Fall Semester & Back to School of Investing ~Understanding the Basics

Just like stu­dents return­ing from sum­mer vaca­tion and review­ing their knowl­edge, investors are now enter­ing the final push towards the end of the year and are review­ing their options. Some investors may be out­side their com­fort zone when attempt­ing to eval­u­ate any end of year repo­si­tion­ing of their real estate assets.

Sep­tem­ber 1, 2025

By Al DiNi­co­la, AIF®
1031 Tax Deferred Exchange Spe­cial­ists & DST Advi­sor
NAMCOA® — Naples Asset Man­age­ment Com­pa­ny®, LLC
Secu­ri­ties offered through MSC-BD, LLC, Mem­ber of FINRA/SIPC

Start­ing Col­lege in the Fall ver­sus Learn­ing Alter­na­tive Invest­ments: A Com­par­a­tive Analy­sis

A fresh­man enter­ing col­lege starts on a sig­nif­i­cant mile­stone in their per­son­al devel­op­ment and advance­ment of knowl­edge. Some of the cours­es may have more appli­ca­tion when exit­ing col­lege.  The deci­sion on learn­ing about alter­na­tive invest­ments has always faced accred­it­ed investors. Depend­ing on the final deci­sions from the SEC, non-accred­it­ed investors may be fac­ing some sort of test­ing for com­pe­ten­cy.  We will fol­low up on that top­ic as more details emerge.

For accred­it­ed investors, the deci­sion to learn about alter­na­tive invest­ments, such as Delaware Statu­to­ry Trusts (DSTs) and §1031 exchanges, cre­ate oppor­tu­ni­ties for cer­tain investors. This under­stand­ing may help in wealth build­ing with an approach to finan­cial lit­er­a­cy. The col­lege envi­ron­ment and obtain­ing alt knowl­edge involves edu­ca­tion, skill acqui­si­tion (and poten­tial­ly a lot more social­iza­tion in col­lege), they dif­fer marked­ly in pur­pose, struc­ture, time com­mit­ment, costs, and out­comes.

Pur­pose and Goals.

When a stu­dent returns or starts col­lege their pri­ma­ry goal may be to pur­sue a com­pre­hen­sive edu­ca­tion. There typ­i­cal­ly is a spe­cif­ic dis­ci­pline that includes spe­cial­ized train­ing in a focused field. Hope­ful­ly the degree enables the col­lege grad­u­ate the abil­i­ty to secure employ­ment or devel­op as an entre­pre­neur.  Devel­op­ing com­pe­ten­cies and prob­lem-solv­ing skills may accel­er­ate suc­cess. For investors obtain­ing knowl­edge about alter­na­tives (ALTS) also may be a goal that leads to com­pe­tent invest­ing. A spe­cial­ized course many be learn­ing about DSTs and §1031 exchanges. Many advi­sors ded­i­cate or allo­cate time for con­sul­ta­tion or writ­ing instruc­tion­al arti­cles with the pri­ma­ry goal of edu­ca­tion.  We week­ly update our site DSTNews.org to serve as an edu­ca­tion­al plat­form as a Fidu­cia­ry. Under­stand­ing com­plex tax-deferred real estate invest­ment strate­gies is not an easy accom­plish­ment. Advi­sors who aim to tai­lored con­sul­ta­tion and advi­so­ry ser­vices to indi­vid­u­als who seek to pre­serve cap­i­tal gains, diver­si­fy invest­ment port­fo­lios, and enhance long-term finan­cial per­for­mance are sought after.

Learn­ing Envi­ron­ment

Lec­tures, sem­i­nars, exam­i­na­tions, and extracur­ric­u­lar oppor­tu­ni­ties are all part of the col­lege edu­ca­tion expe­ri­ence. This is typ­i­cal­ly struc­tured with­in a for­mal cur­ricu­lum. Stu­dents move from gen­er­al to spe­cif­ic cours­es depend­ing on their major. Over the years uni­ver­si­ties have struc­tured an aca­d­e­m­ic path­way. To our knowl­edge there is no spe­cif­ic edu­ca­tion in DSTs and §1031 exchanges in a for­mal set­ting for indi­vid­ual investors and there is no grad­u­a­tion cer­e­mo­ny. This is often obtained through con­tin­u­ing edu­ca­tion pro­grams, webi­na­rs, indus­try sem­i­nars, pro­fes­sion­al men­tor­ship or self-direct­ed. This may be real world learn­ing envi­ron­ment and real-world sce­nar­ios rather than broad aca­d­e­m­ic the­o­ry.

Time Com­mit­ment and Costs.

The price of col­lege has increased over the years.  Recent­ly there has been a move to reeval­u­ate the cost ver­sus the return (income) once a stu­dent enters the work force. Besides the cost there are the time ele­ments, hous­ing, relat­ed expens­es (includ­ing fra­ter­ni­ty and soror­i­ty dues, not to men­tion the foot­ball and bas­ket­ball games). There may also be an analy­sis of debt vs degree. Investors may have a dif­fer­ent approach by engag­ing in and mas­ter­ing real estate acqui­si­tion, §1031 tax deferred exchanges and the use of DST as the need for pas­sive income increas­es. The edu­ca­tion­al costs (under­stand­ing §1031 and DSTs) are rel­a­tive­ly low, but once the knowl­edge is put into motion the rewards and accu­mu­la­tion of wealth may be sub­stan­tial.  As a reminder there is always a cer­tain amount of risk with all invest­ments.  How­ev­er, there is no risk in obtain­ing edu­ca­tion that may be out­side your com­fort zone.

Out­comes and Appli­ca­tions.

The ancil­lary ben­e­fits of going to col­lege include per­son­al growth, net­work­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties, and access to a broad­er range of career paths that extend beyond pro­fes­sion­al qual­i­fi­ca­tions. This time peri­od of being in col­lege sets the foun­da­tion for a life­long learn­ing expe­ri­ence.  We are not propos­ing to change anyone’s inten­tions on attend­ing col­lege or seek­ing a high­er degree. For cer­tain investors becom­ing edu­cat­ed in §1031 tax deferred exchanges as well as DSTs (for accred­it­ed investors) may pro­vide more imme­di­ate results. Becom­ing well versed in these areas may pro­vide prac­ti­cal appli­ca­tions in the realm of real estate invest­ment and tax strat­e­gy. Investors seek­ing to defer cap­i­tal gains tax­es, enhance port­fo­lio diver­si­fi­ca­tion, and poten­tial­ly increase over­all returns should seek an edu­ca­tion­al path to obtain those skills.

Con­clu­sion.
There is a huge com­mit­ment to start­ing col­lege or con­tin­u­ing a degree seek­ing edu­ca­tion while work­ing. Learn­ing about alter­na­tive invest­ments requires a com­mit­ment to edu­ca­tion, their pur­pos­es, struc­tures, and out­comes diverge sig­nif­i­cant­ly. There has always been the belief that col­lege offers a long-term hori­zon for returns that include a broad foun­da­tion for intel­lec­tu­al and pro­fes­sion­al devel­op­ment. Edu­ca­tion in DSTs and 1031 exchanges, by con­trast, is high­ly spe­cial­ized, geared toward imme­di­ate finan­cial appli­ca­tion, and requires invest­ment cap­i­tal rather than extend­ed aca­d­e­m­ic enroll­ment. Togeth­er, these paths illus­trate the diverse forms of learn­ing that sup­port both per­son­al and finan­cial growth. We do not know as of now what the SEC (the Secu­ri­ties and Exchange Com­mis­sion not the South­east Con­fer­ence) will require for non-accred­it­ed investors to take advan­tage of alter­na­tive invest­ments. We will sure­ly fol­low up on that top­ic.

Our next top­ics will pro­vide a refresh­er course as well as a due dili­gence syl­labus for ana­lyz­ing alter­na­tive investments.Look for “Beyond the Class­room: Why Investors Are Study­ing DSTs This Fall” and “Sharp­en­ing Your Port­fo­lio IQ: The New Semes­ter of Alter­na­tive Invest­ment Strate­gies”

As always please con­tact us for a com­pli­men­ta­ry con­sul­ta­tion.

NAMCOA® is a SEC reg­is­tered invest­ment advi­so­ry firm that pro­vides com­pre­hen­sive port­fo­lio man­age­ment, finan­cial plan­ning, and fidu­cia­ry deci­sion-mak­ing ser­vices on behalf of retire­ment plan spon­sors. Our Dif­fer­ence is sum­ma­rized by our fidu­cia­ry approach which enables us to bet­ter meet port­fo­lio and retire­ment plan objec­tives, result­ing in stronger risk adjust­ed returns for investors and peace of mind for Clients. We also focus on alter­na­tive real estate invest­ment. Many real estate investors are seek­ing tax deferred solu­tions uti­liz­ing §1031 exchanges or Oppor­tu­ni­ty Zones.

Alter­na­tive invest­ments and DSTs are not for all investors.  The acqui­si­tion of a cer­tain alter­na­tive invest­ments includ­ing DSTs is for accred­it­ed investors only.  Con­tact your invest­ment advis­er for addi­tion­al details on how a DST may be a solu­tion to your §1031 Exchange and suit­ed for your invest­ment future. For more infor­ma­tion on how to prop­er­ly set up an IRC §1031Tax Deferred Exchange or if you are an accred­it­ed investor and would like addi­tion­al infor­ma­tion on a DST con­tact Al DiNi­co­la at 239–691-8098 or email adinicola@namcoa.com.

This is not an offer to pur­chase or solic­i­ta­tion to pur­chase any secu­ri­ty, as such be made only through an offer­ing mem­o­ran­dum or prospec­tus.  Invest­ing in secu­ri­ties, real estate, or any invest­ment, whether pub­lic or pri­vate, involves risk, includ­ing but not lim­it­ed to the poten­tial of los­ing some or all of your invest­ment dol­lars when you invest in secu­ri­ties. You should review any planned finan­cial trans­ac­tions that may have tax or legal impli­ca­tions with your per­son­al tax or legal advi­sor.   NAMCOA, LLC is a Reg­is­tered Invest­ment Advi­sor, reg­u­lat­ed by SEC (Secu­ri­ties and Exchange Com­mis­sion). Our cor­po­rate office is locat­ed at 999 Van­der­bilt Beach Road, Suite 200, Naples Flori­da 34108. Secu­ri­ties Offered through MSC-BD, LLC, Mem­ber of FINRA/SIPC. 5 Cen­ter­pointe Dri­ve, Ste. 400 Lake Oswego, OR, 97035MSC-BD, LLC and NAMCOA are inde­pen­dent­ly owned and are not affil­i­at­ed.

Thank you.