The evolution of Sovereign Man Confidential

[Brian Dellinger]

A good many new members, like myself, are current or former members of Sovereign Man Confidential. I know a number were disappointed in SMC’s decision to shut down the forum, at least for now. In the communications I received, there was an indication that they were considering creating a new forum just for Total Access members.

I am currently a Total Access member, having obtained a two year membership shortly after the April 2015 Cancun conference. I’ve been to one Total Access event–the most recent one in Medellin. It is clear that as the SMC group grew, the management began experimenting with different, more expensive, levels of membership. I remember one of the first SMC members I met (well, we chatted by phone and emailed from time to time), told me at the time that she wasn’t even aware of Simon’s monthly newsletters when she signed up; that she was primarily interested in the forum.

The membership has changed from a monthly newsletter and forum, to now sporadic posts, no forum, and a stratification of information depending on the level of membership one has purchased.

For those of you who were once but are no longer SMC members, why is that? For those of you who are still SMC members, are you satisfied with your membership? This isn’t an invitation to bash SMC or Simon. I enjoy my membership overall. Frankly, the greatest value in the meetups has been the fellow members rather than the speakers. I’ve met some extremely interesting people, a number of whom I still maintain contact with.

I’d just like to hear fellow forum members’ thoughts.

[Roger Wilco]

I’m still an SMC member, I tried total access but found it offered no real value. $200 a year for SMPI deals is bad. There are many VC syndicates with no membership fees and higer numbers of exits, better deal flows, etc.

SMC is good value still.

[wldeaton]

Roger, if you don’t mind me asking, WHAT do you receive as an SMC “regular” member now? I’m still in Total Access for a while, and I’d say the bulk of what I receive is now funneled through TA. There’s the monthly call and the monthly wrap up. Anything else? For example, we got notified recently about a potentially interesting citizenship by investment deal, and a meetup to deal with that. But the video and the invitation appear to have been sent to TA folks only.

[wldeaton]

Roger, if you don’t mind me asking, WHAT do you receive as an SMC “regular” member now? I’m still in Total Access for a while, and I’d say the bulk of what I receive is now funneled through TA. There’s the monthly call and the monthly wrap up. Anything else? For example, we got notified recently about a potentially interesting citizenship by investment deal, and a meetup to deal with that. But the video and the invitation appear to have been sent to TA folks only.

[Roger Wilco]

Citizenship programs are still sent to SMC members as well, obviously not exclusive citizenship ones. There is a monthly SMC conference call, slides and a wrap up of the months SMC papers. They now do some case studies on expats, which is more or less filler.

[ML]

I dropped my membership this year after realizing that the overall value of content I received as a total access member over the past few years was lower than the value of content I received in the years prior to becoming one. I think has to do with the evolution of SMC from a research and information sharing resource to more of a VC type of operationI understanding how much of his time is taken up by that activity and shepherding the bank, but the data gathering and sharing aspect of the business suffered as a result.

I wish him well and thank him for opening many of our eyes to various realities and possibilities but don’t think we really an

[wldeaton]

I’d say that’s a fair statement. Far as I can tell, I’ve not yet seen the investors realize returns yet on their investments in the private investments. With Tim Staermose’s investments, they’re much shorter term and appear to have earned some gains. The problem I have with things like his that I don’t have (or perhaps make) the time to constantly follow, meaning that I perhaps don’t buy when I should buy or get out when I should get out. If I took the time to stay up to date with his newsletter, it looks like I might do alright. Also, his theory seems to often be a sort of value arbitrage, which is something I can comprehend. He tries to find stocks in companies that have more cash in the bank than what their stock is selling for.

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