We’d like to thank all of those who attended the 3rd Annual South Coast Economic Summit on Saturday, October 22nd, at the Radisson Hotel in Newport Beach, CA.  The event was a tremendous success with over 150 attendees! For those who were unable to attend, South Coast set out to accomplish 3 things.  1. We showed our clients how to become better investors by implementing a process into their financial plan.  2. We identified strategies to help create a positive investing experience in any type of market, and 3. we left our clients with some fresh ideas on how to take advantage of the opportunities and how to minimize the risks that we all face moving forward.

If you couldn’t make it, here is a recap of what you missed:

Marty Rising  with Hanlon Investment Management started the day off with a discussion on why diversifying an investment strategy is just as important as diversifying amongst assets.  He showed us how investors can add defensive measures to their portfolios by pulling back the veil on the strategy of Buy-and-Hold. His presentation took a deeper look into the misgivings in both passive management (buy-and-hold) and, at the other end of the spectrum, market timing. Since their inception in 1999, Hanlon’s active portfolio management philosophies have been a tremendous tool for creating a haven of calm in any market environment.

Keynote Speaker, Greg Autry, gave an eye opening look into Chinese policy.  His recently published book, “Death by China; Confronting the Dragon – A Global Call to Action,” like a modern-day Paul Revere, offers the most urgent of warnings about how China is systematically destroying the American economy under the false banner of “free- trade” and in the process, severely weakening our national defenses.  His presentation will not soon be forgotten, and he helped shed light onto a subject that has been largely neglected by US politicians and press.

There were several breakout sessions on various topics throughout the day.  Here is a brief recap of the presentation subject matter:

Apartments on the Rise with Bluerock Real Estate LLC.  Bluerock is a national real estate firm headquartered in Manhattan.  Bluerock focuses on acquiring, managing, developing, and syndicating stabilized, value added and opportunistic multifamily properties primarily in the South East and Texas.  Bluerock believes that the United States is increasingly becoming a nation of renters and feels strongly that demographic shifts and declining home ownership trends will continue to support Apartment Rental Growth for the foreseeable future. Bluerock and its seasoned institutional investment executives have designed current high cash flowing and value-added opportunities for accredited investors to invest directly with many of the Nation’s top 25 institutional Apartment Management Firms.

Participate in Developing our Domestic Energy Resources – Tax Advantages and Income Opportunities with Catalyst Energy Inc.  Catalyst Energy is headquartered near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is engaged in oil and natural gas development in the Appalachian region of the United States. The activities of Catalyst encompass the exploration, development, production, transmission and processing of oil, natural gas and liquid hydrocarbons. Catalyst has offered accredited investors the opportunity to co-invest in the development of oil and natural gas reserves since their formation in 1992. Each investment program provides the investor-partners with tax advantages including the write-off of intangible drilling costs during the 1^st year of operations, the ongoing yearly depletion allowance and depreciation of tangible equipment. Catalyst’s shallow wells which primarily target oil and liquid natural gas reserves generally offer an attractive balance of risk and return. Their strong performance over the years can also be attributed to their cost efficient business model which charges no up-front fees to the investors.

Investing in the World’s Top Companies without the Equity Market Volatility with Wells Real Estate.  Core principles guide wise investing. Wells Core Office Income REIT is an investment that focuses on the most important fundamentals. The Wells approach includes high-quality properties, top-tier credit quality tenants, great core locations and a prudent, conservative approach to debt. For over 26 years, Wells has managed more than $11 billion in assets for well over 250,000 individual and institutional clients. Wells is made up of a strong and seasoned team of real estate professionals who have built and managed high-quality core office portfolios. The Wells Core Office Income REIT has set out to provide investors with capital preservation and a long-term stable source of quarterly income.

The Domestic Energy Dilemma – Present and Future of Oil and Natural Gas with Noble Royalties.  Since 1997, Noble Royalties Inc. has specialized in acquiring and managing oil, gas, & coal royalty properties with proven production histories and potential for growth. To date, NRI has completed over 200 acquisitions with a value of over $1 billion dollars into both producing and non-producing oil royalties, gas royalties, and overriding royalties. Noble has over 145,000 distinct royalty interests in producing oil & gas wells in 30 states making Noble one of the nation’s largest independent oil royalty and gas royalty buyers in the industry. Noble strongly believes in the importance of investing in our domestic energy resources and positions itself on the conservative side of the energy equation. They utilize no debt or leverage and assume no drilling risk, while acquiring legacy energy assets with 35+ years of reserves to create a long-term, conservative income stream for investors and their families.

Prescription for Investing – Spotlight on Healthcare Real Estate with Realty Capital Securities.  Realty Capital Securities (RCS) is a full-service real estate advisory firm that sponsors multiple real estate investment programs. RCS raises capital to be allocated to large, non-traded Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) that are designed to provide capital preservation and conservative, long-term, tax sheltered income streams. RCS will discuss the American Realty Capital Trust III which is a net lease REIT that acquires single-tenant, freestanding, necessity retail properties throughout the United States. RCS will also discuss the opportunities in the healthcare sector and their current offering, the American Realty Capital Healthcare Trust, which intends to acquire a diversified portfolio of real estate properties, focusing primarily on medical office buildings, hospitals, assisted living facilities and skilled nursing facilities. Both investment programs are designed to provide non-correlation to the equity markets along with income and growth

 Real Estate Investing for Every Environment – Spotlight on Student Housing with Virtus Real Estate Capital.  Virtus Real Estate Capital is a real estate private equity sponsor that has a proven track record in making real estate investments designed to be successful in all phases of the real estate market cycle.  Virtus has recently launched its 34^th Investment Partnership that will be investing in the student housing industry.  Virtus Student Housing, LP, offers highly attractive investment opportunities for several reasons: (1) current demographic and educational trends; (2) the ability to fare well in both periods of economic growth and contraction; and (3) the highly fragmented nature of the industry.

Global Real Estate Trends – How to Access Quality Markets Beyond our Borders with Hines.  Hines is an international real estate organization with approximately 3,200 professionals located in 66 U.S. cities and 17 foreign countries. They currently manage 311 properties representing 121.9 million square feet and maintain relationships with more than 3,550 national and multinational corporate tenants. Hines Global REIT was created to take advantage of real estate opportunities within and beyond the borders of the United States. Hines global approach recognizes that only one-third of the world’s investable real estate is located in the United States and that if you invested only in the U.S. or only in one sector of the U.S. market, you could be missing the potential rewards of investing overseas.

Finding Yield in Today’s Low Interest Rate Environment – Real Estate Debt Opportunities with Poinsett Capital Advisors.  Poinsett Capital Advisors, LLC is a full service real estate investment advisory firm that specializes in providing asset management services and creating opportunistic investment funds. They have recognized extreme dislocations in today’s real estate environment that center around the ongoing struggles to regain some normalcy in the real estate-related debt arena. Poinsett has created the CRE Strategic Opportunity Fund to focus on originating, investing in, financing and managing commercial mortgaged-backed securities (CMBS), mezzanine loans, commercial mortgage loans, preferred equity, and other real estate-related debt investments. The fund is designed to provide investors with an attractive risk adjusted return over the long term through cash flow and capital appreciation.

Again, we want to thank everyone who was able to attend this event.  Please provide us with your FEEDBACK as we look forward to making the 2012 Economic Summit even better.

2011 South Coast Economic Summit Picture Gallery