This paper began as a summary of a 3-day private equity investment research project for The Abernathy Group Family Office. During the trip, as research advanced, we realized the changes available and likely to be implemented are far larger and potentially more disruptive than believed when I got on the plane.
The primary goal was to find out whether changes to America’s educational infrastructure would welcome the changes being introduced by leveraging newly available technologies. The secondary goals were to understand how and when the technologies would best be introduced and implemented, or whether our ineffective, staid educational system would remain unchanged.

In our meeting today, we will focus on some of the economic differences between the short-term and long-term perspectives, as well as the impact the short-term dimension has on the long-term outlook.

One of the clear risks on the radar today is the valuation of the public market, mainly driven by technological advancements in Artificial Intelligence.

The impact of Artificial Intelligence has created a level of concentration in the stock market that we have never witnessed before. We believe this level of concentration is typically a risk in all markets; however, the extreme levels of concentration Artificial Intelligence has created today pose a level of risk not seen since the dot-com bubble in 2000.

Today’s presentation discusses the period labeled as Dot-Com in the late 1990s vs today’s market characterized by the emergence of Artificial Intelligence(A.I.) Our goal is to make note of both the similarities and the differences while avoiding the likely downturn brought on by the maturation of the eventual “S Curve” which seems to emerge during each technology cycle.

In our meeting today, we will mainly focus on the risks in today’s public markets, while hoping our investment portfolio naturally benefits from the positives.

In this meeting, we will focus our discussion on the process of creating a Wish List. We will cover what a Wish List is, why it makes sense to create one, when it is appropriate to create one, and how to build one over time.

This topic has surfaced over the last 4 months several times, as we have been showing you that

Most public markets are priced for perfection,

Speculation is abundant, and

Policy is changing rapidly.

Historically, this combination of events has led to unsettling volatility at best and, at worst, could force a significant repricing of assets lower. What drives this cautionary outlook?

Today’s presentation discusses “The All-Weather Portfolio.” When should an investor implement an All-Weather portfolio allocation? Why does a more stable, higher-quality, dividend-generating investment stance offer a beneficial shelter during most economic storms? Along with the benefit of safe money, earning a reasonable return while waiting for use after the markets return to a more welcoming valuation?

Today’s Presentation is “Questions and Answers – Today’s Most Important Family Office Questions.”

Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Steven Abernathy, and I, along with my co-host Matthew Daley, will be your host today. 

Welcome to the Abernathy Group Family Office’s April 2025 “First Friday” meeting.

In this meeting, we will focus our discussion on six truly important questions that all intelligent investors must answer.