Alternatives & Private Market

Let’s make the most of opportunities beyond the traditional markets.

As your advisors, we’re constantly seeking to expand your opportunity set through investments in alternative assets and the private markets. Our goal: atypical sources of return to reduce your overall portfolio risk while attaining the results you need to achieve your goals.

Our alternative investment strategies can include hedge funds and private debt (what we call Diversifiers), real estate, infrastructure, natural resources (Real Assets), and venture capital, growth, buyout, distressed and/or secondary strategies (Private Equity).

Hedge funds and some other alternative investments trade in the public markets to take advantage of pricing inefficiencies and trends. The focus and the strategies vary widely, resulting in different levels of correlation with the returns in traditional markets.

In contrast, private market investments, like private debt and private equity investments like venture capital, aren’t publicly traded. Our goal is to assess and suggest only the alternative investments we have high conviction will add value to your portfolio in context of everything else you own. For example, you may already have substantial private market investments through ownership of a business, investment real estate or other assets, and we’ll consider that as we make recommendations for your portfolio.

What Is Right for You

As in everything we do, we don’t recommend alternative investments just for the sake of it. For qualifying clients, we’ll only suggest alternative investments that provide a true benefit to your portfolio and align with your wealth plan, your finances and your goals. To identify the right options for you and your portfolio, we explore with you each of the following topics to start:

• Diversification. Perhaps you own a business or have a sizable real estate portfolio. If so, you might already have most of your assets in the private markets and need to reassess and perhaps rebalance before committing more.
• Liquidity.  How long can you afford to tie up capital? Often, a longer holding period provides a higher return, assuming the investment performs as expected.
• Taxes. Non-traditional investments are taxed differently and often require the filing of a Schedule K-1 with the IRS. We can advise you on what tax reporting will be required and when, including taxes on stock issued to you by an employer.
• Impact. We can present options for direct investment in private markets and other alternatives that align with your goals for the environment and your communities, such as ventures in renewable energy, affordable housing or neighborhood revitalization.
• Family circumstances. We know your life and that of your family will change over time. What happens to ownership of your private market investment if you get married or divorced while those assets are tied up? What happens when you pass away? We’ll help you think through titling, community property issues and estate planning considerations of these unique investments.

Deep Due Diligence & Expertise

Our investment team has decades of experience analyzing a wide variety of alternative investments and understanding and managing the risk involved. We are extremely selective in the investments we choose, researching many promising opportunities and rejecting most.

We’re not beholden to any one private equity firm or hedge fund. And we are keenly aware that with the benefits, there are also the downsides of alternatives and private market placements – higher fees, lower transparency, potentially higher taxes and lack of liquidity.

We propose investments only when we are convinced the benefits to your portfolio will outweigh the risks.