Question 1

What is a Self-Directed IRA?

Accepted Answer

A self-directed individual retirement account (SDIRA) is a type of individual retirement account (IRA) that can hold alternative investments. While the account is administered by a custodian, the account holder is responsible for managing its assets. Thus the name, "Self-directed". Self-directed IRAs are best suited for more sophisticated investors who want to participate in alternative investments and get the benefits of a tax-advantaged account.

Question 2

What is a Solo 401(k)?

Accepted Answer

A Solo 401(k) is a retirement account design for self-employed or businesses with with no full-time employees. The Solo 401(k) plan offers many of the same benefits as a traditional 401(k) plan. It allows the business owner to make contributions as both the employer and the employee, maximizing their contributions.
 
Contribution limits to a Solo 401(k) plan are higher than traditional plans. The 2020 contribution limit is $57,000. If you are over the age of 50, the limit is increased to $63,000.

Question 3

Can I invest through a self-directed IRA and Solo 401(k)?

Accepted Answer

Accredited investors can join a real estate fund on {Your Fund} using capital from a self-directed IRA through a custodian. Investors can also send money directly from their Solo 401(k) plans. Talk to the sponsor of the fund to learn more about your options.

Question 4

What is the process for completing an investment?

Accepted Answer

For Solo 401(k)s, you can send money directly to {Your Fund}.
 
For SD-IRAs, each custodian has different processes to fund an investment. We recommend you research various custodians to determine which one best suits your needs. Different custodians require different information on your investment so please make sure to understand their requirements prior to setting up an account with them.

Question 5

Can I transfer self-directed IRA funds or Solo 401(k) funds into my existing account?

Accepted Answer

No. Investors need to set up a separate account for retirement funds.

Question 6

Is all income from investments tax-deferred?

Accepted Answer

Interest received from investments is generally tax-deferred. For Self-Directed IRAs, on equity investments, most income is tax deferred but you may receive Unrelated Business Taxable Income (UBTI) from some equity investments. Any UBTI income would be taxable. Any pass through UBTI will be reported to your on your K-1. Please work with your tax accountant to ensure you pay any necessary taxes on UBTI income.

Question 7

Which custodians does {your fund} support?

Accepted Answer

{your fund} has partnered with the following SD-IRA custodians:
1)  
2)  
3) 
4)

Question 8

How do I set up SD-IRA support for my deal?

Accepted Answer

{your fund} provides the necessary support to set up your deals and funds with partner custodians in order for you to accept investor capital.

Question 9

What is the process for for our investors?

Accepted Answer

For Solo 401(k)s, investors can send money directly to you.
 
For SD-IRAs, each custodian has different processes to fund an investment. In most cases, an investor has to first select a sponsor, open an account and then transfer funds to you.

Question 10

Is all income from investments tax-deferred?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Interest received from investments is generally tax-deferred. For Self-Directed IRAs, on equity investments, most income is tax deferred but you may receive Unrelated Business Taxable Income (UBTI) from some equity investments. Any UBTI income would be taxable. Any pass through UBTI needs to reported to your investors on their respective K-1s. Please work with your tax accountant.

Question 11

What is the Airworthy Capital C Fund?

Accepted Answer

Airworthy Capital C Fund targets commercial self-storage and multi-family deals with veterans on the management team. We look for various opportunities for equity and debt available to accredited investors. Our minimum investment is $25k in our fully customizable fund.

Question 12

What kind of investments does {your fund} fund invest in?

Accepted Answer

{your fund} focuses on {insert} types of deals...

Question 13

Who is able to invest in the fund?

Accepted Answer

Accredit investors.

Question 14

What is the minimum investment in the Airworthy Capital C Fund?

Accepted Answer

The minimum investment in the fund is $25,000.

Question 15

How many deals can I be in?

Accepted Answer

For an initial $25,000 investment, most investors should expect to be allocated at least 25 deals unless you have directed us differently. The number and types of deals that each invidividual Limited Partner varies based on the capital investment they have made in the partnership and what deals were available when they made their capital investment. For each deal, {your fund} allocates the deal across multiple investors to reduce risk.

Question 16

How are investments made in the fund?

Accepted Answer

Avestor selects deals that best suit the financial and suitability requirements of the fund as a whole. We do not select investments directly for individual investors. Avestor then pre-invests in the deal. Once a deal is closed, investors may select the deals they want to participate in or request Avestor to auto allocate slices of deals based on their portfolio direction.

Question 17

What is the structure of the Fund?

Accepted Answer

{Your Fund Info}

Question 18

How are earnings, profits & losses allocated?

Accepted Answer

Earnings, profits and losses are tracked at a deal level and are allocated to the Limited Partners that are participating in each specific deal. The actual allocation is calculated by algorithms based on a combination when capital was allocated and how much capital was allocated. More details can be found in the Private Placement Memorandum (PPM) and the Limited Partnership Agreement (LPA).

Question 19

What are the fees for the {your fund}?

Accepted Answer

The {your fund} charges...

Question 20

Do you invest in distressed loans?

Accepted Answer

{your fund} {your answer}.

Question 21

How are investments made in the fund?

Accepted Answer

{your fund} selects deals that best suit the financial and suitability requirements of the fund as a whole. {your fund info}

Question 22

How do I exit the fund?

Accepted Answer

Unlike investments in publicly traded equities, real estate deals are not liquid. An investor must wait for each deal in their portfolio to complete before the principal and earnings for that deal can be returned. Once an investor seeks to exit the fund, {your fund} will determine an estimated timeline based on the their investments. In most cases, fully exiting the fund and the underlying limited partnership will take multiple years.

Question 23

What are Residential Debt Notes?

Accepted Answer

Residential debt notes are short term loans (~12 months) to borrowers to purchase a single family home. Borrowers put 10% to 30% cash down and the note covers the remainder. The borrowers pay either monthly interest on the loan or the interest is accrued and paid in full at the end of the loan term. 
 
Investors participating in the notes receive their pro-rata share of interest income that the borrower pays for the loan and receive principal back at the end of the term. 
 
The sponsor of the note generally holds the first lien on the loan. If the borrower fails to pay, the sponsor can take possession of the property and sell it to return the principal back to the investors holding the notes.

Question 24

What are Commercial Debt Notes?

Accepted Answer

Commercial debt notes are short term loans (24 months or less) to borrowers to purchase a commercial properties. These can include multi-family homes, townhomes, mixed use properties, land development projects and other new construction projects. Borrowers put 15% to 35% cash down and the note covers the remainder. The borrowers pay either monthly interest on the loan or the interest is accrued and paid in full at the end of the loan term. 
 
Investors participating in the notes receive their pro-rata share of interest income that the borrower pays for the loan and receive principal back at the end of the term. 
 
The sponsor of the note generally holds the first lien on the loan. If the borrower fails to pay, the sponsor can take possession of the property and sell it to return the principal back to the investors holding the notes.

Question 25

What is Commercial Equity?

Accepted Answer

Commercial equity deals provide an opportunity for investors to jointly participate with an active sponsor in the purchase of a larger property. These can include apartment buildings, student housing, self storage, retail centers or other commercial properties. 
 
The investments are a minimum of 3 years and can be as long as 7 years. Sponsors may be constructing a new property or renovating an existing property with a goal to increase the income and value of the asset over a time horizon. At the end of the time horizon, the sponsor sells the property and splits the profits with the passive investors. Investors also get the tax benefits of real estate including depreciation. 
 
Commercial equity deals are traditionally higher risk deals since banks generally hold the first lien on the property. Returns on successful deals are also higher.

Question 26

Is Airworthy Capital C Fund offering approved by the SEC?

Accepted Answer

Any funds on Avestor's platform are disclosed to the SEC and any states where we have investors through a Regulation D, Form D electronic filings. Funds use a 506(c) or 506(b) exemption so SEC registration for the offering is not required.

Question 27

Is {your fund} a Registered Investment Adviser?

Accepted Answer

{your fund} is not a registered investment adviser. We recommend you work with your financial or investment adviser to determine if real estate investments and private funds should be part of your portfolio.
 
Avestor Inc. is an Exempt Reporting Adviser in Oregon. More information can be found at the SEC website at https://adviserinfo.sec.gov/firm/summary/305443

Question 28

Is {your fund} a broker?

Accepted Answer

{your fund} in not a broker and does not receive any broker compensation.

Question 29

Is{your fund} a robo-adviser?

Accepted Answer

While {your fund} uses technology to automate our processes, we are not a robo-adviser.

Question 30

What tax statements do I receive?

Accepted Answer

Avestor provides a single, consolidated K-1 each tax year to each investor. The K-1 will consolidate all interest income, dividends, business income/losses and real estate income/losses.

Question 31

When will I receive my tax statements?

Accepted Answer

Limited Partnerships are complex and require time to ensure accounting is properly done. Investors will be participating in deals where Avestor is dependent on the delivery of partnership K-1s from its sponsors to Avestor prior to being able to generate our consolidated K-1 for investors. Avestor's goal is to deliver individual K-1 to each investor in early April ahead of the tax deadline but cannot guarantee it. Like most real estate investments, investors should plan for the possiblity of delays and filing extensions for their tax return.

Question 32

Why should I trust Avestor? You are a start-up.

Accepted Answer

Every company starts out as a small company. Some investors are comfortable working with small companies and others are not. If you are not, that’s okay. Join our mailing list and track our progress. When you are comfortable, reach out and we would love to work with you.

Question 33

Does the leadership team invest in Avestor's Fund deals?

Accepted Answer

Yes. As the saying goes, "put your money where your mouth is". We have personal accounts with Avestor Ariel LP Fund and invest our own capital into deals.

Question 34

What happens to my money if Avestor goes bankrupt?

Accepted Answer

Our legal structure is setup to protect investors. Investors join private funds that are a separate legal entity from Avestor Inc.
Avestor's initial fund, Avestor Ariel LP Fund, is a limited partnership where Avestor is the general partner. In the event that Avestor Inc. cannot continue to function as the general partner, the partnership agreement states that Avestor Inc. will assign a trustee to manage the partnership until all investments exit, investor capital is returned and the partnership can be properly dissolved. In an absolute worst case scenario where Avestor Inc. did not assign a trustee, the investors, who are limited partners of the partnership, have the right to assign their own trustee. 
Bottom line. Our structure is set up to protect investors regardless of what happens to Avestor Inc. as an entity.

Question 35

Why does your PPM have so many risks listed?

Accepted Answer

We believe every investor should invest with eyes wide open. Commecial real estate investing has a multitude of different risks and you can lose your capital on a deal due to a variety of reasons. This can be anything from the deal sponsor failing on their business plan to real estate market conditions. We do our best to help investors build a diversified portfolio so their risk is minimized on any given deal. Bottom line, when an investor seeks high returns, it comes with risks. Please read our PPM carefully before you invest.

Question 36

I can invest in deals directly. Why should I pay Avestor fees to be in your fund?

Accepted Answer

We believe we are providing significant value for the 1.00%-1.25% annual platform fee that we charge investors. We spend a large amount of time researching deals around the country, talking to deal sponsors and then selecting deals that we believe provide the best return opportunity at the lowest investor risk level. We enable investors to participate in equity deals at a significantly lower investment level than if they went directly to the deal sponsor. Finally, unlike any other platform in the market, we have built a leading edge technology platform that allows investors to build a fully customized portfolio that meets their investment goals.

Question 37

Are you compensated by sponsors on deals that you invest in?

Accepted Answer

WIthin Avestor's Ariel LP fund, we do not receive any direct compensation, soft dollars or benefits of any other kind from the syndicators or crowdfunding platforms to invest in their deals. A decision to invest in a deal is based purely on our analyses of the deal.
Avestor is a software and services company. We do partner with real estate entreprenuers to host their funds on our platform. Avestor receives software and services compensation for providng sponsors platform capabilities and services.

Question 38

Are you affiliated with any of the sponsors on deals that you invest in?

Accepted Answer

We do not hold financial interests or affiliation in any of the sponsors that Avestor's Ariel Fund invests in.

Question 39

Am I paying for Avestor's engineering and marketing expenses as part of fund expenses?

Accepted Answer

Absolutely not. All fund expenses are expenses tied directly to the fund, such as Regulation D filing fees, state fees, bank fees, funding accounting/tax, etc.).
 
Avestor Inc., which is developing the platform and marketing Avestor, is a separate legal entity. The only compensation that Avestor Inc. receives from the fund is the annual platform fees.

Questions?