The Blue Vault Bowman Alts Summit, With Stacy Chitty

As forward-thinking wealth advisors rethink the 60/40 portfolio and utilize alternative investments to protect and improve client portfolios, the Blue Vault Bowman Alts Summit 2023 is well-timed for advisors who are looking to grow their practices and improve client outcomes.

Stacy Chitty, co-founder of Blue Vault, joins the show to discuss why this summit is a “can’t miss” event for independent RIAs.

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Episode Highlights

  • Details on the upcoming Blue Vault Bowman Alts Summit, to be held March 6-8 at the Grand Hyatt Atlanta in Buckhead.
  • Why this event offers unique value to attending wealth managers who are looking to grow their practices.
  • Details on who will be at the event, including some speakers who will be of particular interest to wealth managers.
  • Stacy’s personal favorite part of the event.
  • Special offer: financial advisors who are AltsDb subscribers may register for the event at this link for a discounted rate of $199.

Today’s Guest: Stacy Chitty, Blue Vault

Stacy Chitty on The Alternative Investment Podcast

About The Alternative Investment Podcast

The Alternative Investment Podcast is a leading voice in the alternatives industry, covering private equity, venture capital, and real estate. Host Andy Hagans interviews asset managers, family offices, and industry thought leaders, as they discuss the most effective strategies to grow generational wealth.

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Show Transcript

Andy: Welcome to “The Alternative Investment Podcast.” I’m your host, Andy Hagans, and we have kind of a mini-episode for you today. Or I should say it’s a mini-episode, but I have a special guest who has a personality that’s larger than life. I’m talking of course about Stacy Chitty, the founder of Blue Vault. Stacy, welcome back to the show.

Stacy: Hey, thank you, Andy. Thanks for having me.

Andy: And we’re talking about the Blue Vault Bowman Alts Summit 2023. And just, right off the bat, so, I’m pleased to say that AltsDb is an official summit partner for the event, but, you know, there are a lot of conferences and events for advisors and financial professionals to attend. And I usually don’t have them on the podcast, even when we’re, like, a media partner. I think with, busy schedules and everything, it’s important to get the message out why this event is unique, why it’s special, why especially elite advisors and financial professionals who place capital in alts need to be at this specific event. So, Stacy, what makes this event unique?

Stacy: It’s a great question, Andy. Thank you for asking that question. Yeah, it is unique. I’ll try to do my best today to describe that. Our event’s not probably gonna be as impactful as Schwab IMPACT. But, especially for an alt-related event, there are a few conferences throughout the year that focus just on alts. I think ours is different in two or three ways. First of all, the product sponsors and the vendors who pay to be there, they are there to actually present. So, if you’re an advisor and you attend our event, you’re gonna have the option of hearing directly from them. So, it’s not just go to some panel discussions and go to some general sessions and hear, or talk, to have some sidebar comment, or conversations with product sponsors. You hear directly from them. And then you have the opportunity to ask them questions, directly, to them.

And it’s all senior-level executives who attend our event. In fact, that’s mandated. It has to be a senior-level executive who comes and actually does the presentation. Those are also the guys who hang around, and have dinner with us and breakfast with us, and take advisors out to dinner later in the evening. And so, number one, you hear directly from them. And then, just like every other conference in the world, you have a lot of networking opportunity, to visit with them also.

Another thing that’s unique about our event is there’s actually gonna be advisors at our event. We’ve transitioned our event to an advisor-focused event. So, it’s not just broker-dealers and product sponsors who are attending. Anyone and everyone who has anything to do with the alts industry, and let me be specific about that, when I say alts, I’m not talking about liquid alts, I’m not talking about hedge funds, SPACs, that sort of thing, although we might have a couple of those there. But it’s primarily REITs, non-traded REITs, non-traded BECs, interval funds, private offerings, including DSTs, Opportunity Zones, closed-end funds, preferred share offerings, tender offer funds. It’s that type of the product structure. Those are the folks. And of course, as many of you know, most of that, the backbone of all of that, is real estate. Some debt, but most of it is real estate. So, that’s the alts world that we cover, that we speak about.

And so, number one, you’ll get to hear directly from sponsors. Number two, most all the product sponsors will be there. There’ll be 33 to 35 product sponsors there. Most of them will be speaking. Of course, you’ll get an opportunity to visit with all of them. A lot of networking time. And then finally, I wanted to say, make sure I got this in, this is also about the individual advisor and the practice management part of their business. So, you know, not just what product sponsor do you use, but also how do you use alts? What are you supposed to know about alts? It’s the, not just the who, but it’s the what and the how of alts. And we’ve got a whole host of vendor companies who will be attending this event that made the use of alt easier, something that, you know, 10 years ago didn’t exist.

So, a lot of the vendor firms will also be there, and they’ll actually be exhibiting. And in fact, Andy, AltsDb and your friends at AltsDb are gonna be there exhibiting as well. You have a role to play in the whole educational process. And so, we appreciate the fact that you guys are gonna be there. One last thing I’ll say about this, and it’s really an educational event. It’s not a boondoggle. Now, I’m not saying others are, but if you come to this event, you’re coming to learn. It’s jam-packed with educational content from beginning to end. And so, we’re looking for elite advisors, who want to know more, want to learn more, and become a more of an expert on alts, so that they can take better care of their clients. We’re looking for those advisors to join us. So, long answer there, Andy. Sorry.

Andy: No, but a good answer. And I think you hit the nail on the head with the phrase “elite advisors,” because I do think, when you look at, you know, the advisor channel, whether family offices, independent RIAs, all types of wealth management professionals, the advisors who’ve kind of figured out, number one, that big picture, we’re gonna improve our client portfolios, and improve client outcomes by including alts in our portfolios, to protect wealth, to grow wealth, that big picture’s number one. And then number two, where the rubber heats the road, how do we do this, you know, in practical terms, so that, you know, the practice management and that whole area of it… I think that’s really, really important. And another thing you mentioned, just a lot of senior folks, a lot of decision-makers, gathering them, getting them all together at the same event, in the room at the same time, so this isn’t, you know, this isn’t necessarily our junior marketing intern.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that. I started in financial services as the junior marketing intern, so I just wanna be clear. There’s nothing wrong with that. Yeah. But, you know, getting the decision-makers… And I have to say, I’m on the event webpage right now, and I love the headline, by the way, “The 60/40 Portfolio No Longer Cuts It.” I just love that headline. But I’m looking at the speakers and the companies. I’m seeing a lot of heavy hitters. You know, I’m seeing Apollo Global Management, Bluerock, Cantor Fitzgerald, Charles Schwab, obviously, Catherine Bowman, your partner. Just so many leaders in the alts space. So, tell us about, you know, some of these companies and speakers who are attending the event.

Stacy: Yes, a great question. In addition to the product sponsors and the vendors, the ones providing professional services, in addition to those being there, speaking, and being on some of the panels, we have a host of industry experts as well, who don’t necessarily have a vested interest in… They don’t have a product, they don’t have a service, but they’re there to help financial advisors, wealth advisors understand how they can grow their business, and grow their business over the long haul. So, these are folks from Fidelity, from Schwab. They are there. Again, it’s important that they be a part of the conversation. There are several folks, Clint Sorenson, Jay Hummel, Andy Kalbaugh.

If you don’t know Andy, he served in a capacity with LPL for 15 years. And primarily, what he did was help advisors grow their business. So, he’s gonna be giving the keynote, and leading the discussion, early on Tuesday. So, we have eight different panel sessions, 50-minute panel sessions, on Wednesday, the last day of the event. And it’s all about practice management. We’re not talking about product at all that day. It’s all about practice management. We have a couple of those sessions, or for CE credits. There’s gonna be issues related to taxes, taxation, asset classes, how to communicate better with your clients, the whole host of topics that we’ll be talking about.

So, you know what, if you came to this event, and you didn’t ever use an alt, you’d still be in good shape. You’d benefit greatly from it. But, we are in the alts world, and we wanna teach you, help you learn more about alts and how they benefit clients. Andy, what you said is perfect. The bottom line is, this is all about how to protect our investors, their clients. But at the same time, advisors need to understand this better than they do, to be able to present these types of opportunities to their clients, and feel comfortable doing it. So, that’s gonna be a big part of our event also.

Andy: Absolutely. So, next, I got a personal question for you, Stacy. So, I know firsthand, putting together an event like this is just an incredible amount of work, tons of preparation, blood, sweat, and tears, so to speak. But these can also be so rewarding, you know, events like this. So, personally speaking, what’s your favorite part of the event? Because I know this is a series that you put on every year. What part do you enjoy the most?

Stacy: Well, I do get passionate about the content that’s being presented. We spend a lot of time on wading through the different topics and ideas and so forth, and trying to pick out… In fact, we put an advisor task force together, to help us wade through a lot of those things. A lot of the things that I thought were gonna be important to them ended up they weren’t interested in. So, they helped us with that. There’s a 15-member advisor task force that we put together to help us, and they will be there as well.

You know, this is probably not unique, Andy, but the thing that I enjoy the most is being able to rub elbows with the folks that actually attend. Talk to them, meet them. Probably more, the majority of folks that will be there, I’ve probably never met face-to-face, especially in light of the last three years, us doing a virtual event because of COVID. So, you know, it’s good to be able to meet people face-to-face and have a conversation with them. That’s probably a thing that I’m gonna appreciate most about it when it’s all said and done. All the new people that I will have met will be… And we help each other, we teach each other, we learn from each other.

Andy: Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, it’s funny. People will tell you things or share things, sometimes really helpful, insightful stuff in person. So, I’m big on virtual events. I love our virtual events. I love webinars. I love podcasting. But at the end of the day, getting together in person, still, there’s just huge value to it. So, Stacy, I wanna respect your time, but before I let you go, I have to ask you, where can our audience of RIAs and wealth management professionals go to learn more about this event?

Stacy: Well, you can go to summit, S-U-M-M-I-T, .bluevaultpartners.com. You could just go to our website, bluevaultpartners.com, and find it from there also. We are currently registering people. We’re at 160 people, I think, as of this morning, who have registered for the event. We’ll probably have about 300 before it’s all said and done. If you didn’t know, it is in Atlanta. It’s the Grand Hyatt Atlanta, which is actually in Buckhead. The dates are March 6th through the 8th. It’ll begin at noon on the 6th, which is a Monday. And it’ll end later that afternoon on Wednesday the 8th. So, that’s how you can find out more about it, and that’s how you can register. When you go to the site, you’ll get a good feel for the other types of individuals and firms that are going to attend also.

Andy: Yeah, absolutely. And great location, Atlanta. A lot of direct flights there. So, easy to get there. And yeah, I should have asked about the date already. Thanks for reminding me. And by the way, for our listeners and viewers, we’re gonna put a special link in our show notes, so, that’s at altsdb.com/podcast, where advisors who are AltsDb subscribers can register, get a little bit of a discount for the event. So be sure to check our show notes for that special link.

Stacy, really excited for this event. Really appreciate that you’re allowing, you know, AltsDb to partner with you and be present at this event. So, thanks so much for joining today, and, you know, sharing the good news about this upcoming event.

Stacy: You’re welcome, Andy. And thank you guys for participating and engaging with us on the event. I don’t know if we wanna designate you officially our media event partner. There is a role for you to play, as we’ve talked about, there. Also, you’ll be exhibiting, and you’ll be leading discussions, you and Jimmy, and we appreciate very much your involvement in helping us get the word out to advisors.

Andy: Absolutely. Stacy, thanks again for your time today.

Stacy: Okay, Andy. Thank you. Have a great day.

Andy Hagans
Andy Hagans

Andy Hagans is co-founder and CEO at AltsDb, and host of The Alternative Investment Podcast. He resides in Michigan.