This month, our “get to know”series moves beyond the walls of IPL’s offices as we introduce you to one of our partners. This month, we sit down and talk to Francisco Soler, Senior Vice President and Chief Investment Officer at MAS Advisors, LLC.
Read on to learn more about Francisco and MAS Advisors, how he came to his current position, what he wishes more people knew about PPLI and, of course, what he’s watching on TV these days.
We are a specialty Registered Investment Advisor focused on innovative tax-efficient strategies.
Our clients usually come to us looking for solutions that are not commonly available in the market or require a specialized approach in one or more of the components of their financial plan. Our habitat is the intersection of (1) estate and tax planning, (2) investment management and (3) life insurance structuring, and throughout the years we have built a deep expertise in all those areas, combining them exclusively into a single solution: Private Placement Life Insurance.
Our client-focused approach requires us to have a carrier-agnostic platform. Yet, in our experience, we feel that IPL offers us a compelling proposition. They understand that the special needs of our clients require a flexible approach, and they are always ready to roll up their sleeves. You can partner up with them throughout the entire process seamlessly, from case design to underwriting, investment management or ongoing policy administration... you name it.
I started working closely with PPLI contracts more than 10 years ago. To this day, I am still learning about new structures and applications. It is a tool that allows for a great deal of creativity and forces you to think outside of the box.
I guess it helps to see PPLI as a technology, instead of the product you build with it. I would place it on par with the Exchange Traded Fund, as a great example of modern financial ingenuity.
It is imperative to create and maintain an alignment between the three pillars of PPLI, since we are dealing with complex, dynamic, long-term structures.
In our investment mandates, for example, we advocate for drafting a policy-specific Investment Policy Statement at the case design stage. This serves as a governance document that takes into consideration all the moving parts of the contract and its intended purpose.
Our clients are willing to spend significant time and resources to come up with the ideal structure. It is our job to think about how to get it right as much as how not to get it wrong. This is not a situation in which you want to cut corners.
Throughout my 20+ year career in international asset management, I was lucky to have been exposed to diverse ways of thinking about our common subject: stewarding our client’s assets. I also consider myself a curious generalist, so I feel very comfortable in cross-functional situations.
At MAS, our investment philosophy can be characterized as a macro-informed allocation process. We have a keen eye for macro trends because capital flows beget returns, but we spend most of our time wearing our allocator hats because investing with the right manager makes all the difference, especially in the alternative investment universe. It is a challenging but incredibly rewarding task!
