Publications

- October 1, 2017: Vol. 4, Number 10

Three Years and Counting: Fresh off a high-octane meeting with our Editorial Advisory Board, we assess our progress

by Mike Consol

The publishing of this edition of Real Assets Adviser marks three years of operation for this magazine. Ron Carson, one of the industry’s extraordinary entrepreneurs and advisers, was on our first cover, and since then our covers have been home to extensive profiles featuring Kevin O’Leary of Shark Tank and O’Leary Financial Group, Pablo Sanchez of HSBC private wealth, Jim Steiner of Abbot Downing, Alexandra Lebenthal of Lebenthal & Co., Mike Perry of Nuveen and many other leaders of the private wealth advisory business.

Our brand and readership have escalated dramatically since our start, largely thanks to the magazine’s managing director, Jennifer Dohrmann-Alpert, whose tireless attendance at industry events and forging of key relationships with organizations such as ADISA, IPA and an alphabet soup of other important groups has insinuated us into the private wealth business in record time.

We hope that our objective has been made manifest by both the title of the magazine and its contents, which is a combination of staff-written articles, stories assigned to our coterie of regular freelance writers, and thought leadership pieces contributed by members of the industry. That objective is the advancement of real assets (chiefly, real estate, infrastructure, energy, commodities, farmland, timber, etc.) as a class of assets for private investors.

In large part, our Editorial Advisory Board, whose more than 40 members are listed on page 63, directs us in this effort. Indeed, in August we held the second of our annual Editorial Advisory Board meetings in Midtown Manhattan and, from our perspective, it was outstanding. Why? Because our board members, through a series of off-the-record facilitated discussions, conveyed a mother lode of industry trends and information that enrich our understanding and ability to effectively report on the industry. The feeling appeared to be mutual. During one break, an exhilarated new board member raved that the proceedings were far more than a board meeting; “this is a think tank!” he said.

During the wrap-up discussion on day two, another new board member admitted dreading having to attend the meeting, only to find it was “the best meeting he had ever attended.”

A third board member added, “I would pay money to do a second one of these each year.”

More kudos to Ms. Dohrmann-Alpert for her relentless efforts in assembling a powerhouse advisory board that got these kinds of results, as well as working hand-in-hand with me to co-facilitate the sessions.

We have also received and are grateful for the backing of a battery of sponsors that include AI Insight, Argosy Real Estate Partners, CBRE Clarion Securities, Deutsche Asset Management, EPUS Global Energy, KBS, Mick Law P.C., Morgan Stanley, Pender Capital and Preferred Apartment Communities.

Board members and sponsors join us in the conviction that the traditional two-dimensional stock-and-bond portfolio has become anachronistic. There is much research that points to stronger returns from portfolios diversified by a rich mix of sensible alternatives and real assets. This can be accomplished through the so-called endowment model of investing, made famous by David Swensen, CIO of the Yale University endowment. In particular, direct investing in real assets can be particularly fruitful for taming volatility brought on by the day-to-day vicissitudes of the market, as well as reaping an illiquidity premium, provided the individual investor has a sufficient investable assets and the patience to let his or her money go to work for five to seven years.

Many RIAs have already made the move to endowment-esque models of investing for their clients, but a tremendous number are still swimming in the outdated soup of stock-and-bond construction for client portfolios. We are convinced many of the unconverted believe in real-asset diversification but have yet to pull the trigger because they lack expertise in those particular asset classes. This is why Real Assets Adviser magazine exists. Besides articles geared to educate and inform, this magazine’s pages have been filled with the thought leadership of experts in various asset categories who can be called upon by CIOs and advisers as their go-to people for finding the right strategies and products to properly execute endowment model portfolios. We put this magazine in the hands of CEOs and CIOs hoping to influence — as well as in the hands of advisers we hope will pressure their organization’s leadership to make the move.

In addition to the monthly package of information published in the magazine, Real Assets Adviser is also a daily news operation spearheaded by web content editor Andrea Waitrovich, with key assistance from staff reporter Jody Barnhanovich. Together, they write and curate a torrent of news for the broader company’s news feeds, including our daily Real Assets Adviser News Alert emails. Add to that the videos and podcasts pertaining to real-asset investing that are produced and published by the dozens and available on our website, and you have a more complete picture of the omni-channel approach we have developed.

All that said, we are just getting started. There is much more to be done. Be assured, we are on the case.

 

Mike Consol (m.consol@irei.com) is editor of Real Assets Adviser.

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