January 1, 2015: Vol. 2, Number 1

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From the Current Issue

REITs Roll the Dice: Esoteric business spaces have spawned new REITs, making for an interesting year ahead.

Does the real estate securities sector’s budding embrace of highly specialized equity REITs suggest tax-exempt retirement funds and other institutions will soon be placing multimillion-dollar bets on publicly traded casino companies?

What Can We Expect in this Bold New Year?

This is my favorite time of year. Period. The end of every year brings with it the closing of one chapter in time and the promise of a new chapter yet to be written. All bets are off, or on, depending on how you look at it.

Keene column

David Swensen’s Pioneering Portfolio Management laid out in a compelling and understandable manner the benefits that real assets, venture capital, private equity, hedge strategies and the like could bring to portfolios. With the proliferation of alternative investment managers and increased access to alternatives, even the most reluctant advisers offer some alternatives to clients.

Revisting the Value of Commodities

Diversification benefits outweigh the sector’s recent lackluster results.

Asymmetric Risk in Oil: Back Toward $80 in 2015

Despite short-term volatility, long-term investors should not overlook oil-related investments.

Commercial Real Estate Hinges on Key Fundamentals

Commercial real estate has been a bright spot on the investment horizon, with all property types posting solid gains in earnings and with property prices reaching or exceeding pre-crisis peaks. In terms of investment performance, equity REITs posted a total return of 27.8 percent through the first 11 months of 2014.

High Hurdle: Advisers Wayne McCullough and Keith Beckman raise the wealth management bar at Dallas

After 50 years in business as a community financial institution, Dallas-based Benchmark Bank is breaking into the wealth management business. The move is symbolic of a growing trend among the nation’s banks

Rough Cut:Diamond investing takes some work, but can yield attractive returns over the long term.

Both individual and institutional investors have been looking harder at diamonds recently. Individual stones — white and color — are gaining popularity because they are tangible and portable, and they promise steady appreciation, even if that promise is not always realistic.

Blind Spot: Investors often overlook direct investment in commercial property, but why?

As the number of high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth individuals continues to grow, so does their appetite for alternative investments, particularly real estate. Yet, most of these investors limit their real estate investments to residential property or real estate investment trusts instead of direct ownership in commercial property.

Coming of Age: New platforms, changing sentiment, and the ongoing quest for yield have the infrastructure asset class sprinting toward adulthood.

Infrastructure and public-private partnerships are not entirely new, but at the same time infrastructure is hardly the mature, widely accepted allocation that some feel it should be — or soon may become.