2024 Alts Research & Due Diligence Forum

Why Go?

ADISA's Alts Research & Due Diligence Forum is designed for industry professionals who are employed with a Broker-Dealer, RIA, Family Office, Due Diligence Firm, or select others, that offer alternative investments in their business.

Discover due diligence techniques, processes, tools and resources to ensure your business remains compliant and safe
Learn about today's issues and business opportunities
Network with more than 200 industry professionals

Who Will Attend?

Broker-Dealers
Registered Investment Advisors (RIAs)
Family Offices
Due Diligence Professionals
Compliance Officers
Sponsors
Affiliates

Hotel Information

All 2024 Alts Research & Due Diligence Forum events will be held at:

Boston Marriott Copley Place
110 Huntington Avenue
Boston, MA 02116

Sponsors & Affiliates: Book your room here. Make your reservations by Friday, June 28, to ensure ADISA's group rate.

BEWARE of hotel reservation scams: There are several hotel reservation “pirates” who somehow get prior year meeting attendance lists and then approach past attendees to reserve their hotel rooms and in so doing either steal credit card information or broker a non-refundable reservation with extra junk fees. Please note that ADISA does not call or send out emails to individuals to solicit hotel reservations. You should use only the link provided in our reservation system to book your room. Please contact us with any questions.

Agenda

*Draft as of 5/16/2024

Tuesday, July 23

7:45 AM - 8:30 AM

Breakfast & Exhibition

8:30 AM - 8:45 AM

Welcome & Introduction

8:50 AM - 9:50 AM

Opening Keynote -- Industry Update

Despite the pre-election jitters, many sponsors of non-traded securities are continuing to raise significant amounts of debt/equity capital for real estate, energy, private equity and structured finance projects. In this session, you will hear from industry leaders what companies, products and strategies are effectively raising capital with the BD retail and RIA channels.

9:50 AM - 10:20 AM

Break & Exhibition

10:20 AM - 11:20 AM

Reg BI Duty of Care: FINRA's Exam Expectations and Enforcement Cases

This is a "not-to-miss" session for due diligence officers, compliance officers, and selling advisors who market alternative investments to retail clients. In this session, we'll address the two components of Regulation BI, and we'll talk about FINRA's exam priorities and expectations concerning Reg BI as it relates to the sales of non-traded investments to retail clients. We will discuss past enforcement cases relating to Reg BI, as well as some facts and circumstances that weighed negatively for the broker-dealers in those cases. We will also discuss certain practices that FINRA broker-dealers can adopt in their efforts to comply with Reg BI from a rules/exam perspective.

11:30 AM - 12:30 PM

Sourcing, Diligence and Other Practice Considerations for Registered Investment Advisors Who Use Alternative Products

In this one-hour session, you will learn from industry experts how RIAs are effectively using non-traded products within their practices, with a particular focus in this session upon the sourcing, underwriting and monitoring of these products from an RIA practice perspective. As a part of the session, RIAs will learn what resources and research tools are available to support advisors that use alts within their advisory practices. The legal experts on the panel will also share some recently promulgated rules that will affect how advisors must sell alts, including the NEW DOL Fiduciary Duty Rule and Fund Advisor Rule.

12:30 PM - 2:00 PM

Lunch & Exhibition

2:00 PM - 3:00 PM

Sponsor Due Diligence Process Part I: Financial Statements, Site Visits, Understanding Prior Performance and Lessons Learned

Due diligence experts review the analytics and investigative process they use to examine a product sponsor's ability to manage an investment program to successful conclusion, which will include an in-depth discussion of the investigative methods used by these experts to confirm a sponsor's financial wherewithal and ability to perform in prior programs/projects. As a part of this session, the panel will discuss the function/importance of a sponsor site visit and how the visit should be used to validate a sponsor's promotional claims. Also, this due diligence session will discuss some of the important lessons our industry has come to learn through references to programs that perform both well and poorly.

3:00 PM - 3:30 PM

Break & Exhibition

3:30 PM - 4:45 PM

Sponsor Due Diligence Process Part II: Applied Due Diligence

In this applied practice session, multiple product sponsors will be interviewed in a site visit setting about their assets, operations, finances, capital sources, prior performance, and transactional practices when dealing with affiliates and managed programs. This session, which is Part II of the sponsor due diligence track, is intended to expand upon some of the key site visit concepts shared in the prior session in terms of planning and process. Although the interviews will be primarily based upon the sponsor's actual business circumstances, the interviews, in some cases, will also include hypothetical dialog and responses in an effort to illustrate certain special circumstances in which it might be prudent to either reject a product or suspend a product selling agreement.

5:00 PM - 6:30 PM

Welcome Reception & Exhibition
Wednesday, July 24

7:30 AM - 8:30 AM

Breakfast & Exhibition

8:30 AM - 9:20 AM

Alternative Product Marketing: Reg. D Rule 506 and FINRA Conduct Rule 2210

Continuing the conference's focus upon proper alts product sales practices, this session will be dedicated to examining certain SEC/FINRA rules that affect the way such products can be sold, which will include discussions about Reg. D Rule 506 for private placements and FINRA Conduct Rule 2210, which governs the content of alts product marketing. As a part of the Rule 506 discussion, the panel will examine the difference between Rules 506(b) and 506(c), as well as the situations that might justify a sponsor's use of one exemption over the other. The session will also address the key marketing content requirements of FINRA Rule 2210, with a particular focus to be placed upon how the rule affects sales of alternative investment products.

9:30 AM - 10:20 AM

Regulatory Developments Affecting Alts Products

Report by ADISA's Legislative & Regulatory Committee
ADISA's Legislative & Regulatory leadership provides updates as to some important developments that will affect the sales of alternative investment products this year and into 2025 and beyond. The session will focus upon both enacted rules, as well as rules being proposed for enactment by the SEC, FINRA and state regulators.

10:20 AM - 11:10 AM

Real Estate and Energy Market Developments: Survive to 2025!

Hear from knowledgeable asset sector experts on the global and domestic developments affecting the values of real estate and oil/gas assets and projects. The real estate discussion will cover occupancies, credit trends and other economic developments affecting multiple sectors of the U.S. commercial real estate market, which includes multifamily, industrial, office, retail, hospitality, storage and other asset types. The oil/gas discussion will also focus upon world and domestic trends and issues affecting energy capital costs, revenues and cash flows.

11:15 AM - 12:05 PM

Rep/Advisor Product Education: Overview of Latest Developments

Established industry leaders summarize the importance of establishing a robust educational platform around alternative products, the process of which includes due diligence, product training, specialized training for products with tax features, and executive and monitoring. In this session, you will hear from the panel how these functions work hand-in-hand to enable reps and advisors to effectively sell alternative products in a manner that satisfies Reg BI, as well as FINRA's suitability requirements.