Investments & Wealth Strategy Forum 2023 - New York City
Speaker & Session Information
The Promises & Perils of Private Markets
Presented by Chris Geczy, PhD
Adjunct Professor of Finance, Academic Director, Wharton Wealth Management Initiative, Academic Director, Jacobs Levy Equity Management Center
November 29, 2023 9:00 - 10:00 a.m.
Private markets like private equity, venture capital, and private debt have grown enormously over the past few decades and now rival public markets in size. In this session, Professor Chris Geczy will provide an expert overview of private markets, discussing their unique characteristics, structural advantages, and risks. Drawing on his extensive research and insights, he will examine topics like the illiquidity premium, access and regulation, performance persistence, and impact investing. Professor Geczy will also explore how the shift towards private markets is changing the investment landscape and what it means for investors and advisors. Attendees will leave with a deeper understanding of private market dynamics that can inform investment strategy and portfolio construction.
Learning Objectives
Understand the growth of private markets and how they differ from public markets
Learn about major private market strategies like private equity, venture capital, private debt, and their sub-categories
Discuss the illiquidity premium and whether it compensates for lack of liquidity
Examine issues around access, regulation, transparency, and fees in private markets
Evaluate arguments around private market performance persistence and benchmarking
Explore the rise of impact investing and ESG incorporation in private markets
Consider implications of the private market shift for portfolio construction and advisor practice
Identify risks, challenges, and opportunities of increased allocations to private markets
The session will equip attendees to have informed discussions with clients about private market opportunities and risks. Participants will gain insights to help determine suitable allocations and implementation approaches for private markets in diversified portfolios.
Speaker Bio
Chris Geczy, PhD Adjunct Professor of Finance, Academic Director, Wharton Wealth Management Initiative, Academic Director, Jacobs Levy Equity Management Center
Chris Geczy is the founder, chief executive officer and chief investment officer of Forefront Analytics, LLC. Geczy has been on the Finance Department faculty at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania since 1997. He is academic director of the Jacobs Levy Equity Management Center for Quantitative Financial Research. He is also academic director of the Wharton Wealth Management Initiative at Wharton Executive Education. He has a BA in economics from the University of Pennsylvania and a PhD in finance and econometrics from the Graduate School of Business at the University of Chicago. Before his studies at Chicago, Geczy worked for the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Washington, DC in its Division of Research and Statistics.
He regularly teaches investment management and co-created the first full course on hedge funds at The Wharton School, a course on impact investing and a large number of executive education courses. He has taught AIMR/CFA Institute-accredited professional risk management courses through the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business.
He has served on the Economic Advisory Board of NASDAQ, has been an editor of the Journal of Alternative Investments and is on the Editorial Advisory Board of the Journal of Wealth Management. He is co-editor of Financial Planning Review. Geczy is also a founding board member and past Chairman of the Mid-Atlantic Hedge Fund Association and served on the curriculum and exam committee of the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst Association.
His work has appeared in numerous books and scholarly journals including the Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, the Society of Industrial and Organizational Psychology and the Journal of Political Economy. It has also been covered in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, the Financial Times, Forbes, NPR, on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” and in numerous other media outlets.
He currently consults with and advises a number of private and institutional investors including pension plans, insurance companies and ultra-high net worth families and others in the area of portfolio construction, management and evaluation, asset allocation, investment selection, alternative investments including private equity, infrastructure, hedge funds, risk management, and subprime exposures in both the 1940 Act space as well as the private fund area.
He serves on the Impact Investing Advisory Council of the Wharton Social Impact Initiative and the Wharton Sports Business Initiative.
Chris also is a former Trustee and member of the Investment Committee of The Episcopal Academy and is on the board of Somatix, Inc.
