendar, and a library of his TV Buzzwords.