Alternative Investments

On behalf of our clients, Counsel Trust participates in alternative, non-traditional, hedge, and other private equity investment funds or pools. These funds or pools often maintain high barriers of entry (high minimum investments) and feature multi-managers and multi-styles. They emphasize various sectors of the economy with low correlations to marketable securities including energy, real estate, hedge, and fixed income. Combining low correlated assets together in a portfolio enhances risk adjusted returns.

Alternative investments are often made available through affiliations with outside firms—consulting, hedge, real estate, fixed income, and others that have unique skills and experience in a wide variety of alternative management disciplines. ECA Investment Group discovers, researches, analyzes, and monitors these alternative investment firms. A sample of some of the investment opportunities and characteristics are detailed below:

• Illiquid senior bank and real estate notes
  
  
• Direct general or limited partner interests in oil and gas wells
  
  
• Non-public real estate investment trusts (REITs)
  
  
• “Jones style” (long/short) hedge funds
  
  
• Distressed securities