Interval Fund Market Trends: How Financial Advisors are Embracing the Use of Alternatives

Hey, I'd like to welcome you to another episode of mission matters. My name is Adam Torres. And if you'd like to apply to be a guest in the show, just head on over to mission matters. com and click on be our guest to apply. All right. So today's guest is Kim Flynn, and she's president over at XA Investments. Kim, welcome to the show. Thank you, Adam. All right, Kim. So excited to get into today's topic. So we're going to talk about interval fund market trends, really how financial advisors are embracing the use of alternatives. We'll also kind of define alternatives, what that means for the investors out there that maybe have, don't have much experience with alternatives or that market. So we'll get into that as well. But before we do, we'll start this episode, the way that we start them all with what we like to call our mission matters minute. So, Kim, at Mission Matters, our aim and our goal is to amplify stories for entrepreneurs, executives, and experts. That's what we do. Kim, what mission matters to you? Sure. Our firm is focused on education around alternatives. And the reason education is so important is that the burden for saving for retirement, you know, is on your shoulders. It's on my shoulders. And access to alternatives that pension funds endowments have historically had, we have not. And so making alternative investments more available and frankly, helping people understand the benefits. That's what we're really focused on here at XA. It's great. Love bringing mission based individuals on here to share why they do what they do and how they're doing it really what we can all learn from that. So good. Good to have you on. And just to get us kicked off here. Alternatives. How did you first get introduced into that space? And for and for some of the audience that have been watching this a long time, you know that, you know, 14 years before media. So I'm interested because you've made a career of alternative. So how did that start for you? I think like a lot of people's careers, it's been sort of stepping stones. And then once I found a match in, in a mentor, it really set me on the path that I am today. But I started my career in investment banking, working at Morgan Stanley, and I didn't love it. I liked that it was fast paced, but I, I felt like I had more. to offer. And I wanted to spend my days thinking about the capital markets. And so I found myself in asset management. I ended up working at Nuveen Investments, which is a leader in certain innovative product structures, and they're well known by a lot of individual investors. So that's where I found really terrific mentorship and to distinguish what I was doing. I knew I wanted to be at the cutting edge. And was looking forward. And now that alternative investments are really more available. That was where I wanted to spend really the next part of my career. And so I founded this business XA investments. And I actually happened to found the platform that I run with a couple of former investment bankers from Morgan Stanley. So you never know where your career connections are going to lead you, but. Yes, our focus is on alternatives. And what's exciting about that is that, you know, some of the smartest individuals in asset management. You know, they're, they're no longer running a large mutual funds. They're at hedge funds. They're at crypto shops. They're running private equity. And so that was what was appealing for me. What do you think is drawn people to the, these individuals or even yourself? Like a lot of different routes you could have went, like, what made you stick with alternatives? Like what was so interesting about it? Well, I think it's the challenge of, you know, on the face of it. Do you really understand what a private credit is or what private equity is? So you have to dig a little bit deeper. Once you do, you know, you understand that private equity is simply companies in the U. S. that that are not traded on an exchange. They're privately held. And so I think that once you dig under the surface, you Of alternatives while seemingly complicated. I think there's there's ways that we can relate and understand these businesses And so that was what was compelling I I felt like it was sort of foreign and once I familiarized myself with the return potential diversification potential you know That was what encouraged me to learn more Talk a little bit about about your process and just the process of how you go about looking for and sifting the private markets for these investments. Like what does that look like? Well, Adam, let me give you an example because we've spent the last two years working with firms on real asset type products and real asset products are things that provide inflation protection. And as we all know, you know, when we go to the grocery store, we go to target. Inflation is top of mind. And so you want an investment that can help you and is going to return more an environment where, where we're seeing inflatio

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