How to Think About Alternatives Today: A Conversation with Greg Brown

Every investor who considers alternatives is eventually faced with the same question: Is the added complexity worth it? The honest answer depends on what part of the category you're talking about, how you access it and what you're trying to accomplish with the allocation.The newest episode of Trust Company Talks takes that question on directly. Hosts Bill Noble and Burke Koonce are joined by Dr. Greg Brown, Distinguished Professor of Finance at the University of North Carolina's Kenan-Flagler Business School and founder and research director of the Institute for Private Capital, for a conversation covering the full breadth of the alternatives category.Greg has been researching hedge funds, private equity and private credit for more than two decades, and he brings academic rigor to a space often clouded by marketing language. He explains how each category actually behaves inside a portfolio and why the economic case looks quite different for each one.In this episode:The two economic reasons alternatives belong in a portfolioWhy the median venture fund disappoints while the average fund looks strongHow hedge fund alpha has decayed as more capital has entered the spaceThe redemption pressures currently playing out inside evergreen private credit fundsWhat individual investors should weigh before committing capital: liquidity, taxes and due diligenceGreg's take on alternatives in DC plans and the broader retailization of private marketsFor investors, advisors and board members working to make sense of a category that has grown well beyond its original definition, this episode is an hour well spent with one of the foremost academic voices on private markets.Trust Company Talks is a production of Trust Company of the South, one of the premier wealth management firms in the Southeast. Trust Company is a privately held firm based in Greensboro, NC, with offices in Charlotte and Raleigh. You can find more episodes of Trust Company Talks on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Receive the episodes as soon as they premiere by subscribing today.