Displaying items by tag: alternative

Real estate has long been a cornerstone of wealth creation, but the responsibilities of being a landlord can be daunting. For those seeking passive income without the hassle, REITs like Realty Income Corp. offer an appealing alternative. 

Known as “The Monthly Dividend Company,” Realty Income has a history of reliable payouts, currently offering a 5.59% dividend yield. However, REITs do tend to fluctuate more than underlying rents.

Investors looking for more direct involvement without the landlord duties might consider platforms like Arrived, which allows fractional investments in rental properties, combining monthly income with potential property appreciation. Both options provide avenues to invest in real estate without the headaches of property management.

Finsum: As interest rates fall yield seekers might consider real estate as an option to generate income, with fluctuations in equities markets. 

Over the past twenty years, alternative investment strategies like hedge funds, private equity, and real estate have grown in popularity among investors seeking diversification and steady returns. This trend was initially driven by the low-yield environment post-2009 financial crisis, making alternatives attractive due to their higher yields and low correlation with public markets. 

However, the landscape shifted post-2021 with rising inflation and interest rates, as well as increased geopolitical tensions, challenging traditional investment approaches. Hedge funds have gained renewed relevance, offering uncorrelated returns amid market volatility. 

Similarly, private credit has thrived, benefiting from the retreat of large banks from direct lending and providing attractive yields and diversification. Despite rising interest rates, alternatives with lock-up periods continue to outperform public markets, supporting a balanced, blended investment strategy for consistent returns.

Finsum: Remember the real advantage to alts is their uncorrelated returns and more specifically uncorrelated volatility to traditional markets.

Invesco recently completed its Q1 update on the landscape for alternative assets. In terms of private credit, the firm sees an improving environment due to a resilient economy, inflation trending lower, rate cuts later in the year, and expectations of liquidity events in private equity. Overall, it sees investors able to get attractive yields without compromising on credit quality. It expects overall yields to remain between 11 and 12% for the year for private credit investors. 

The firm sees opportunity in distressed debt and special situations to lend to ‘good companies’ with weakened balance sheets. It believes the higher rate environment has hurt smaller companies and that many of these companies are operationally sound but are ‘liquidity-constrained’, creating an opportunity to invest at attractive valuations. 

In terms of real assets, Invesco notes that fundamentals remain strong, for the most part, despite lower transaction volume and stresses created by the high-rate environment. It’s particularly bullish on real estate due to improving monetary conditions, which should support transaction volumes. Even during the downturn, income fundamentals remained robust across most categories. The firm sees sound fundamentals in most areas of real estate except for offices and overbuilding in some markets. Additionally, recent economic data has been supportive of a ‘soft landing’ for the economy, which is also bullish for real estate. 

Finsum: Invesco shared its thoughts on alternative assets. Overall, it’s bullish on the asset class and sees the most upside for real estate and private credit due to its positive forecast for the economy in 2024.

Blackstone is the largest alternative asset manager, with over $1 trillion in assets as of the end of last year. According to FactSet, Blackstone has a 19.7% revenue share of the diverse alternative investment market.

In total, it has stakes in 230 companies and around 12,500 real estate assets. While high interest rates and a significant slowing in IPOs and dealmaking have hurt many financial stocks, alternative asset managers are an exception, with a 45% gain in 2023, outpacing the S&P 500’s 24% increase. Blackstone climbed nearly 70%.

Blackstone is bullish in 2024 as it sees a bottom in real estate and an improved environment due to the Fed cutting rates. However, it doesn’t see a V-shaped recovery. Instead, the firm anticipates a longer period of bottoming out when there could be more dislocations. 

Weakness in real estate is reflected in Blackstone’s results, as 2023 earnings were down 23% from the previous year. Real estate revenue was down 51%. Its two major real estate funds were down 6% and 4% for the year, respectively. As a result, the firm only spent $15 billion on real estate investments, down from $47 billion the previous year. 

Finsum: Blackstone is the leading alternative investment manager in the world. Its stock was up nearly 70% in 2023, despite a double-digit drop in earnings. The company is bullish in 2024 due to the anticipation of a bottom in real estate and improved conditions with lower rates.  

Fidelity recently conducted a survey of advisors and found that only 26% currently have exposure to alternative investments. In contrast, 86% of institutional investors have exposure to the asset class. 

The survey also revealed that many advisors are looking for more resources to help them evaluate various alternative offerings before they feel comfortable recommending them to clients. This is despite other surveys showing that many advisors would like to increase allocation to alternatives due to their benefits such as diversification and non-correlated returns. 

Specifically, advisors cited the need for more due diligence on strategies and managers in addition to concerns about liquidity as obstacles to adoption. Many also indicated the difficulty of communicating with clients about these products given the number of options and complexities.

Adding to the challenge is that each clients’ appropriate exposure to alternatives depends on factors like time horizon, liquidity needs, and eligibility. This level of customization increases the burden on advisors to understand various options in a comprehensive manner. 

In order to address these problems, Fidelity is expanding research on various alternative investment strategies. Initially, the research will focus on private credit, private real assets, and private equity funds. According to the company, these types of tools and resources will accelerate adoption of alternatives by advisors. 

Finsum: A recent survey by Fidelity showed that many advisors have been slow to adopt alternatives. A primary reason is that advisors have a need for more due diligence on the various products and strategies before they feel comfortable recommending them to clients.