Wealth managers, unite!
Or some such thing.
A wider swath of them is jumping into alternative – and often less liquid, assets, according to investmentnews.com. The strategy’s come at the cost of traditional asset classes, from which they’ve retreated.
Investors in or approaching retirement are eyeing alternatives in light of the one two punch of a volatile stock market and steepling inflation.
Among wealth managers globally, inflation is their top headache, according to a recently released Mercer survey. In the upcoming two years, investment returns were expected to be lower than they’ve experienced in recent years among nearly half of the respondents.
“It is encouraging to see the majority of wealth managers embracing and investing in illiquid and other alternative asset classes, citing yield and return potential. With traditional asset classes unlikely to generate the same level of returns in the next few years as they did in the past, it is critical that wealth managers’ client portfolios are positioned to seize the widest range of investment opportunities,” Gregg Sommer, partner and US financial intermediaries leader at Mercer, said in a statement.
While the stock market’s works wonders when it comes to feeding the bottom line, among some investors, alternative investments could be an ideal fit the portfolio as well, according to fool.com.
Some of the most popular type to consider:
- Real estate
- Crowdfunding
- Peer-to-peer lending
- Commodities
- Hedge fund investing
- Cryptocurrency
- Art