Format: Live + Q&A | Duration: 2 Hours | CE Credits: 1.5 | Cost: Free
Walk into your next alternatives conversation with a system, not a gut check.
In two hours, you walk away with a diligence framework built by a $125M fund manager who conducts due diligence on deals on a daily basis.
A working checklist you can apply to the next Private Placement Memo (PPM) you review and reference in your next client conversation.
Gain the confidence to assess alternative investments like a pro and protect both your clients’ security and your credibility + earn 1.5 hours of continuing education accepted for CFP® CE, NASAA Investment Adviser Representative (IAR) CE, and Investments & Wealth Institute (CIMA®, CPWA®, RMA®) credit.
IWI Institute Program ID 26CRPTHN001
IAR CE Course ID C82137
What the class covers
The five questions the checklist answers for you
Every private placement comes down to a handful of judgment calls that separate a confident recommendation from a hesitant one. The class is built around all five.
Is the sponsor worth backing?
Track record, alignment, and organizational depth, including how much of their own capital is in the deal and what that tells you before you read another page of the PPM.
Does the strategy hold up in this market?
How to pressure test the business plan, verify the sponsor's market data, and judge whether the exit is realistic on the proposed timeline.
Do the numbers make sense?
How to stress test the return projections, scrutinize the assumptions underneath them, and find the break even points the sponsor didn't highlight.
What's actually in the PPM?
The fee load, the waterfall, and the governance terms, mapped clearly enough to walk a client through every dollar and every investor right.
Is this the right fit for this client?
Allocation sizing, liquidity fit, tax implications, and the documentation that backs up your recommendation.
You leave with the complete checklist and the confidence to work through every one of these before recommending a deal.
Why a framework matters
What changes when the process is documented
Advisors who evaluate alternatives with a repeatable framework see the difference in three places.
Navigate the complexity of Private Placement Memos
Fee structures, governance provisions, and sponsor economics are all disclosed, but they're spread across dozens of pages of legal language. A structured process helps you locate and evaluate the details that matter most.
Client conversations get more specific
When you can walk a client through exactly why an investment fits or doesn't, with specific criteria rather than general impressions, it changes the quality of the conversation. Clients notice.
You stop passing on the good operators
Sponsors with strong track records and sponsors with strong marketing can look similar at the pitch deck level. A framework gives you the criteria to evaluate operating discipline independently of presentation quality, so you're not defaulting to "no" on deals that deserve a closer look.
Meet your instructor
Taught by an operating fund manager
Ian Colville
CEO & Managing Partner, Carpathian Capital Management
Ian leads Carpathian Capital Management, a boutique residential real estate private equity firm focused on development joint ventures. He has run this same due diligence process across every deal that has crossed his desk since 2012, through the 2018 supply squeeze, the 2020 pandemic reset, and the 2022 rate shock.
$125M
Assets under management
2022
Inc. 5000 fastest-growing company
Who this is for
Built for advisors allocating to Alternative Investments
Advisors adding private deals to client portfolios
Independent RIAs, wirehouse advisors, and family office analysts who want a defensible, documented process for evaluating private alternatives as client interest grows.
Credentialed professionals who want substance with their CE
CFP®, CIMA®, CPWA®, and RMA® holders looking for credit hours from a live session taught by someone who runs the due diligence process he's teaching, not a packaged curriculum.
Practices with alternatives capacity ready to deploy
Advisors with clients holding capital available for alternatives who want the confidence to deploy that allocation on a specific framework rather than general conviction.
What you walk away with
Tools you can use right away
The Due Diligence Checklist
Distilled from the diligence Ian runs daily as a $125M fund manager. Adapt it to any private investment, a real estate offering, syndication, or fund, and make it your own.
A step by step PPM review process
How to read a private placement memorandum the way a fund manager does. Where fee nuances, structural issues, and governance factors actually live inside the document.
Sponsor evaluation criteria
Specific benchmarks for evaluating sponsor operating discipline beyond what marketing materials present. The same questions Ian's team asks before partnering with anyone.
1.5 CE credits included
Approved for CFP®, CIMA®, CPWA®, and RMA®. Live attendance required. The credit is a bonus. The checklist is what you'll keep using.
What others are saying
From advisors who've sat through the class
Franck Cushner
Wealth Manager · Money in the Bank Podcast
"The interactive aspect was wonderful, and the material was holistic and very informative."
D.P., Wealth Advisor
"I enjoyed the case study and will be using the provided checklist with clients."
P.M., CFP®
"Well-put-together and comprehensive, exactly what I needed."
B.B., Family-Office Analyst
Common questions