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Courses/Finance/Investing

Virtual Roundtable: Alternative Investments in 2025

Go beyond traditional portfolios. Discover the strategic case for alternative investments in 2025 to build resilient, diversified, and future-ready client wealth.

Created byMustafa Bukhari
BeginnerUpdated Jun 4, 2025
Virtual Roundtable: Alternative Investments in 2025

What You'll Learn

check_circleDefine alternative investments for 2025.
check_circleExplain alternative investing benefits.
check_circleIdentify alternative investment key risks.
check_circleAssess real asset investment advantages.
check_circleUnderstand private market investment value.
check_circleEvaluate alternative investment liquidity.

About This Course

In this virtual roundtable replay, learn how to bring this important asset class onto your product shelf and talk about it with clients.

The diversification benefits provided by alternative investments are well-established, and retail investors are growing increasingly open to adding alternative investments to their portfolio.

Key topics covered include:

  • Defining alternative investments and "pension-style" approaches
  • The case for real assets like real estate and infrastructure
  • Exploring the benefits and broader opportunity set in private markets
  • Understanding and managing key risks, including liquidity and gating mechanisms
  • Addressing common misconceptions about alternatives
  • Integrating alternatives into traditional portfolios for diversification and enhanced outcomes
  • Effective communication strategies for discussing alternatives with clients

Walk away with a clearer understanding of how alternative investments can enhance diversification, manage risk, and contribute to long-term investment goals in 2025 and beyond.

Your Instructors

Mustafa Bukhari
Mustafa Bukhari

National Team Lead, Private Capital & Distribution | Skyline Group Of Companies

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Mustafa Bukhari is a seasoned investment professional with over 15 years of experience across Canada’s financial services landscape, including banking, discount brokerages, and wealth management. As the National Team Lead of Private Capital & Distribution at Skyline, he oversees a coast-to-coast sales and relationship management team responsible for distributing over $9 billion in private alternative investments. Mustafa holds the Chartered Investment Manager (CIM®) designation and specializes in private real estate, clean energy, and income-generating alternatives tailored to long-term investor needs. He has worked extensively with portfolio managers, family offices, and high-net-worth investors—guiding them through the intricacies of illiquid investments, capital raising strategies, and wealth preservation. Recognized as a Top 40 Under 40 Rising Star by Wealth Professional Canada in 2024, Mustafa brings a client-first mindset, a practical leadership approach, and a passion for financial literacy. His webinars aim to demystify the world of alternatives, offer actionable insights for financial professionals, and help advisors navigate compliance, liquidity, and structuring considerations in today’s market.

Chris  Baker
Chris Baker

SVP, Investment Sales, CMI Financial Group

Chris is a multi-faceted professional with over 20 years of experience in the financial services industry, specializing in insurance, investments, and mortgages. Prior to joining CMI, Chris founded a successful startup in the mortgage education and marketing space, which grew to be recognized as the industry’s premier learning and development streaming service. He has also held leadership roles at Street Capital Bank of Canada and Freedom 55 Financial, where he spearheaded sales, marketing, and recruitment efforts. Chris is known for his collaborative approach to building sales teams and his commitment to excellence in all endeavors. He is educated in radio and television broadcasting and is a certified professional speaker, having spoken at mortgage and insurance industry events across North America. Outside of work, he enjoys coaching competitive baseball and holds certifications as a coach developer with Baseball Canada and Baseball Ontario.

Ray Sawicki
Ray Sawicki

Senior Vice-President, National and Strategic Accounts, Equiton

Ray is a strategic and innovative investment management executive with expertise in private wealth, asset management, and multi-asset portfolio construction. With over 25 years of industry experience, he is known for building transformational businesses and leading high-performing teams. He has a proven track record of driving success through strategic opportunities and long-term partnerships. At Equiton, Ray leads the organization’s efforts to develop wealth channel distribution and platform availability, strengthen advisor relationships, and establish a standardized onboarding and service approach for National Dealer Relationships. Prior to joining Equiton, he was an integral member of the senior leadership team for one of Canada’s fastest-growing independent wealth management organizations and has served in a leadership capacity with a number of leading wealth management and asset management organizations. Ray holds an MBA from York University’s Schulich School of Business, an Honours Bachelor of Commerce & Finance degree from the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management and is a CFA Charterholder.

Brendan Sims
Brendan Sims

Alternative Strategist, Fidelity Investments Canada

Brendan began his career in public accounting and holds his CPA but later transitioned to pursue his passion for finance and markets. Brendan has been with Fidelity since 2018 working in Advisor Sales for 5 years and is familiar with the many challenges advisors face on a day-to-day basis. Brendan transitioned to exclusively covering our Alternatives lineup in 2023 as an Alternative Strategist, working closely with our Alternative Portfolio Managers to stay abreast on their current outlook and fund updates. Brendan is responsible for staying on top of industry trends and works closely with our Fidelity Sales teams across the country to support conversations around an ever-changing alternative landscape.

Credit Information

Do these courses count toward my professional development requirements?

This portal is provided as a training and development resource for City of Markham employees. Every course is delivered by a qualified subject matter expert or learning organization, is quantifiable in hours, and is verifiable — you receive a documented certificate of completion for every course you finish, stored on LearnFormula indefinitely.

If you hold a professional designation (for example in engineering, accounting, human resources, or law), courses may be counted as professionally relevant, verifiable learning activities toward your continuing professional development. Individual practitioners are responsible for confirming that an activity meets the requirements of their professional body. For questions about the City of Markham's training and development policies, please speak with your people leader or Human Resources.

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Frequently Asked Questions

We are a registered provider with 327+ associations and regulatory bodies worldwide. We operate across 29 global markets including Canada, the US, Australia, and the UK. Every course page clearly displays its specific accreditations. Upon completion, you receive a professional certificate that can be validated online. Our certificates include all necessary accreditation details, credit hours, and completion dates, and are formatted specifically to meet the submission requirements of most global regulatory bodies.