Frequently Asked Questions - Alternative Investments

UNDERSTANDING PRIVATE INVESTMENTS

  • Private investments are not listed on any stock exchange. Their value is not driven by market headlines, speculation, or daily price movements. Instead, they are based on the real economics of the company borrowing the capital — its actual margins, assets, and revenue — and they operate on fixed, contractually agreed terms.

    In the public market, the value of your investment can be influenced by anything from a tweet to a war. In the private market, your return is determined by the terms of the agreement you signed at the time of your invested.

  • No. This is one of the most important things to understand before investing. When you put money into any of our private investment products, you are lending capital to a company — you are not buying an asset. You do not own a property, you do not hold gold, and you are not a shareholder in any business.

    You are a creditor. The company uses your capital to fund its operations — whether that is buying and selling properties, trading gold, or financing legal cases — and in return it pays you a fixed agreed return at scheduled intervals. At the end of the term, your original capital is returned to you in full.

    The underlying assets (property, gold) exist as collateral backing your loan — not as something you take possession of. Think of it like a private loan: you lend, they operate, they pay you back with interest.

  • Less likely because it’s not linked to the public market. This is one of the core advantages of private market investing.

    Unlike stocks, ETFs, or public bonds, private investments are completely detached from public market conditions. Their performance is not driven by investor sentiment, media headlines, geopolitical events, interest rate decisions, or global crises.

    Your return is fixed by contract. Whether the stock market rises or falls, whether a war breaks out, or whether a recession hits — none of that changes the agreed return you are owed or the principal that will be returned to you at the end of the term.

    The companies you are lending to operate on real, tangible economic activity — not on market speculation. That structural separation from the market is not a marketing claim; it is built into the nature of the product.

     Having said that, if war strikes were those companies operates, anything is possible, the best like the worst.

  • No. These are private debt instruments, not public equity. When you invest £50,000, your position remains £50,000 for the duration of the term. It does not go to £45,000 or £60,000 based on market movements, because there is no market price assigned to your position.

    Your contract specifies a fixed return rate, and that is exactly what you receive — no more, no less — regardless of what happens to the value of any underlying asset. This is fundamentally different from investing in a public real estate fund or a commodity ETF, where your position value moves daily.

  • This is one of the most common reactions — and it is completely understandable. Most people have only ever been exposed to public investment products: savings accounts at 3–4%, pension funds at 5–7%, and stock portfolios that can swing in either direction. So when they see fixed returns significantly higher than that, the instinct is scepticism.

    Here is the reality: your bank takes your savings and lends them out — often into exactly these kinds of private markets — at 10–15% returns. They pay you 3–4% and keep the difference. What we are offering is access to the same market your bank has always operated in, but directly, so you receive the larger share of the return.

    The returns are also higher because you are committing your capital for a fixed period, which gives the borrowing company certainty to plan. That certainty is what they pay you for. The companies we work with have been vetted, have real assets backing the investment, have verifiable track records, and have never missed a payment to investors.

    Higher returns in the private market do not mean higher risk in the speculative sense. They mean a different structure — one where your capital is working in a real, defined business activity, where the ROI is based on an affordable share of the corporate profit margin, rather than being subject to stock market sentiment.

  • When you keep money in a bank, the bank lends it into private markets and earns 10–15%. They pay you 3–4% and keep the rest. Private investing removes that intermediary — you lend directly, and you receive the larger portion of the return.

    Additionally, because you are committing capital for a defined term (rather than keeping it in an account where you can access at any time), the borrowing company can plan with certainty and is willing to pay more for that stability.

  • Because they are private. They are not advertised publicly, and they do not appear on any exchange or comparison website. Traditionally, access required a minimum of several million pounds and was reserved for institutional investors, family offices, and pension funds.

    Through our network and partnerships, we have negotiated entry points that make the same opportunities accessible to a much wider group of investors — starting from amounts that individuals and small business owners can realistically consider.

DIVERSIFICATION, STRATEGY & LIQUIDITY

  • Most investors already hold a combination of public assets: a pension fund, a savings account, perhaps a property or some stocks. These are all subject to the same systemic risks — inflation, interest rate changes, political events, and market sentiment. When the public market falls, most of these assets fall together.

    Private investments behave completely differently. Because they are not connected to public market movements, they provide genuine diversification — not just across asset types, but across market environments. When stock markets are volatile, your private investments continue to pay exactly the agreed return, on schedule, regardless.

    This is what institutional investors, pension funds, and family offices have always known: the wealthiest portfolios are never 100% public. Adding a private investment layer gives your portfolio a stable, non-correlated income stream that performs independently of what the market is doing on any given day.

    In the public market, the value of your investment can be influenced by anything from a tweet to a war. In the private market, your return is determined by the terms of the agreement you signed at the time of your invested.

  • Short-term private investments — typically structured over 90 to 180 or 360 days — serve a very specific purpose: they allow you to put capital to work that would otherwise be sitting idle, without locking it away for years.

    They are particularly useful if you are waiting to deploy capital elsewhere (for example, searching for a property to buy, waiting for a business opportunity, or simply not ready to commit long-term), if you want to test the experience of private investing before making a larger or longer commitment, or if you have a regular surplus of income that you want generating a return while you decide what to do with it.

    Short-term notes in the litigation funding space, for example, pay fixed returns, at the best, every 90 days with the option to exit or continue at each interval. This gives you meaningful returns with flexibility — the closest thing to liquidity that private investing offers.

    You are a creditor. The company uses your capital to fund its operations — whether that is buying and selling properties, trading gold, or financing legal cases — and in return it pays you a fixed agreed return at scheduled intervals. At the end of the term, your original capital is returned to you in full.

    The underlying assets (property, gold) exist as collateral backing your loan — not as something you take possession of. Think of it like a private loan: you lend, they operate, they pay you back with interest.

  • The right product depends entirely on three things: your investment strategy, your financial goals, and your time horizon. There is no single answer — and anyone who tells you otherwise without understanding your situation is not giving you proper advice If you need regular income — for example, to supplement your salary, cover expenses, or replace a rent payment — a product with monthly or quarterly coupon payments over 12 to 24 months may suit you best.

    If you want capital growth and do not need to touch the money during the investment period, a longer-term structure with a single lump-sum payment at maturity will typically offer higher total returns — and may also carry tax advantages, as lump-sum returns at the end of a term are often treated as capital growth rather than income.

    If you are uncertain, or you want to maintain flexibility while still generating returns, a short-term note with quarterly exit options gives you the ability to reassess every few months without losing your returns.

    This is exactly why a one-to-one discovery call with your coach is the right first step — before choosing any product, we need to understand your full picture.

  • Liquidity is one of the most important factors to consider before investing, and we take it seriously. All of our private investment products have fixed terms — you are making a commitment for a defined period, and that commitment is what earns you the higher return. It is not like a savings account you can withdraw from at any time.

    That said, we offer products with very different liquidity profiles. Some allow you to exit every 90 days — meaning the maximum time your capital is unavailable is three months, with a 20-day advance notice requirement. Others are structured over 12, 18, 24, or 36 months with monthly or quarterly income payments, so even if the principal is locked, you are receiving regular cash flow.

    Our strong advice is: only invest capital you do not need access to during the chosen term. If you have any doubt about whether you might need the money urgently, choose a shorter-term product or maintain a cash reserve separately. We would rather you invest less and sleep well than overcommit and face a problem.

    Your contract specifies a fixed return rate, and that is exactly what you receive — no more, no less — regardless of what happens to the value of any underlying asset. This is fundamentally different from investing in a public real estate fund or a commodity ETF, where your position value moves daily.

  • This is the most important question to answer before selecting a product, and the answer changes everything about which structure makes sense for you.

    If you need income now — a regular payment that arrives in your account each month or quarter — private investments in the real estate, gold, or litigation markets all offer monthly or quarterly coupon options. This essentially replaces or supplements an income stream with a fixed, predictable payment.

    If you are investing for long-term capital protection and growth — for example, protecting an inheritance, a business exit, or a property sale while growing its value — then a longer-term, lump-sum structure is typically better. You commit the capital, leave it untouched, and receive a significantly larger amount at the end of the term. This is also where the tax treatment is often more favorable.

    Most of our clients end up doing both: allocating one portion to a short or medium-term product for regular income, and another portion to a longer-term structure for growth. Your coach will help you map this out based on your actual numbers.

PRIVATE INVESTMENTS IN THE REAL ESTATE MARKET

  • You are lending capital to a specialist real estate company that uses it to acquire residential properties — typically in prime urban locations — at significantly below market value. They do this by targeting motivated sellers: landlords who need to sell quickly, people exiting the market due to tax changes, or owners who cannot keep up with regulatory requirements.

    The company acquires the property, refurbishes it, and sells it at or above market value. The margin between the discounted purchase price and the sale price is where the profit is generated. Your capital enables them to move quickly and do more transactions, and in return you receive a fixed coupon — a predetermined return — at agreed intervals.

    You do not own the property, you are not a landlord, and you have no management responsibilities. You lend, they operate, you receive your return.

  • Because the company acquires properties at a substantial discount to market value — typically 25 to 40% below — there is a meaningful buffer before a market price fall would affect their ability to operate profitably. Even if property values dropped 15 to 20%, they would still be buying at a net discount to the reduced market price.

    Additionally, if market conditions make an immediate sale unfavorable, the company can hold the property and generate rental income, or adapt the asset (for example, dividing it into multiple units) to maintain returns. Your coupon payments are not dependent on any single property being sold — they are supported by the overall cash reserves and operational performance of the fund.

  • It depends on the structure you choose at the time of investment. Regular income options (monthly or quarterly) begin paying from the start of your investment — you do not need to wait until the end of the term.

    A lump-sum option pays all returns at the end of the agreed term, with no interim payments. This structure typically offers a higher total return and may be treated as capital growth for tax purposes. You choose your structure when you complete the subscription, and you cannot change it once committed.

    If you want capital growth and do not need to touch the money during the investment period, a longer-term structure with a single lump-sum payment at maturity will typically offer higher total returns — and may also carry tax advantages, as lump-sum returns at the end of a term are often treated as capital growth rather than income.

    If you are uncertain, or you want to maintain flexibility while still generating returns, a short-term note with quarterly exit options gives you the ability to reassess every few months without losing your returns.

    This is exactly why a one-to-one discovery call with your coach is the right first step — before choosing any product, we need to understand your full picture.

PRIVATE INVESTMENTS IN THE GOLD TRADING MARKET

  • You are lending capital to an well-established gold trading company that uses it to increase the volume of its trading operations. The company buys physical gold directly from mines at a discounted price relative to the market index, and simultaneously sells it to pre-agreed buyers at a smaller discount — capturing the spread as profit.

    Transactions are back-to-back: the sale is agreed before the purchase is completed. This means the company's profit is determined by the spread between the two prices, not by whether gold goes up or down. Your capital enables them to do more trades, and in return you receive a fixed return.

  • Because the company acquires properties at a substantial discount to market value — typically 25 to 40% below — there is a No. Because transactions are structured back-to-back — purchase and sale agreed simultaneously at the same index reference — a movement in gold's market price does not affect the trading margin. The profit comes from the difference between the buying discount and the selling discount, not from the direction of the gold price.

    This is why this type of private investment offers stable, predictable returns regardless of what gold is doing on commodity markets. You are investing in the trading activity, not in gold as a speculative asset. buffer before a market price fall would affect their ability to operate profitably. Even if property values dropped 15 to 20%, they would still be buying at a net discount to the reduced market price.

    Additionally, if market conditions make an immediate sale unfavorable, the company can hold the property and generate rental income, or adapt the asset (for example, dividing it into multiple units) to maintain returns. Your coupon payments are not dependent on any single property being sold — they are supported by the overall cash reserves and operational performance of the fund.

  • Several layers of protection are in place. All payments within the trading process are made via Letters of Credit — a banking instrument that releases funds only when the physical gold has been delivered and fully meets the contractual specification. No payment is made if any condition is not met.

    The company works exclusively with prime banks and does not take on additional debt by leveraging investor capital. Physical gold transportation is handled by specialist, insured logistics companies. Legal oversight of the trading structure is maintained by a registered law firm. The gold itself serves as collateral underpinning the investment.

PRIVATE INVESTMENTS IN THE LITIGATION FUNDING MARKET

  • You are lending capital to a litigation funding company that finances large international legal cases on behalf of law firms. These are typically corporate cases — financial misconduct, mis-sold products, regulatory violations, commercial litigations —or where a law firm represents hundreds or thousands of claimants against a major institution.

    Building and running a large legal case requires significant capital: lawyers, expert witnesses, court costs, research. The litigation funder provides that capital in exchange for a share of any successful outcome. Potential returns on successful cases can be three to five times the capital deployed, which is what allows the funder to pay investors a fixed coupon while still generating strong profits.

    Investors receive their fixed returns regardless of whether any individual case is won or lost — the capital protection mechanisms are independent of case outcomes.

  • Your capital is protected by three independent layers that operate regardless of the outcome of any single case.

    1. Every case is required to be covered by an AM Best-rated after-the-event insurance policy before any capital is deployed. If the insurer — which conducts its own independent risk assessment — decides not to cover the case, the fund does not invest in it. This insurance acts as the first line of protection.

    2. The fund maintains a substantial liquidity reserve via a MAS (Monetary Authority of Singapore) registered Sub-Fund that exists specifically to ensure investor coupons and principal redemptions are paid on time regardless of where individual cases stand.

    3. A large surety bond and also a MAS registered Sub-Fund — issued by reinsurance-grade institutions — provides an additional capital backstop if the liquidity reserve were ever insufficient.

    Your capital is also spread across many hundreds of cases simultaneously, so no single loss creates a meaningful impact on the fund's ability to meet its obligations to investors.

  • Cases go through multiple layers of evaluation. The fund manager assesses the probability of success, the likely duration, the jurisdiction, the strength of evidence, and the type of claim. An independent, AM Best-rated insurance company then conducts its own separate due diligence — they will only issue after-the-event coverage if they assess a 60–80% or higher probability of the case succeeding.

    If the insurance company declines to cover a case, no capital is deployed into it. This creates a self-selecting filter: the fund only invests in cases that have passed an independent risk assessment by a professional insurer whose business model depends on getting that assessment right.

  • Litigation funding investments are typically structured in several tranches of 90, 120 or 180 days, with an exit window at the end of each tranche. At each exit point, you can choose to receive your coupon and withdraw your principal, or reinvest and continue. To exit, you must notify the fund approximately 20 days before your tranche end date. Principal is then returned within approximately 10 business days.

    This 90-day liquidity cycle is a key feature of the litigation investment option. Unlike many traditional private placements, which can lock up capital for one to five years with no exit option, it gives investors regular opportunities to withdraw.

  • Yes. Some litigation funding vehicles are structured as restricted instruments with international securities codes (ISIN), Bloomberg visibility, and full oversight by a recognized financial regulatory authority such as the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). These products can in some cases be held through broker-dealers and standard custody accounts.

    The tradeoff is that a MAS registered structure carries compliance and reserve costs, which typically results in a lower return compared to a direct, unregulated note backed by the same underlying fund. If holding the investment within your existing brokerage infrastructure is important to you, the restricted option is worth discussing with your coach.

CURRENCIES, TAX & LEGAL

  • Our private investment products are available mainly in US Dollars, Euros, British Pounds, and Swiss Francs. You invest in one currency and receive all payments — both coupons and your returned principal — in that same currency. There is no forced conversion.

    If you invest in a currency that differs from the underlying assets of the fund (for example, investing in US Dollars in a fund that operates primarily in GBP), there is a currency exposure within the fund structure. The fund manages this internally, and your contract remains denominated in your chosen currency.

  • Tax treatment depends on your country of residence and how you structure your payout. Returns received on a regular basis — monthly, quarterly or yearly — are generally treated as income and taxed accordingly.

    Returns received as a single lump sum at the end of a multi-year term are often classified as capital growth in many jurisdictions, which typically carries a lower tax rate than income. This is one reason why some investors choose the lump-sum structure even when the headline rate looks similar.

    All funds pay returns gross — no tax is withheld at source. You are responsible for declaring returns in your country of tax residence. We strongly recommend speaking with a local tax adviser before investing to understand the most efficient structure for your specific situation.

  • Yes, and in many cases this is the advisable approach. Investing through a registered company — such as a UK Limited company, a US LLC, or an equivalent structure in your country — can offer greater asset protection, cleaner separation from personal finances, and in some jurisdictions, meaningful tax efficiencies.

    This is particularly worth considering if you are building long-term wealth, want to separate investment capital from personal assets, or anticipate changes in your personal circumstances. Your coach can discuss the options relevant to your country and situation.

    If the insurance company declines to cover a case, no capital is deployed into it. This creates a self-selecting filter: the fund only invests in cases that have passed an independent risk assessment by a professional insurer whose business model depends on getting that assessment right.

  • Some products — particularly those in the litigation funding space — have a defined maximum capital target per note or series. Once that target is reached, the note closes and a new series opens, often with updated terms reflecting the specific cases being funded at that time.

    Real estate and gold trading products typically operate on a more open-ended basis. If you have been presented with a specific set of terms, always confirm with your coach that those terms are still current before committing. Products change, and we will always ensure you are investing on the terms that are actually available.

BROKER ACCESS & HOW PAYMENTS WORK

  • Most of our private investment products are held directly — they are not listed on any exchange and are not visible in a standard brokerage account. You invest through the product's own platform or onboarding process, and all payments are made directly to your registered bank account.

    If you invest in a currency that differs from the underlying assets of the fund (for example, investing in US Dollars in a fund that operates primarily in GBP), there is a currency exposure within the fund structure. The fund manages this internally, and your contract remains denominated in your chosen currency.

    Some regulated litigation products carry international securities identifiers (ISINs) and are visible on platforms such as Bloomberg. These may be purchasable through certain broker-dealers, depending on their internal policies on private placements. If holding through a broker is important to you, ask your coach about the regulated option and share the product details with your broker to confirm eligibility before committing.

  • For direct products, all payments — coupons and principal — are transferred by bank wire to the account you register at the time of investment. Payments are made in the currency of your investment. The account must be in your name (or your company's name, if investing through a company) — payments cannot be directed to third-party accounts.

    In some case you will also have access to a dedicated online investor portal where you can view your investment position, payment history, and upcoming payment dates in real time. In some other case you will receive reports via e-mail.

GETTING STARTED

  • Because these are private products, that will depend on the required document and on the policy of the company. But if that required to enter into a portal, to have access to full documentation — including company names, legal structures, term sheets, financial statements, and track records — that requires signing a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA). This protects the integrity of the products and the companies involved.

    In that case the signing is done digitally and takes a few minutes. The NDA does not commit you to investing anything — it simply gives you access to the full information you need to make an informed decision. Different products have separate onboarding portals, and your coach will guide you through the right process for the product you are interested in.

  • Private investments work best for people who already have a basic financial structure in place — savings, a pension, possibly a property or business — and are looking to make capital that would otherwise be sitting idle work harder for them.

    If you are still in the early stages of managing your finances, our coaching programmes are designed to help you build that foundation first. We would rather spend time helping you get ready than recommend a product that creates pressure or stress.

    If feel the need for more clarity, book a free discovery call. We will tell you honestly where you stand and what makes sense for your situation.

  • We arrange a one-to-one discovery call to understand your financial situation, goals, and time horizon in detail. From there, if a product looks like a good fit, we walk you through an onboarding process at your own pace.

    In Plant Ahead we understand that each individual is adapting to this environment at a different speed, and we respect that.

    Some might need a few weeks other a few months before making their first investment, but most important is to understand it and enjoy the learning process, as the right decision is the one you make with full information and full confidence.

  • Yes. Our clients are based across the UK, US, Spain, Venezuela, Mexico, Switzerland, and many other countries. The products are denominated in major currencies and are designed to be accessible internationally.

    You will need a personal or company bank account in an eligible currency, and your coach will help you navigate any country-specific considerations.