Fractional Private Markets and Alternative Investment services tailored for the Registered Investment Advisor
We offer independent RIAs who want to begin implementing alternative investments (or upgrade their existing approach) two simple options outlined below. Our plans include a complimentary in-person or video consultation, project dashboard with timeline and action steps, weekly check-in calls, a final written report and presentation, and access to ongoing live support via in-person, phone, or video. For clients who want a customized or advanced service package please reach out to inquire about our offerings.
Starter Plan
With this 30-day engagement we will do an assessment of your practice with respect to alts, identify key goals and objectives, provide an overview of options, discuss challenges and keys to success, help you get out of the gate by introducing key vendors, discuss how to position alts with your clients, and highlight best practices plus common pitfalls to avoid.
Ongoing Plan
With this month-to-month engagement we get more involved with your practice and perform a broader strategic assessment. Typical ongoing engagements are 90 days or longer. Upon the completion of our assessment we create a customized project plan to assist you in an ongoing manner across multiple phases of your practice. We help coach and assist each week with the goal of accelerating firm AUM growth and new client acquisition.
Endurance Strategies approach to helping RIAs
The hallmarks of a smarter alts investing approach includes: long-term time horizons, thinking about scale from the outset, building partnerships with key vendors, investing in education and training, committing to a diversified and meaningful allocation, upfront and ongoing due diligence, and outsourcing with seasoned experts.
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New Legal Structures
Registered offerings and products built for retail investors have changed the alts opportunity for RIAs meaningfully in recent years. The private fund with multi-year lock ups, $250,000+ minimums, and high fees is a relic of the past .
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Diversification still matters
Allocating to a single strategy or alternative asset manager isn't diversification. A 15% - 30% target allocation likely will look normal in the coming years, and affords more opportunities to capture all the benefits of alts across different asset classes, strategies, managers, and more.
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Watch Fees and Expenses
Alts do come with higher fees than traditional strategies. Understanding why this is the case and if they are merited is critical. Many alts funds employ incentive fees called carried interest. Utilizing an industry expert to make sense of the fees and know which expenses are justified helps your client's bottom line.
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Lower Minimums
Investment minimums for many new retail products can be as low as $2,500 and often are substantially lower than institutional versions from the same manager. RIAs who believe all alts managers have minimums of $250,000+ are simply not informed.
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1099 Tax Reporting
Many new retail offerings have addressed the dreaded K-1 and offer simple 1099 tax reporting. This keeps clients happy at tax time and reduces the burden on your operations and administrative teams.
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Suitability
Some alts solutions require investors be accredited investors but many new retail offerings have a suitability standard that many individual investors can meet. Consider suitability requirements from one global alts manager as a case in point: "Gross annual income of at least $70,000 and a net worth of at least $70,000; or a net worth of at least $250,000. Certain states have higher suitability standards, please refer to the fund prospectus for full details."
Are you interested in how Endurance Strategies can support your RIA practice?
We believe in driving a profound change in private markets investing with the independent RIA as our core focus. We invite you to engage with us as we execute this mission to change how capital flows in the private markets and improves investment outcomes for clients via this important and critical intermediary.
Frequently asked questions
Q&A to commonly asked questions
Why work with Endurance Strategies?
Today, Endurance Strategies is in position, after 15 years in the alts trenches building relationships, working internally at multiple real estate firms, hedge funds, private equity, private credit, fintechs, and investment banks, to offer independent advisors unparalleled education, knowledge, resources, and an insiders perspective in order to fully maximize the potential of alternative investments.
The journey of accumulating and building the knowledge, experience, insights and relationships began when my family moved to Atlanta in 2006.
After working as an investment banker in Atlanta with two of the largest financial institutions in the U.S., Andres Sandate founded Endurance Strategies in 2010 to serve emerging alternative investment managers and their clients as a consultant and placement agent. For the past decade, Andres has also served as a senior executive and voting investment committee member at multiple alternative investment firms including hedge funds, private equity firms, private credit firms, real estate investment firms, fintechs, and multi-asset managers.
During his nearly 20 year career working in investment banking, asset management, and alternative investments, Andres has worked on billions of dollars in transactions. Through all of these deals, individual investors rarely had an insiders seat at the table and an opportunity to participate. In 2021 Endurance Strategies set out to begin changing this dynamic.
As a first step, Andres launched ATLalts, a media platform dedicated to educating investors about alternative investments and private markets investing. On the heels of launching the ATLalts podcast, Andres began laying the groundwork to operationalize his vision to democratize private markets investments for individual investors. This included additional roles in financial technology companies and the rapidly growing area of private credit.
The next step in the evolution was partnering with a dually registered registered investment advisor (RIA) and independent broker-dealer called Gramercy Park Wealth Advisors, LLC / GPWA, LLC. GPWA possess a team of experienced professionals, an unwavering commitment to ethics, a partnership ethos to deliver practical and cost-effective solutions to clients, and always strives to exceed the fiduciary standard of care. Partnering with GPWA was a logical and important step to offer a variety of additional solutions to clients.
As the financial industry becomes increasingly complex and advisors seek new ways to grow and evolve their practices, big issues like technological change brought on by AI and blockchain technology, longevity, health and wellness, income, and legacy are top of mind for clients. Alternatives isn't the only answer to these important issues, but certainly can help advisors in navigating a path forward for clients.
Can individuals without a defined benefit plan invest using an IRA?
Yes. Many investment sponsors have made it possible to utilize qualified plan assets such as IRAs and other retirement assets to invest in alternatives. Every sponsor is different in how they approach this important issue and each offering will outline if and how financial advisors and their clients can invest qualified dollars into their offerings.
How long is my client's capital committed if they invest in alternatives?
Every investment opportunity is different and each offering has unique terms, conditions, investment objectives, and target duration. Core to many of the newer alternative offerings for retail investors and private wealth advisors is the enhanced liquidity features. For example, interval funds and non-traded BDCs may offer quarterly redemption features. Advisors should be mindful however that alternative investment strategies are not designed to be traded on a daily basis like stocks, ETFs, and other liquid strategies. If you are going to commit to employing alternative investments in your portfolio or your client portfolios, you need to have the resources, time, patience, and correct expectations.
Generally speaking private markets investment opportunities will require investors to commit capital for multiple years at a minimum. Traditional LP funds have 8-10 year lives (or more) but this is not the case with newer registered offerings . Some registered offerings are designed with a 3-4 year targeted hold but offer regular tender or redemption windows. Every investment comes with risks and loss of principal is possible, and past investment results are not a guarantee of future returns.
How is Endurance Strategies compensated?
We offer two very simple engagements for financial advisors who engage us. You can engage us for a basic feasibility analysis which is a one month engagement and is popular with advisors just getting started on their alts journey. A second option involves a multi-month engagement (typically around three months) that is more comprehensive. Some clients may desire a customized engagement, in which case we will scope out the proper deliverables and time involved to accomplish your objectives. We are not paid by technology vendors, product sponsors, or fund managers.
My client base is my livelihood, are you going to need to speak to my clients?
Your clients are yours and the lifeblood of your practice. I only work with the business owners, principals, and staff of the financial advisory firm. If you want support in making a presentation to a prospective client I can help, but I will never speak to your clients or interact with your clients unless you say so and are present.
Only a few of my clients qualify to invest in alternatives, is it worth it to explore offering these solutions?
Ultimately you are the owner and entrepreneur and must make this decision. Even if you have 10% of your client base invested in alternatives, these are likely some of your largest and most important relationships. The larger the client the more likely they are hearing about and should be invested in alternatives. Reduced minimums and suitability standards that are different than accredited investor requirements have made investing in alternatives possible for individual investors that simply wasn't the case five and ten years ago.
Where do I start if all my clients own is stocks and bonds via ETFs and mutual funds?
Getting exposure to alternatives will not happen overnight. The first step is to sit down and evaluate your objectives. A feasibility analysis will identify how you can implement alternatives, where to consider starting the process, and which segments of your client base may be the most attractive candidates to start discussions. Developing model portfolios with alternatives is a step many advisors choose to make after discovering their options and weighing the benefits. A phased approach to implementation can occur over several years. Getting colleagues, advisors, the operations team, and other vendors up to speed takes time. None of this needs to be disruptive to delivering a great client experience to your long-term clients. A move from 0% alts to 3-5% and eventually 7-10% before increasing to 15-20% takes time without big liquidity events or asset inflows.