I have not been a sponsor or member of a syndication. 

The Richmond REIA site has a list of sponsors which includes some attorneys that work a lot with the members.

As for the 401k, if you are still employed with the sponsor then there's not much you can do with it now.

Typically the developer (often called the sponsor) will be required to invest some portion of the equity to have skin in the game.

My mentor, also an agent (and MY agent), not only recommended I get my license, but offered to sponsor me.  

@Rhett Tullis The sponsors of the bill are from your area.

I have always been ambitious and disciplined when it comes to my finances but other than my work sponsored 401(k) I have no other real investments.

They can probably get higher returns than me, and I would gladly take a lower rate of return in exchange for not having to put in the work of finding the deal and managing the property and eventually putting it up for sale.What do you think is the minimum amount of experience needed to be able to successfully vet deals and sponsors?

I found this link to it, but it's skimpy on details, i.e. what's planned for each day:  https://www.eventbrite.com/e/noteworthy-east-ticke...If anyone has any feedback from other conferences sponsored by this group, I'd love to hear it.

that's nice of you to sponsor those as a title company. !!