How Investor Clubs Screen Deals and Connect Members

At a Family Office Club panel, Richard C. Wilson introduces investor club leaders and asks about their members, deal screening and ways to work with their groups.

Richard C. Wilson moderates a panel about how investor clubs work with members and outside sponsors. The panel brings together representatives of retirement account platforms, a passive investor community, a group serving doctors and dentists, and an angel network. They discuss how these organizations connect people with deals, what members seek and what sponsors may encounter when approaching a group.

Richard opens by describing his aim to bring other investor platforms into Family Office Club, then asks panelists about member demand, minimums, due diligence and group growth. Their answers range from community introductions to formal investment review and account services. The conversation gives sponsors and investors a view of different approaches to organizing access and evaluating opportunities.

In this video: Richard C. Wilson (Panel moderator and Family Office Club founder), Carl (CamaPlan representative), John (Directed IRA custodian), Britney (Leader of an online community for limited partners and passive investors), Forest (Registered investment adviser and emerging multi-family office representative), Pat (Left Field Investors representative), Jared (Miami Angels representative)

What they said

1. Richard on platform partnerships. Richard says one group represented on the panel had 138,000 investors. He wants other investor platforms to partner with Family Office Club. (at 0:33)
2. Forest on outside due diligence reports. Forest says he asks sponsors for third-party due diligence reports. He says the reports save time by screening out sponsors who are not prepared, while his group still does its own review. (at 21:08)
3. Britney on member deal decisions. Britney says her group does not sanction deals. She describes vetting members to understand what they think they want and need, then connecting them with relevant people and resources. (at 12:43)
4. Carl on getting started at 25,000. Carl says 25,000 is generally a common minimum. He described one investor who started there and returned with $2.5 million about a year and a half later. (at 15:29)
5. Jared on checking deals with venture funds. Jared says his group asks a venture fund's managing partner whether they have seen a deal. The partner may then speak with the group's investors. (at 24:59)

In their words

"we're now starting to see that Main Street America has access to the private markets"

Why it matters if you are building or preserving great wealth

Britney says her group connects members with relevant people and resources, while members make their own deal decisions.