Article Courtesy of Amy Hong (Greenberg Traurig)
Recap of the 2025 Spring Investment Forum
This year’s ACIC Spring Investment Forum was held on April 3rd and 4th at the Four Seasons Hotel in Chicago, IL and co-chaired by Nicolette Lopez (Voya Investment Management) and Peter Butler (ArentFox Schiff LLP). The two-day forum, themed “The ACIC Super Conference”, included nine sessions featuring super-expert moderators and panelists from all over the world. The Forum kicked off on Thursday with a bodyweight bootcamp class, where the ACIC Move Crew could show off their physical superpowers, followed by six engaging panels and an evening networking reception for attendees to catch up with old friends and welcome new members. On Friday, the ACIC Move Crew hit up Chicago’s lakefront for a group walk/run followed by the three final panels, including the Market and Economic Update on Friday morning. To conclude the conference, awards were presented to Aleks Zivanovic for most points on the Leaderboard, Melody Cross for the best photo in the Photo Contest and Rebecca Kristall for perfect attendance. Thank you to the co-chairs, Education Committee, Development Committee and ACIC staff CJ Marchain, Caitlin Watson and Jody Henry for another great conference.
Session 1: Rated Debt Credit Investing
Kate Ippen of Voya Investment Management moderated the first session of the conference with super panelists Lindsay Trapp of Dechert LLP, Naz Majidi of GreensLedge and Katherine Quirke of KBRA discussing the different types of rated debt fund structures and the growing number of diverse asset types and products. Katherine Quirke provided an overview at the rating process as in-house counsel at KBRA, including the issues she looks for, timing of the process and other key considerations. The panel concluded with insight on the NAIC’s regulatory activity and the impact on investments in the various types of funds in the investment market.
Session 2: Examining the Effects of the Trump Administration Agenda on the Private Markets
This session was moderated by Myra Michail of John Hancock Financial Services and included panelists, Phil English of ArentFox Schiff LLP, Sharon Brosnan of Thrivent Financial and Laura Siegel Rabinowitz of Greenberg Traurig, LLP. The panelists discussed the aspects and impacts of the current administration’s policies on tariffs, trade and the key business tax reforms under consideration and provided an overview of the current state of the policies and the anticipated timeline of the policies and their insights on certain strategies business should consider.
Session 3: Structuring Issues in European Cross-Border Transactions
Led by Michael Gustafson of Rimon, P.C., this panel included Mandeep Kaur Sidhu of Pricoa Private Capital Limited, Emma Gail Simmonds of Akin Gump LLC and Dr. Kati Beckmann of Greenberg Traurig Germany, LLP. Given the significant number of cross-border transactions that U.S. investors participate in, these super experts provided insights into the challenges and issues faced by the investors in the private placement market dealing with investments in Europe. The panelists described the various structural and legal challenges in cross-border transactions, such as withholding taxes and security interests, as well as more practical challenges facing U.S. investors, including funding in different time zones, notarization and opinion practice. The panelists also provided insight into important restructuring and insolvency considerations for U.S. investors in international transactions.
Session 4: Securitizations and Other Structured Finance
Katherine Lindsay of MetLife moderated this session with panelists, John Hitt, Jr. of Chapman and Cutler LLP, James Hwang of 26North, and Thanos Panagopoulos of Waterfall Asset Management, LLC, focusing on the structured finance market. The panel outlined securitization fundamentals including the structure, bankruptcy remoteness and risk tranching of structured finance transactions and provided an overview of the securitization market including asset class and some of the specialty finance structures. Panelists also discussed key legal considerations, such as securities laws, bankruptcy, tax, ERISA, Dodd-Frank, Uniform Commercial Code and regulatory capital rules, and certain risks, including issuer insolvency risk and ongoing sponsor performance risk, of structured finance transactions.
Session 5: Ethics of Negotiation – Rules, Principles, and Allegiances
Moderator John Hreno of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP introduced panelists Alexis Schostak of ArentFox Schiff LLP, Elizabeth Simon of Akin Gump LLP and Patrick Maxwell of Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company to discuss the ethics of acting as pre-designated investors’ counsel and the professional responsibility of such counsel to represent their clients before knowing who they will be. The panelists provided an overview of the ACIC’s guiding principles for pre-designated investors’ counsel as well as guiding principles and rules from the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct and the New York Rules of Professional Conduct. The panelists incorporated hypothetical situations throughout the discussion to provide concrete examples of the situations that pre-designates investors’ counsel can face when representing their “clients”.
Session 6: Legal Technology: Infinity Stones of Pandora’s Box – Ethics
This session was moderated by Brendan J. Kelly of New York Life Insurance Company with panelists, Douglas Schulz of ArentFox Schiff LLP, Zachary Hutto of Epiq Global, Steven Lerner of Law360 and Neal Higgins of Eversheds Sutherland (US) LLP. Panelists discussed the ethical responsibilities lawyers face when integrating AI into practice, including professional obligations under the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct, with particular emphasis on competence, confidentiality, communication, and supervision. The panel addressed the key risks posed by utilizing AI in legal practice and offered practical advice for firms and lawyers applying AI tools. The panel also provided an overview on the current state of the legal tech market.
Session 7: Market and Economic Update
As a new change to this year’s ACIC Conference, the Market and Economic Update panel took place on Friday, instead of Thursday, with moderator Christopher Lawrence of Akin Gump LLP, Bill Jamie of BofA Securities, Elena Unger of Nuveen and Todd Marr of J.P. Morgan. Following an overview of the 2024 market data including deal volumes and trends in geography, industry and currency, Elena Unger provided an investor’s perspective on various objectives for 2025, including portfolio exposure, new issue considerations, ratings perspectives and the continued emergence of new investors in the private placement market. On the agent side, Bill Jamie and Todd Marr discussed which areas in the market they saw and expected the most growth, such as infrastructure, asset-backed financings, securitization of cash flows and data center transactions.
Session 8: Pocket MBA for Lawyers: Leveraging Financial Definitions and Covenants
Jason Miller of MetLife moderated this session, joined by panelists, Sasha Kamper of Mutual of Omaha, Ben Leese of ArentFox Schiff LLP, and Morgan McCaskey of FTI Consulting. This session provided foundational finance knowledge critical for analyzing credit documents and negotiating covenants. Panelists provided an overview of financial statements and detailed discussions on key financial covenants, including leverage, coverage, liquidity and financial flexibility and return on investment. The discussion also addressed structural and drafting issues and the panelists provided their insights on observations between middle market and investment grade markets.
Session 9: Secondary Trades of Private Placements
The final session of the ACIC Super Conference was moderated by Robin Lenarz, introducing panelists Ann King of SLC Management, Kevin Manz of King & Spalding LLP and Matthew Faranda of StoneCastle Securities, LLC. The panelists gave an overview of the secondary market, including motivations for buying or selling on the secondary market and the types of participants on the secondary market. The panelists also discussed the process and mechanics of secondary trades, starting from the pre-trade negotiations to settlement and finally re-registration. The panelists described the various challenges that investors can face in the secondary trade process, such as note splitting, registering with an agent vs. the issuer, restrictions on transfers and additional document requirements, as well as operational issues when interacting with their custodians.
