The participants in this "fireside chat" at the recent FWR forum for family offices, held in New York, examined the matchmaking model for investors and curated direct deals.

At the April 2026 The Family Wealth Report Family Office Investment Forum, held in New York City, Mike Raso and Roger Braunfeld discussed a new, more effective “matchmaking” model that combines legal, regulatory, and digital infrastructure to transform access to private investments. This model efficiently connects high net worth investors with curated direct deals, including Reg A+ real estate and private company opportunities.

Mike Raso is co-founder of Conduit Capital Partners, and Roger Braunfeld is partner at Royer Cooper Cohen Braunfeld (more about these individuals below).

Comments
Raso: Roger, you are not the typical lawyer and RCCB is not what many would consider the typical law firm. What I mean by this is that you are more entrepreneurial and tech forward than most law firms. Tell us more about yourself, why you founded RCCB, and how the firm operates.

Braunfeld: We started RCCB with four founders and have grown to over 90 attorneys in less than 14 years. Our philosophy/edge is our culture – smart people (underline people not just attorneys), who like each other and like our clients.

Our dream is to empower our people to build something that outlasts our founders and keeps getting better every year. We like to solve problems and make opportunities happen and like finding yes.  We also look for opportunities. Generally, problems are opportunities and the question is whether it is worth the effort. Virtually every opportunity needs an attorney, hence law can be a trojan horse to opportunities. We focus on building a culture that empowers people and related opportunities. Hence, we now have a broker-dealer, compliance business and trust company. We also try to figure out how we, along with our clients, can leverage this across platforms.

So, while RCCB combined with our affiliated entities have a lot of the components needed, we lack a technology platform and partner to more elegantly tie it all together. What excited us about Conduit was your technology capability and equally important was your shared desire to challenge status quo thinking by being open to change and partnering.

Reg A+ provides a bright future for private markets
Regulation A+ was created by the 2012 JOBS Act to make it easier for smaller companies and real estate deals to raise capital from a broad audience. Reg A+ remains a two-tier exempt public offering regime under the Securities Act.  Our focus today is on the Tier 2 part of the SEC exemption allowing companies to raise up to $75 million from the public (accredited and non-accredited investors). It is known as a "mini-IPO". If done properly and with scale, Reg A+ has the potential to impact the private markets similarly to the effect that mutual funds had on public markets.

Raso: If Reg A+ has so much potential why has it not been used more in the industry?

Braunfeld: In general, the process is cumbersome with regulatory hurdles that have been the biggest obstacles. That was reinforced by the fact that there was not a significant uptick in usage after the increase in March 2021 to a $75 million threshold. Complexity and expense get in the way of change and adoption.  We see this happens all the time.

The path forward requires partnership and a technology platform. So, while RCCB has legal expertise, a broker-dealer, a compliance business and a trust company, we lacked a technology partner to build the proper connectivity. This is not technology that you “buy off the shelf” because it simply does not exist.  It requires a joint venture of like-minded parties.

We were excited when we learned that Conduit has the capability to partner with RCCB to tie it all together from end to end. Upfront you need a virtual data room with permission and controls in place to access information. In the middle you need to standardize investor onboarding, automating eligibility rules for KYC/AML, a digital subscription workflow process and reduce compliance overhead. On an ongoing basis, you need audited reporting, regulatory compliance and a consistent ongoing process.

Equally important is that RCCB and Conduit Private Partners have a shared ethos.  We both envision the newly-created platform to democratize access to private deals with the same terms and conditions for both

Raso: So how is RCCB involved with Reg A+?

Braunfeld: RCCB has several projects we are involved with. One real estate example is a new housing building at a university. Imagine if you allow all alumni or the people who planned and constructed the building to be owners by making small investments of a few hundred dollars. So going beyond large donor naming rights to make these projects accessible not only to the wealthy class but to everyone on the same terms. Taking this a step further, we envision that Reg A+ can also play a role to include a financial return on impact related investing.

To be clear we want this platform to co-exist alongside Reg D offerings, but we want to democratize the access. Let's take a $500 million real estate deal for a new academic building at a university. We see a future of carving out $50 million of the development to offer the school alumni and even the workers doing the construction to participate in the investment. $450 million will still be for Reg D investors.

RCCB has had consistent interest from our private client relationships on gaining awareness and access to private deals. We have been randomly connecting them to the private deals that we have worked on. While the outcomes have been beneficial for all parties, the process has been inefficient and reactive. Also, we realize this is a very small subset of opportunities. Our team has been thinking about how we could improve things with a repeatable, systematic approach. We have been searching for a technology platform that was designed for our vision.  So we got excited as we got to know the Conduit team capabilities. Mike, tell the audience here more about how Conduit operates.

Raso: Thanks Roger.  At Conduit Private Partners, we get excited about breaking barriers that exist by system limitations and status quo thinking. We bring a full circle perspective of relevant experience that comes from having used systems that did not fit properly for the problem to be solved. We set up Conduit to operate differently. Our approach is to design platform solutions to manage the complexity of integrations involved that are tailored for the need rather than telling you that you need to change to use our system.

Conduit was equally excited as we knew we were only part of the solution and that partnership is needed to do this. Key players are a law firm like RCCB, an operational platform manager like Conduit, a provider for the accounting function for audited financials and compliance to address the ongoing SEC filings. Conduit can tie all the essential functionality to automate and more efficiently run the full lifecycle process but we cannot do it alone. We have built similar institutional quality functionality on a global basis.

Raso: Tell us more details about the steps involved for getting a deal done?

Braunfeld: For a real estate development it has been a challenge to offer a sophisticated dual-offering structure, using Reg A+ for broad-based investor access alongside Reg D for targeted private placements. Solving for a seamless transaction process as we handle the full lifecycle of the deal – from establishing the underlying corporate structures and drafting comprehensive legal documents to navigating the rigorous regulatory filing and disclosure requirements – has been elusive.

Recognizing that traditional technological hurdles often slow these processes, we are excited to partner with Conduit to streamline the investor experience through a dedicated platform setup. This integration ensures that the legal, compliance, and financial vetting stages are no longer roadblocks, but rather a cohesive engine for project success.

Closing thoughts
Our [Raso and Braunfeld's) shared goal is to provide equal opportunity and access to private deals. Using Reg A+ alongside Reg D is the way forward. Technology, legal, compliance, regulatory and financial vetting need to be all integrated seamlessly to achieve broad-based success. RCCB and Conduit believe cooperation across the deal ecosystem are equally important key components. This means having a platform that is open for other qualified firms to participate rather than a closed proprietary approach. We are excited to move this forward.

About the participants

Mike Raso is a seasoned investment leader and co-founder of Conduit Private Partners. Conduit provides “The Right Way To Alternatives®” by advising deal sponsors and fund managers on new distribution channels, global market entry or operational efficiency execution for investment management solutions. Raso has a background spanning senior roles at WP Global Partners, Aberdeen Investments and OppenheimerFunds.

Mike Raso

Roger Braunfeld is a founding partner at Royer Cooper Cohen Braunfeld (RCCB). He focuses on financing and development strategies and transactions for investors and a wide array of businesses in various stages of development. Among other things, his practice encompasses fund formation, private equity and venture capital transactions, debt and equity offerings, mergers and acquisitions, real estate and corporate restructurings, as well as a range of business and commercial transactions, agreements, and general business counseling. Braunfeld is also a founding partner of both 3iCo, LLC (RCCB affiliated compliance business) and Clermont Trust USA (RCCB affiliated South Dakota Trust Company).

Roger Braunfeld