Schechter’s Hodari On Alternative Investments As Core Holdings

Aaron Hodari, CFP, CIMA, Managing Director and Chief Investment Officer at Schechter Investment Advisors joined Julie Cooling, Founder and CEO of RIA Channel, at the CAIS Alternative Investment Summit to discuss the firm’s proactive discussion of alternative investments with clients.

Schechter started in 1939 in the life insurance advisory space and expanded offerings to wealth management in 2013.  In just ten years, this division has grown to a team of 84 and $3.1 billion* in client assets.  Hodari notes that this growth can be attributed to the firm’s goal of doing everything it can to give each client a great experience.  The business model is a high-service offering where each advisor is supported by five to seven team members in operations, technology, and service.  The firm leverages this premium client experience into referrals and strong growth.  A key initiative has been to invest in client reporting with transparent and benchmarked returns updated on a daily basis.

Schechter views alternative investments as core portfolio holdings and proactively discusses these offerings to clients.  Clients enjoy the exposure, as the team has explained how alternative investments can help meet financial goals.  The average exposure to alternative investments across the firm is 30%, with the largest holdings in private credit and private equity. Investors who are new to alternatives may find it difficult to invest in funds with lockups of seven years or longer, but private credit liquidity is becoming more friendly to accredited investors with the growth of interval funds.  Schechter has been in private credit for many years but sees heightened levels of both risk and opportunity in the fixed-income market compared to the times of extremely low rates. 

*As of 11/28/23