I have had the distinct honour and pleasure of being invited to speak at two excellent conferences recently.

In September I headed down to Sao Paulo to speak at the DMS 6th Annual Investment Funds Summit. I was joined on a panel by fellow Harneys partner Marco Martins, along with two representatives from Maitland and one from DMS. It was a slight concern of mine that every other panellist was fluent in Portuguese but thankfully this illiterate Englishman managed to scrape by.

We discussed the latest trends and updates from the offshore world, with Marco touching on the new LLCs in Cayman and I was asked to talk through the incubator and approved funds. It was very interesting indeed for both of us to get a real sense of fascination in the room with not only some in-depth queries during the presentation, but also afterwards and well into the evening whilst we were enjoying our caipirinhas. Given the tax amnesty at the moment, offshore structuring remains incredibly poignant and the use of fund vehicles in particular seemed to be of real interest to budding fund managers looking to take in investments from the high net worths who are bringing their money back into Brazil and wanting to put it to good use.

My only disappointment, as you will see from the photo, is that no one provided me with the memo about wearing a pair of bright red socks. Next time.

Not long after I unpacked my bags, I was getting down the suitcase again to fly up to one of our very regular stomping grounds of New York to speak at the Marcum Alternative Investment Manager Forum Dennis Schall put on a truly masterful event which included a keynote speech from Larry Kudlow which was one of the most impressive I have ever heard. A room full of rather loud elephants was hushed into silence by some unbelievably simplistic and yet incredibly brilliant economic policies that led to a standing ovation at the end. Given he acted as senior economic adviser to President-elect Trump throughout his campaign, there is potentially reason to be a little more optimistic than the outlook a number of the political commentators are currently expressing.

Whilst it was far from ideal to speak in and around such an impressive orator, it was great to help emerging managers with both the rationale behind using their service providers in the most efficient manner and then set out the various structures that can be used in our industry to maximise the manager's goals. Dennis had put together some great panellists indeed and not only do I think we added a little bit of insight, but there was a touch of humour too as you will see demonstrated from my photo with Larry.

Boy, didn't he look like he was just bubbling with enthusiasm to be seen standing next to the offshore guy...

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