E65: Alternative Investments 2025 Recap - Private Markets, Access, and Trends

AIME Episode 65 Transcript

Sarah Florer (00:10.255)
Welcome everyone to Alt Investing Made Easy. Thank you for joining us today. It's that time of year. We've now completed another year of this webcast. so Roland and I want to do an annual recap. Roland, how are you today?

Roland Wiederaenders (00:25.021)
good, sir. You know, it's been great. Again, just we've been talking over the last, you know, this morning and talking about filming this episode and just thinking back on what we've accomplished and, you know, kind of don't break our arm patting ourselves on the back. But we've gotten to I don't know what number we're on, but we've continued this podcast for a full year and a half and continuing on. We have plans to continue.

Sarah Florer (00:42.149)
Hahaha.

Roland Wiederaenders (00:53.711)
We wanted to do a little recollection for 2025. Sarah, I'll just turn it immediately over to you. Tell me what is kind of the biggest standout to you about what we did with Alt Investing Made Easy in 2025.

Sarah Florer (00:57.115)
Mm-hmm.

Sarah Florer (01:11.887)
Well, you know, the first thing is that we continue, didn't we? And we published every week, I think, except for two weeks this year. So literally 50 episodes. Considering we started really publishing content in September last year, I think that's pretty remarkable. And it's been really wonderful this year because not only did we get to interview new colleagues because we joined a new law firm, FBFK Law.

as you can see here. But we also had the opportunity to have new guests and very interesting people doing really interesting and important things in the alt investing space. And it's a privilege to get to know them, to learn from them, and also connect them to each other when the opportunity arises.

Roland Wiederaenders (02:03.087)
Yeah, absolutely. You know, those new relationships, I guess, is what really comes to my mind. And honestly, Sarah, you know, like when we started out in 2025, we were at a different law firm and we uncovered an opportunity to move to a new law firm. And I bring that up because it's what you and I do primarily on a day to day basis. We work on other things as well, the investment advisor stuff, but we are practicing attorneys and

Sarah Florer (02:21.329)
Mm-hmm.

Sarah Florer (02:29.617)
Mmm. Yeah.

Roland Wiederaenders (02:33.199)
And we uncovered the new opportunity with FBFK, Ferguson Braswell, Fraser Kubasta, really through this podcast. One of their shareholders and somebody that I knew from long time ago and somebody that we've had on as a guest, George Lee, saw the podcast and reached out to me. And it's because of this that we...

Sarah Florer (02:43.192)
Mm-hmm.

Roland Wiederaenders (02:56.707)
really, know, Sarah, we created this opportunity for ourselves at this new law firm and it's been great. I think it's been overall 100 % positive for us. So that's the one shout out to AIM. You know, the one thing that AIM really helped accomplish for us is, you know, we had a good situation before, but we came into an even better deal for our

Sarah Florer (03:02.319)
Yeah.

Sarah Florer (03:18.352)
Mm-hmm.

Roland Wiederaenders (03:19.885)
our law practice and it's just really giving us a great base to continue to build on what we've done with Alt Investing Made Easy.

Sarah Florer (03:27.941)
Yeah, for sure. And it's also been wonderful joining FBFK Law for other reasons, and that is because in the process, we've got a bunch of new colleagues who have really expertise and specializations in areas that are so relevant to anyone that's interested in investing in the private markets. I think in the past few days in the Wall Street Journal, there was an important article about basically this whole other

private equity market that exists for people who can buy in in the private space. I think OpenAI and other famous big name companies have raised a lot of money in the private markets. So keeping in our theme of democratization of capital and wanting and talking to other people who also believe in this and understand the importance of alternative investing, private markets for investing.

And the access that people need to have, not everybody has a million dollars lying around. Some people have 10,000 and there are people out there who recognize this, appreciate that and build structures for people to invest in safe and health successful ways, potentially successful always when you're investing your money, don't have a guaranteed outcome. And so in the end, I think it's been really rewarding to...

get to further our ideas that we came up with here and find like-minded people out there.

Roland Wiederaenders (04:54.179)
Yeah, yeah, for sure. just, you know, maybe law of attraction, but I feel like we've attracted people to us that I just really like personally. And they have given us some really good information, you know, just exposed us to some really great ideas. Well, do you want to?

Sarah Florer (05:04.656)
Yeah.

Sarah Florer (05:15.281)
So Roland, don't you, do you wanna share the website, but also I'd like to hear from you about what you felt was a major highlight for the year.

Roland Wiederaenders (05:25.007)
Well, yeah, I really think, you know, as I was, I hope it's not been too distracting. I don't know if we'll ultimately include what I'm sharing on the screen now is, you know, just looking at our website. But I was reflecting back on the FBFK attorneys that we profiled through AIM. And George Lee, for sure, he was the reason why we joined FBFK really, or first exposed us to the opportunity. And so part of this, you know, as an attorney marketing vehicle, I feel like we've been

Sarah Florer (05:41.638)
Yeah.

Roland Wiederaenders (05:54.731)
extremely successful and I think we've had like six of our colleagues on at least or maybe more just in the short time that we've been at FBFK and just showing how we have this knowledge of the private securities areas that we practice in the financing deals, the acquisitions, the different business deals, but we showed that we have the capability as attorneys and at this law firm to handle all.

Sarah Florer (05:58.8)
Mm-hmm.

Roland Wiederaenders (06:23.085)
sorts of matters that our clients may come into and relevant to this private security space, including, unfortunately, or for better or for worse, litigation as well. And so that's just one of the things. We've got George, we had an episode with him for sure talking about the investment advisor space. Dan Balcom, who's a tax expert, talking about opportunity, and Jerry Risen as well, talking with him about opportunity.

Sarah Florer (06:34.097)
Mm.

Sarah Florer (06:45.307)
Mm-hmm.

Sarah Florer (06:50.715)
The incomparable Jerry. Yeah, with opportunities, I'm sorry. Yeah.

Roland Wiederaenders (06:52.495)
The opportunity funds, opportunity zone funds. And then Dan Bitting, of course, our Austin colleague with the fiduciary litigation. so we really have a team here. We're focusing on this channel about the private securities deals, but just overall, and also giving information to investors, estate planning, Eric Beane.

Sarah Florer (07:00.495)
Yeah.

Sarah Florer (07:22.416)
Mm-hmm.

Roland Wiederaenders (07:22.531)
Just it's really what we're trying to develop in our law practice. think we're really seeing it come about and having this tool that's absolutely necessary for working in the alternative investment space and dealing with private securities. And I'm so grateful that I've got you on my team, Sarah, but then also we've got these other people that we talked about.

Sarah Florer (07:35.825)
Mm-hmm.

Sarah Florer (07:39.718)
Mm-hmm.

Likewise. Yeah, it's just, it's funny how like I'm 20 years into this journey as an attorney, Roland is more, and yet we have colleagues who are far more than that. it's just when you're anybody in their profession, when they have an opportunity to learn from, work with, be mentored by people who have more experience than they do, you know, it just only makes you better at what you do. And it's,

you know, really a great synergy. And so I'm really just grateful for that in general. And then if we go on and talk about people that we've interviewed, what do you think? I know who my, I already told you, you know, for me, but let's hear from you first.

Roland Wiederaenders (08:20.953)
Yeah.

Roland Wiederaenders (08:25.879)
OK, well, I think out of all the ones I was looking at, I've got to say it's George. you just mentioned it, we work with attorneys now that have been doing it even longer than us, practicing law. And here, I'm going to pull this up, and maybe we can share this. I'll mute it.

But I think that the episode with him and just having him as a law partner and being able to serve clients that have needs as investment advisors and working in this space, he's just the greatest asset that we could have. And so I really, you know, I love the idea of being able to promote my friends, but also, you know, we're making ourselves look really smart in the process. So having.

Sarah Florer (09:04.699)
Mm-hmm.

Sarah Florer (09:09.744)
Mm-hmm.

Sarah Florer (09:20.177)
Hopefully our friends like us for reasons, good reasons, our smart friends.

Roland Wiederaenders (09:22.563)
Having a guy like George, yeah, no, that's right. Yeah, but having a friend like George, man, I I count myself very blessed to have him as a law partner and the knowledge that he brings. He's the chairman of the State Bar business law section, incredible leadership. I'm just, so if I had to pick a highlight for the year.

Sarah Florer (09:32.943)
Yeah, me too.

Sarah Florer (09:43.099)
Mm-hmm.

Roland Wiederaenders (09:48.303)
For Alt Investing Made Easy, being able to have him on as a guest would really be it for me, sir.

Sarah Florer (09:54.546)
So, you know, it's funny because I actually, in truth, don't have favorites. I've really gotten something out of every person we've talked to this year, including our law colleagues and, of course, the people we've interviewed and also you, Roland, when it's just us. But I will say that I think an obvious highlight for me, one thing we came into 2025 with was a wish to expand and make sure that we back up what we say, which is that every single person has a table at

has a seat at the table for alternative investing. And pursuant to that, we had three different women on this year who are doing different things. And of those three women, each of which is really interesting and accomplished in her own way, it was Dr. Sarah Brand and her True Wealth Ventures venture capital fund that really was quite a highlight for me because

She and her partner are practicing what they preach and they're very experienced professionals. They've come to Texas from Silicon Valley and they raised a venture capital fund based in Austin. Actually, they're on fund number two. It's remit is to invest in women-led businesses that have an impact in either healthcare or environmental.

matters and they've been doing that successfully since 2017 I think. And another interesting thing that came out of that of course was that 80 % of the money they raised came from women in Texas who have capital to allocate. And I found that really encouraging because it represents

what I know to be true, which is that there are a lot of women professionals who are fully in charge of allocating things. You just don't always see it sometimes. So that was really quite the highlight for me. And I'm glad that we can stay in touch with Dr. Brand and in the future maybe we'll have opportunities to connect her to other people, connect people to her and even maybe work with her again in the future in some way.

Roland Wiederaenders (12:08.675)
Yeah, for sure. enjoyed that episode. Remember this morning we were talking and the little data point that I remember that she gave us is that she said that woman back venture companies outperform, which I thought was really remarkable. And after working with you more and more, Sarah, I can really see why.

Sarah Florer (12:23.387)
Yeah.

Sarah Florer (12:29.721)
thank you. There is actually in truth though that there's a lot of data now to back up this and other women that I know that are wealth managers and capital allocators, there is a lot of data that backs up. There's a certain combination of conservativism and risk taking and really thinking through things that is a good combination that can be attributed to women.

And as a result, you can get very consistent performance in investments and in financial matters, especially that have a long time horizon and don't promise a quick fix. So it's an interesting area. Maybe we can delve into that more in 2026.

Roland Wiederaenders (13:11.405)
Yeah, for sure. And I like what you said about the overarching theme, democratization of capital. Everybody has a place here. We don't make the laws so predominantly. We are dealing with wealthy people primarily. But there is a movement to give greater access to these private investment deals.

to a larger portion of the population. And I guess, to the extent that I could use this as a platform for advocacy, we could. The advocacy of shift in ideas. would say, SEC make private securities deals more accessible to a greater number of people in the marketplace. And it's just because our friend Eddie Martin, one of our earliest episodes, was telling us yesterday.

Sarah Florer (13:40.347)
Mm-hmm.

Sarah Florer (13:52.207)
Mm-hmm.

Sarah Florer (14:01.137)
Mm.

Roland Wiederaenders (14:08.481)
that there's been incredible wealth created in the private securities markets. Probably part of the way that wealth is becoming more concentrated in the hands of fewer and fewer people is through the private securities markets. But hey, let's make these private securities deals more accessible to people. Let's institute a test that you can take to qualify as an accredited investor.

Sarah Florer (14:22.385)
Mm-hmm.

Sarah Florer (14:36.207)
Hmm.

Roland Wiederaenders (14:36.759)
And then really think as investment advisors, how we can really lift people up and expose them to these ideas. really, ultimately, with the goal of trying to provide people with outsized investment returns relative to what they could get in the public securities markets.

Sarah Florer (14:58.315)
Exactly. And maybe we need to try to have somebody that's specifically an economist on next year, Roland, because I think it would be very interesting. Like I said, there's this article in the Wall Street Journal, and there's a trend where fewer companies find the need to list publicly because they can access a lot of private money very quickly and easily with less cost, less time, and potentially fewer hurdles. And what that does is it

reduces the universe of public companies that form our public securities markets or public equity markets. And it would be interesting to learn a little bit more about long-term trends. Of course, I will caveat that with, you know, one of the incredible things about the American equities markets is that they tend to do really well most of the time. So I don't know that we need to have a doomsday attitude towards any of it. But, know, a different perspective on what that looks like. just highlights the need to consider

private securities as part of your overall strategy for preparing for retirement or for, you know, if you're an investor professionally. So I think it's an interesting area to get into. I'd really like to get into some of that next year.

Roland Wiederaenders (16:11.727)
Yeah, let's put that on our Christmas wish list, making a new friend, a new economist friend.

Sarah Florer (16:14.961)
My Christmas. Any economists out there? So, all right. Anything else we want to add? I mean, I just want to say there's so many, you know, to each and every one of you participated in AIM this for 2025. We genuinely appreciated your time. Really liked getting to know you and learning from you. So thank you for that. And then for next year, we're...

planning on going full steam ahead. We're going to have some content, some more deep dives into a few areas. So look for that, just me and getting into what we're gonna call the term sheet teardown to give you some really concrete information about the beginning stages of an investment deal. I think we're also gonna try doing shorter episodes to see, I think all of us are pressed for time, so shorter episodes might be interesting to some people. Anything else you can think of, Roland?

Roland Wiederaenders (17:11.033)
Yeah, no, just more and more are wanting to continue really. We talked a lot about education and talking to people about our colleagues, like I mentioned, George. But really, Sarah was such a good episode because I want to really continue to try to help people sell.

expose the market to their private securities deals and particularly our clients, but other people doing 506C deals, talking about their deals, know, really just normalizing these and exposing the market to these private securities deals in a way that, you know, it was 2013 that 506C came about with the Jobs Act.

Sarah Florer (17:41.158)
Yeah.

Roland Wiederaenders (18:01.999)
And that is the first time in 2013 when you could use advertising in connection with private securities, the sales of private securities. And I think that that's, you know, we're 12, 13 years after that now, but it's still a relatively new thing. And we see it going on more and more. And that's really what we're wanting to achieve here through, you know, using this as a marketing platform to help particularly our law clients.

Sarah Florer (18:16.209)
Hmm.

Roland Wiederaenders (18:31.991)
sell their 506C deals. But like Sarah Brand, she could do a fund that as long as they were relying on 506C and their reasons why they might not want to do that. But she could come on and talk about it. But she can for sure come on and talk about her prior experience. But anyway, I love that aspect of it because it's just instead of this just being some kind of

Sarah Florer (18:43.664)
Yeah.

Sarah Florer (18:53.68)
Yeah.

Roland Wiederaenders (19:00.001)
you know, ego deal for us. We're really trying to help our clients in a way. It's the attorney plus plus model, right, sir? We talked about that before. So.

Sarah Florer (19:07.041)
That's right. Attorney plus plus. So what do you think?

Roland Wiederaenders (19:12.919)
I think that's a yeah, yeah, we're at 19 minutes. I think yeah, yeah. Yeah, there you go.

Sarah Florer (19:16.913)
So let's finish up in the spirit of shorter episodes. So thanks to everyone for joining us today. We wish you happy holidays if you're celebrating the holidays at the end of this year, or we wish you a great conclusion to 2025 and an auspicious start for 2026.

Roland Wiederaenders (19:37.975)
And remember everyone, take aim with your alternative investing strategies.

Sarah Florer (19:43.249)
See you next time.