Nov22526 Retirement Planning Awards 2023 Wealth & Finance Q. How can you legally make a claim it is guaranteed? Regan: First off, I agree with an old investment axiom: If something sounds too good to be true, it’s because it probably is. Guaranteed returns—aren’t. Every investment carries some degree of risk. This is generally reflected in the rate of return you can expect to receive. If your money is perfectly safe, you’ll most likely get a low return. High returns entail high risks, possibly including a total loss on the investment. Our fund is completely different. Q. Why is your fund different? Regan: The first part of my model is the arbitrage component. There’s minimal risk because I sell first and then buy, but there is always some transactional risk. You can’t get away from it. But the insurance industry was founded to provide guarantees. We rely on insurance to protect our lives: our homes, our businesses, and our health. So this is where my model excels: we rely on insurance to provide a true contractual guarantee. What makes me different is why my investors love me: I succeeded in getting the insurance industry to understand our trading model. Now, these insurers have “priced the risk.” Because I pay them premiums, they are happy to issue coverage. It is important to note that the insurance companies issue the guarantee directly to my investors. It’s not through our fund or our firm. That provides the next level of assurance since the policy is issued in your name. It’s no different from how they would quote your premium for a life or health insurance product. Based on the investment size, we have the insurance carrier directly issue the surety bond in our client’s name. It’s pretty simple, but it’s a new concept in the hedge fund business where losses and wild volatility are the norm. Q. So, to clarify, your guarantee is a separate insurance policy? Regan: Yes, that’s it! The “guaranteed return” policies are issued to our investors directly from licensed and regulated major insurance carriers and not from our firm. I am sure that if we attempted to offer “guaranteed returns” directly, we would run into issues with the SEC and various other regulatory bodies and consumer protection agencies. It wouldn’t be prudent. This is where I came up with the idea to pair my investment offerings with insurance products. That would ultimately give our investors the highest level of assurance and certainty in a very uncertain world. Our insurance is high quality too. All of our surety bonds and insurance policies are issued by Lloyds of London or other firms carrying investment grade ratings from AM Best. Q. Can you tell us a little more about how you were able to partner with these insurers? Regan: Great question! It’s actually what I am most proud of. Most people assume that creating the model is my crowning achievement, but that’s not the case. Getting the insurance industry to bet big on me was a monumental achievement. Everyone in the financial industry knows that the insurance industry is incredibly regulated, conservative, bureaucratic and slow-moving. When I approached insurers, I was immediately subjected to intense scrutiny. I endured several forensic financial audits that spanned over 21 long months. Initially, I was forced to put up eight figures in counterguarantees. There was a never-ending mountain of legal documents and bureaucratic red tape before I could obtain the backing from the insurers we now work with. But it was worth the pain, as we now can issue our investors policies insuring against loss and guaranteeing a minimum return of 24% per annum. Q. How long have you been successfully applying this strategy? Regan: It’s been six years now. However, only within the last year were we able to roll out the insurance policy with surety bond protection for our investors. Q. Why haven’t we heard of you before? Regan: That’s a very subjective question, but I am not by any means a household name nor do I aspire to be. Plus, I’ve had my head down for the past several years developing this methodology and arm-wrestling with the insurance industry. I am a small player in relative terms of assets under management, and I prefer it that way. My focus is on results. I have achieved success because of the fact that I am small and agile, so I never want that to change. My investment strategy is inspired by Sun Tzu, legendary military strategist from ancient China. He was a master of agile warfare and preferred to win without fighting or, if that was not possible, pick the easiest battles. That’s how I run my funds….we stick with our strengths. We’re not looking to outgrow what we do best. I also don’t look for attention. While my name may not ring bells, I bet you’ve heard of my insurance partners. Lloyds of London, Afiancol Insurance, RedBridge Insurance, Ocean Reinsurance, these are all big names and you can say that I am standing on the shoulders of giants in that regard, however, I really value my privacy. Since I am happy to trade my own capital, there was no real upside for me to seek the spotlight. Now that I am actively launching my own funds, there is an obvious utility to these sorts of interviews, at least for the time being.
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