The changing regulatory landscape and continued bull markets in the commercial real estate property and debt markets have driven some significant shifts in the nontraded alternative investments industry over the past few years. Uncertainty around the U.S. Department of Labor’s Fiduciary Duty Rule and Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) Regulatory Notice 15-02 caused the nontraded REIT industry to reassess fee structures and introduce greater transparency — changes intended to benefit investors and create a more level playing field.

A decade ago the nascent infrastructure market struggled to be taken seriously as an asset class. Those days are over. As we enter 2018, infrastructure market activity revolves around addressing the challenges of fundraising success.

The power of an economy is largely rooted in its capacity for production, which is based on the presence of land, labor and capital. Emerging markets and frontier markets — developing countries that are still too small to be considered emerging markets — have the majority of the world’s land and labor, but only share a fraction of the capital that could serve as the foundation for expansive growth. These markets continue to evolve from net exporters of raw goods to export and domestic consumption of finished products, a transition that is continually accelerating. While fundamentals, growth and transparency are increasing, developing market investment suffers from two main issues that have little to do with the markets themselves: investor emotion and susceptibility to “headline risk.”

The Energy Select Sector SPDR, the largest equity-based energy exchange-traded fund, ended 2017 down about 7.5 percent, making it the worst performer among the sector SPDR ETFs. However, XLE was up almost 4.5 percent in the fourth quarter, and some analysts are expecting 2018 will bring a rebound for major oil stocks.

Few investment venues can rival the ever-evolving energy sector’s history, scale and prospects for abundant innovation, promise, profit … or boondoggle. In energy-land, swank investment carriages turn into pumpkins overnight, while seeming has-beens, such as U.S. oil production, roar back to steamroller Peak Oil memes nearly mid-sentence.

Investors who have generally associated private equity funds with real estate are finding other — perhaps unexpected — options in the category.

John Coleman recently wrote on the Harvard Business Review website that one of his favorite regular activities is participating in a book club called Six Pillars, hosted by a friend named Stan. Stan initiated the group several years ago to convene friends, diversify his own reading habits and make new connections. Six Pillars is so named because each year Coleman and his cohorts read six books in six key disciplines. The group meets every two months, Stan hosts and cooks dinner, and for two hours the group of 10 to 12 people discusses the book they have read.

Thirty-five years ago at a residential real estate awards event in Sedona, Ariz., the man declared the city’s Realtor of the Year took the podium, shared all the requisite thanks and expressions of humility, and then spoke to his financial success thusly: “It’s true that money can’t buy happiness, but it sure makes misery more tolerable.”

There is no dramatic overbuilding of office anywhere in the country, according to Jeff Kanne, CEO of National Real Estate Advisors. Indeed, during the past seven years there has been more absorption than delivery, adds Jaime Fink, managing director of HFF.

When someone asks, “What do you do?” and you respond you are a farmer, John Ellis says that is the wrong answer. “You are a technologist who has chosen to deliver farm products,” Ellis told attendees at the 2017 Farm Journal AgTech Expo.

Like much of the infrastructure in the United States, water and wastewater infrastructure is in dire need of investment. U.S. drinking water is delivered via a complex, nationwide system of pipes, filtration plants and pumps, many of which are reaching the end of their 90-year life spans. This creates an increased risk for breaks and quality concerns, which must be addressed.

Investors cannot be blamed for having misgivings about the value REIT shares might bring to their portfolios heading into 2018 — particularly with so much chatter about an imminent correction in real estate prices — given REIT stocks underperformed the Dow and the S&P 500 by 23 percent and 17 percent, respectively, during 2017. Let’s look at the different REIT sectors to form some overarching opinions.