Kerry Lutz's--Financial Survival Network

Summary:
What does the term ‘private equity’ really mean, and what is its role in businesses today? On today’s podcast, we have private equity expert and bestselling author Adam Coffey with us to highlight the significance of private equity. As publicly traded companies are on the decline and exit strategies are taken into consideration, this term becomes especially relevant and crucial across a number of industries.

Highlights:
-‘kicked around’ always refers to private equity—Adam Coffey is a bestselling author and private equity expert and is going to give us information on what private equity is about
-What does private equity really mean? He uses the analogy of a mutual fund
-Private equity works similarly, but the minimum investment size is $5 million, unlike a mutual fund. It does exactly what it says and invests in private companies. The biggest area is buy-out funds
-Sell funds to return capital to the investors
-Private equity failures over the last ten years has to do with strong competition and return thresholds being monitored. Like any industry, there are winners and losers
-Good/bad firms can come in all sizes
-Distressed asset funds seek out companies that are in trouble and attempt to help them, but other failures are consumer driven (i.e. shopping malls and bookstores are going out due to consumer habits)
-There is far more equity invested in companies today than there is debt
-Limitations have come into place by the market and people investing
-People purchase most things online now, and there is a heavy evolution that is constantly progressing
-It’s hard to find an industry that private equity doesn’t play a part in
-There is a declining number of publicly traded companies, and they will probably diminish
-Exit strategy now involves selling off to private equity

Useful Links:
Financial Survival Network
Adam E. Coffey's Website/
Adam E. Coffey Linkedin

Summary:
Today, Val Hughes comes on the podcast to discuss active management, public/private equity, and the leveling of the playing field that is occurring in the current market. We talk about many of the changes that have occurred over the years that cause companies to function differently, and how the economy is growing in areas where you don’t need a lot of capital to be involved. Tune in to hear some insight from Hughes about a variety of financial topics, and to also get general advice pertaining to the current investing climate.

Highlights:
-If humans can’t beat a computer at chess, then how can they win in investing? Does it require someone that understands businesses and finances?
-Why do you need active management when CEOs and accountants frequently mislead?
-ETFs act as a distribution system, but are different from mutual funds
-ETFs trade on the exchange, so there’s no platform fee
-They are only a few spots where active management can win, like in small cap value investing
-Small cap value is the best performing asset class, and the data goes back to 1928
-If you like puzzles, there are still puzzles to solve in small cap value that can deliver alpha
-The trend of concentration - companies buy out competitors and consolidate the industries
-Publicly traded stocks have declined and companies buy out their own shares, becoming a homogeneous blob
-Why are there public companies? They came about to raise money to build things that individuals couldn’t afford on their own
-It’s a richer world now and we don’t need as much public money
-More of the economy is growing in areas where you don’t need a lot of money
-The government is turning our public companies into more of a social good
-Is private equity good or bad? You have to get back to the purpose of a company
-Private equity is still in the business of turning equity into a bigger equity, creating new niches within a service/product
-It is important to promise rewards to innovators so that they don’t stop—they fuel decades of hard work
-Robinhood Reddit phenomena - bringing something to the masses that used to belong to middle men. Technology is disruption the traditional process
-There has been a leveling of the playing field, and the professional investors have to compete with the guys on the streets. These two camps evaluate different criteria, one being the value of companies/what the stock is going to do and the other entails looking at what the game says it’s going to do. They don’t care about the actual attributes of the company
-Within small cap equities, there are products that serve needs
-It’s good for investors to talk to people on the street daily

Useful Links:
Financial Survival Network
The Value Guys