ADISA’s 2019 president, Greg Mausz (Preferred Apartment Communities) and ADISA’s executive director, John Harrison, recently met in Washington with the leadership of NASAA (North American Securities Administrators Association) and various congressional offices to advance the mission of the retail alternatives investment industry.
 
The NASAA meetings focused on the need to provide further education on the wide array of alternative investment products whose use is growing in interest to investors across the country. In the meetings were NASAA’s presidents—immediate past, present, and upcoming—Joe Borg (Alabama), Mike Pieciak (Vermont), and Frank Borger-Gilligan (Tennessee) and NASAA’s executive director, Joey Brady. NASAA as the association for the 50 states plus Mexico and Canada supports the work of state securities regulators “through advocacy, education, subject matter expertise, communication, and coordination.”
 
“ADISA is launching and updating some of our key outreach educational material to help in our efforts to educate state regulators,” noted ADISA president, Greg Mausz. Top on the list, according to Mausz, is an update of ADISA’s popular Guide to Alternatives booklet by Lightbulb Press. Mausz mentioned that ADISA’s publication and standards committee chair, Sherri Cooke (AI Insight), is at the helm of this project. Further educational outreach efforts such as support for business school curricula are also underway, according to Mausz.
 
In addition to the NASAA meetings, Mausz and Harrison visited several congressional offices to brief tax and financial congressional staffers on the need for support for Like-kind Exchanges (LKEs, a.k.a., 1031 exchanges). “With each new Congress, there is a need to educate anew on the benefits of Like-kind Exchanges,” said ADISA’s Harrison. Indeed, the congressional staffers visited were appreciative of the easy-to-read LKE booklets left behind by the ADISA delegation. 

All in all, the ADISA president and executive visited six offices, five on the House side: Dank Kildee (D-MI), Drew Ferguson (R-GA), Stephanie Murphy (D-FL), Brad Schneider (D-IL), and Gwen Moore (D-WI); and one on the Senate, Tim Scott (R-SC). Present at the meetings were the senior staffers responsible for tax and financial affairs, including those from Senator Scott’s office, the co-creator of the Qualified Opportunity Zone legislation. ADISA’s government relations team member, Anne DarConte, a veteran of congressional affairs assisted. She noted, “the targeted approach to offering bona fide research and knowledge to congressional staffers—instead of blindly pleading for one’s own cause—helps ADISA’s reputation on the Hill, and actually prospers the financial services industry even more.”