KJLK & CO

Alternative investments are gaining momentum as investors seek enhanced returns and more negatively correlated opportunities in their diversified portfolios. While high barriers to entry and regulation typically restrict access for non-accredited investors, the lack of liquidity is also a concern for accredited individuals and institutional players due to long lock-up periods and potential gate issues. This can pose a significant challenge in today’s volatile financial markets.

Finally, a product exists that will provide non-accredited investors access to alternative investments while also offering liquidity. KJLK & Co. has developed a groundbreaking solution: the auction fund, which aims to:

1. Reduce volatility

2. Elevate yield

3. Enhance diversification

This innovative closed-end fund combines the high returns, consistent alpha, and low beta, of orthodox alternative strategies and private market exposures with the liquidity and convenience of traditional securities. It features a unique mechanism in which its net asset value (NAV) will eventually be calculated every 25 days. Investors can trade their subscription units in a secondary market and redeem their investments at these regular intervals, addressing the liquidity concerns that have historically limited broader participation in true alternative strategies and private market investments. This feature, along with its perpetual open-ended structure, allows KJLK & Co. to offer liquidity while opening a new avenue for retail and non-accredited investors.

"Now is the time to rethink alternative investments and private markets," says Joe LaTurner, founder and principal of KJLK & Co.

The auction fund represents a significant advancement in the alternative strategy and private market investment space, making previously exclusive opportunities more accessible to a wider range of investors.

New Product in the Alternative Investment Market

KJLK’s auction fund is a closed-end product with a perpetual open-ended mechanism, allowing the company to continuously sell subscription units in the primary market. This approach provides investors with liquidity within a typically illiquid closed-end fund structure.

The innovative model enables KJLK to raise capital continuously through the primary market. Incoming, underlying funds run by reputable managers with consistent track records are strategically allocated across a diverse range of alternative and private market investment strategies, including hedge funds, private equity, private credit, venture capital, infrastructure, real assets, non-traded REITs, and BDCs. Even ETFs can be incubated in this structure, diversifying risk and maximizing returns.

KJLK's auction fund shares will be listed on a very well known, global exchange, complete with a CUSIP number and DTC approval. This enables electronic transfers and custodial holdings, providing investors with greater convenience and liquidity. The fund’s net asset value (NAV) will be calculated every 25 days on a well-known global exchange, ensuring that investors can trade shares in a secondary market, creating liquidity without the need for direct redemptions from the fund.

This innovative approach sets KJLK’s auction fund apart from traditional alternative strategy and private market investment products, offering investors unprecedented levels of liquidity and transparency.

"Our fund structure will deliver a powerful liquidity mechanism for traditionally high-quality, illiquid assets," says LaTurner. "Investors will no longer need to negotiate special terms with GPs for liquidity, as they will be able to access their capital more frequently (every 25 days). Our product benefits qualified purchaser, accredited investors and will eventually open the door to non-accredited ones."

The ticker will be able to be held in a SDIRA, IRA, trust and possibly even in a 401(k), opening pathways to co-investment and direct investment. To broaden accessibility and avoid stringent accredited investor requirements, the fund ensures no more than 15 percent of its assets are allocated to third-party limited partnership (LP) units. This strategic allocation will allow the fund to offer investment opportunities to a wider range of investors, including those who do not meet the accredited investor criteria.

Unlocking Untapped Potential in the Alternative Market

KJLK’s product will make alternative opportunities accessible to a previously untapped investor segment. For instance, a typical non-accredited investor allocates less than five percent of their portfolio to alternative strategies and private market investments, while major endowments like Harvard and Yale, along with large family offices, dedicate about 40 to 50 percent of their portfolios to alternatives and private markets such as private equity, hedge funds, and real estate.

Currently, around $2 trillion from non-accredited investors is allocated to alternative assets, but this represents only a small fraction of the potential market. KJLK’s goal is to increase non-accredited investors' exposure to alternatives without requiring additional capital or expanding the overall investment pool. By adjusting these investors’ allocation strategies, the value of investable assets in this space could grow from $2 trillion to as much as $18 trillion.

Turning Strategic Insight into Market Impact

KJLK’s product will disrupt the alternative strategies and private markets universe. Achieving this innovation took significant upfront market analysis. This was not a quick effort but rather the culmination of years of research from some of the best minds in the investment world. KJLK was founded to bridge a market gap, and LaTurner, with over two decades of experience including but not limited to wholesale, retail ($250 million and $455 million in AUM) and participating in a $100 million family office, along with being a Finance (Investments) Instructor at the collegiate level for five years, has all played a pivotal role in its inception.

Driven by the challenge of creating an exchange-traded fund (ETF) wrapper for a liquid, exchange traded basket designed and developed by Mr. LaTurner in order to drive yield (i.e., income), LaTurner enlisted his PhD colleagues, which is the first letter of the last name making up the acronym that is the KJLK partnership, to navigate the complexities of the ETF ecosystem. The team’s deep market analysis resulted in the creation of the auction fund, a closed-end fund structure with an open-end mechanism capable of democratizing illiquid alternative investments.

"Our auction fund stands at the intersection of innovation and accessibility," says LaTurner.

The team spent two to three months on additional market analysis, followed by another year or two developing the product and marketing materials.

Charting a Course to the New Frontier

KJLK is already a year ahead of schedule. In the last six months, the team gained traction with over 200 alternative asset managers at three capital introduction events and has plans to participate in a few major events in 2025, both as an LP and a GP. Early interest highlights the market’s pent-up demand for innovation in alternative and private markets investment.

The team is building a diversified portfolio of 45 to 55 top-tier GPs, ranging from firms with $100 billion in assets to emerging managers with $15 to $30 million in capital to everything in between. These partnerships cover a wide array of strategies, from the gamut of hedge fund strategies to venture capital to private equity and real estate and private credit.

KJLK’s reach is global, with connections spanning from London and Greece to Asia, Australia, and Canada. The company is working to establish both internal and external distribution channels to ensure broad access to its groundbreaking product.

"Our goal is to democratize alternatives, not to skirt the law," says LaTurner. "We're committed to applying broad risk diversification strategies across a carefully selected group of managers with proven track records."

KJLK’s investment philosophy emphasizes value-oriented, conviction-based investing, focusing on productive assets, strategies and free cash flow. The company aims to avoid risky, concentrated bets and uses a top-down global macroeconomic approach combined with bottom-up fundamental analysis to prioritize growth. “We want to leave the incremental returns on capital up to the professionals, that is the experienced alternative and private market managers mentioned here in,” LaTurner says.

KJLK is revolutionizing the alternative investment landscape, making it more accessible and rewarding for both accredited and non-accredited investors.

Where We Are Now

Conviction Funds by KJLK & Co. launched its flagship fund, Square One Fund, LP, on January 1, 2025, in order to lay the framework and be a cornerstone to the auction fund. The Fund will be a fund-of-funds that is dedicated to providing diversification for its investors by primarily investing in a variety of underlying funds. It utilizes a strategic, risk-adjusted allocation approach to partner with top managers across diverse alternative strategies and private markets, including hedge funds, private equity, private credit, venture capital, infrastructure, ntREITs, ntBDCs, and real assets. By deploying capital across an array of Underlying Fund Managers, both established and emerging, the Fund aims to mitigate risk while capitalizing on potential opportunities. This phase of the offering is a private, Qualified Purchaser (QP) fund that is expected to raise approximately $100 million in AUM and structured to evolve into the disruptive closed end fund product with a perpetual open-ended mechanism that will be the auction fund.