Memberlink® - 2008 Fall Forum for Private Investors

Please note: Because of capacity constraints, Monday, August 25th is the cutoff for registering for this forum. Attendance cannot be assured if you register after this date, and we therefore urge you to sign up online or mail/fax this form as soon as possible to avoid being disappointed or placed on a wait list. Please be sure you hear directly from IPI that we have confirmed your sign up.

12:15pm–1:15pm Luncheon

Lunch is in the Common Area on the Fifth Floor.

1:15pm–1:30pm Post-Luncheon Break

1:30pm–2:30pm Choice of Two Breakout Sessions and One Member Roundtable

The Grill®: Investing in Brazil
Grillee: Rodrigo Fiães / Gávea DTVM
Griller: Claudia Ferrari / Ventura Finance

Brazil’s economy has long attracted foreign investment, but its recent growth and stable currency are now attracting substantial investment capital. Given Brazil’s growing prosperity, what are the interesting opportunities in this country – and what are the potential risks?

The Grill® is designed to simulate an actual due diligence interview and will be “commercial”. Ideas, opinions and theories expressed during The Grill® are not to be interpreted as recommendations or investment advice of any kind by the Institute for Private Investors. IPI performs no due diligence on investments, products or firms and is not recommending the products presented. Members should perform their own extensive due diligence.

Reevaluating Family Limited Partnerships
Speaker: Mark G. Holden, J.D. / Withers Bergman LLP

Back by popular demand from the Spring Forum! This session will discuss increased IRS scrutiny and recent court decisions relating to Family Limited Partnerships. We will look at ways to avoid and improve bad fact situations through decontrolling such entities and other approaches to reduce estate and gift tax exposure. We will also explain the importance of building the file in anticipation of an audit and discuss other traps for the unwary, in particular issues pertaining to maintaining attorney-client privilege.

Member Roundtable on Hedge Funds: Funds of Funds or Fees on Fees?
Facilitator: Private Investor

Members are asked to come prepared to answer a series of questions about investing in hedge funds and hedge funds of funds. Has recent volatility in the sector impacted your allocation to hedge funds of funds or changed your return expectations, especially on an after-fee basis?

Member Roundtables are an opportunity for private investors to share practical information and experience with their peers. Because the confidential exchange of information is best suited to a small boardroom setting, capacity is limited, and upon signup you will either receive confirmation or be placed on a wait list.

2:30pm–2:45pm Refreshment Break

2:45pm–3:45pm Choice of Two Breakout Sessions and One Member Roundtable

Communicating/Evaluating Performance When It Is Negative
Speakers: John Banker and Robin Willoughby / CTC Consulting, LLC

This session will discuss evaluating negative performance for both underperforming traditional managers and underperforming hedge fund managers. The discussion will help investors get behind the numbers to examine what precipitated the decline, put the numbers into context relative to the manager's history and its peer group and ascertain what the underperformance means for the strategy's future and the stability of the firm.

Inflation: Who Is Exposed, Who Is Not and What To Do About It?
Speaker: Jon E. Ruff, CFA / Bernstein Global Wealth Management

With inflation and inflation expectations rising for the first time in years, investors are concerned about the potential impact on their assets and spending plans. This session will look at asset class performance and spending pressures in various inflation regimes (rising inflation, disinflation, deflation) to uncover how specific investors should, or should not, respond to the threat of rising inflation.

Member Roundtable on Inheritance: Entitled to What?
Facilitator: Private Investor

Members are asked to come prepared to answer a series of questions about inheritance and their families’ approaches to wealth transfer, from each generation’s perspective.

Member Roundtables are an opportunity for private investors to share practical information and experience with their peers. Because the confidential exchange of information is best suited to a small boardroom setting, capacity is limited, and upon signup you will either receive confirmation or be placed on a wait list.

3:45pm–4:00pm Refreshment Break

4:00pm–5:00pm Keynote Address

The Economic and Real Estate Recessions: How Long and How Deep?
Keynote Speaker: Kenneth Rosen, Ph.D. / Rosen Real Estate Securities

5:00pm–6:00pm Reception

Hosted by CTC Consulting

6:00pm Leaders Council and Dutch Treat Dinners

Tuesday, September 16th

8:30am–9:30am Choice of Two Breakout Sessions and One Member Roundtable

Legal Pitfalls for Individual Trustees
Speaker: Sharon L. Klein / Fiduciary Trust Company International

Agreeing to act as trustee also means assuming the responsibilities – and potential liabilities – associated with that role. In this session, we will examine how to minimize a trustee's potential liability in the following areas: investing the trust portfolio so as to balance conflicting interests and comply with the law, deciding whether and how to make distributions from trust assets utilizing the latest laws and determining who will shoulder the tax burden of investment and distribution decisions.

Positioning Your Portfolio in Terms of Currency
Speaker: Amarjit Sahota / HiFX

How does currency fit into your portfolio, and what should you be doing to hedge against currency risk in your investing, especially in light of the weakening dollar? This session will give an overview of the forces that influence currencies over the intermediate and long term and will discuss the direct and indirect ways that foreign exchange exposure can be taken on and/or hedged.

Member Roundtable on Cash Management
Facilitator: Private Investor

Members will come prepared to answer a series of questions about how recent dislocations in the auction rate securities market and other credit tumult have impacted how members manage cash. As IPI members have a higher than typical allocation to cash, what types of “cash” investments are they holding?

9:30am–9:45am Refreshment Break

9:45am–10:45am Keynote Address

How Do Hedge Funds Fit?
Keynote Speaker: Frederick E. Dopfel, Ph.D. / Barclays Global Investors

10:45am–11:00am Refreshment Break

11:00am–12:00pm Choice of Two Breakout Sessions and One Member Roundtable

The Future of the World’s Oceans
Speaker: Joshua Reichert, Ph.D. / The Pew Charitable Trusts

Oceans cover seventy-one percent of the Earth’s surface, and more than half of all species on Earth live in the sea. Oceans generate most of the oxygen in our atmosphere, detoxify and recycle much of our pollution and absorb vast quantities of carbon dioxide. Yet despite the fundamental importance of ocean resources, the health of the world’s oceans, once perceived as impervious to human activity, is rapidly declining. In this session, we will explore the current state of the world’s oceans and discuss ways to protect the future of life in the sea.

Return Trends and Managing Exposures in Buyouts and Venture Capital
Speaker: Kelly K. DePonte / Probitas Partners

Private equity and venture capital investing are volatile markets currently under stress. While the turmoil in the buyout sector is more recent, venture returns have been under pressure for nearly a decade, since the bursting of the Internet bubble. This session will review the long-term trends in buyouts and venture capital, as well as ways in which the secondary market can be used to manage exposure.

Member Roundtable on Portfolio Protection
Facilitator: Private Investor

Members will come prepared to answer a series of questions about how they are hedging their portfolios against market losses – from market risk, interest rate risk, manager risk and inflation.

12:00pm–1:00pm Luncheon

Lunch is in the Common Area on the Fifth Floor.

1:00pm–1:15pm Post-Luncheon Break

1:15pm–2:15pm Choice of Two Breakout Sessions and One Member Roundtable

Hiring and Firing a Manager
Speaker: Robert W. Andrews / Cambridge Associates, LLC

Good timing in manager hiring (and firing) can make all the difference in a portfolio’s long-term performance. Unfortunately, lessons from behavioral finance show that this is not easy to achieve. Results from a recent study of hiring and firing patterns show that investment committees often follow a pattern not dissimilar to retail investors: hiring at the top of a manager’s performance cycle and firing at the bottom. This session will review cyclical patterns in manager performance that underlie this problem and explore ways to improve the hiring/firing decision-making process.

Keys to Having a Successful Family Meeting
Speakers: Stephen Goldbart, Ph.D. and Joan DiFuria, MFT / Money, Meaning and Choices Institute

Family meetings can offer an effective and efficient way to maximize the opportunities of wealth and minimize its potential negative impact on current and future generations. How then can we best make use of family meetings to effectively communicate and pass on values so that family wealth and unity will be sustained over time? In this session, we will discuss a systematic framework for the family meeting process that includes crafting a mission statement, leadership in the family, engaging the next generation and communicating financial matters.

Member Roundtable on Private Equity and Venture Capital
Facilitator: Private Investor

Members will come prepared to answer a series of questions about their investments in private equity and venture capital. Have changes in the debt markets impacted investors’ decisions regarding future returns from these asset classes?

2:15pm–2:30pm Refreshment Break

2:30pm–3:30pm Choice of Two Breakout Sessions

Private Investors vs. Yale: Is the Endowment Model Appropriate for Private Investors?
Speaker: Jeffery Coyle / Waterline Partners, LLC

Over the last few years, Yale’s endowment has received well-deserved attention for their exceptional performance. They have arguably generated the most impressive returns of any large professionally managed portfolio over the last 20 years. As a result, many investors have sought to emulate their methods and strategies. This session will present the results of a recent study addressing the source of Yale’s returns through analysis of the contribution of both asset allocation and manager selection. We will also review Yale’s methods from the perspective of a taxable investor and question whether their strategies should be emulated by affluent families.

Stages of Inherited Wealth – The Progression of Inheritors’ Relationship with Their Wealth
Speaker: Myra Salzer / The Wealth Conservancy, Inc.

This session will introduce you to the five stages that many inheritors experience in their relationship with money: Innocence, Denial, Ignorant Acceptance, Learning/Growing and Integrated Authority. As you progress through each of the five stages, how can you transform your relationships with money from being burdensome to empowering? What steps can you take to maximize the effectiveness of your wealth and your life? Attendance at this session will be limited.

3:30pm–3:45pm Refreshment Break

3:45pm–4:45pm Keynote Address

Who Killed Bear Stearns?
Keynote Speaker: Andrew J. Kessler / Author

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IPI performs no due diligence on investment products or firms and is not recommending the products presented. Members should perform their own extensive due diligence. ©1995–2008 Institute for Private Investors. All rights reserved.
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