Displaying items by tag: income

(New York)

Whether investors—or Jerome Powell—like it or not, inflation is rising, and is as high as it has been in a generation. Sure, it could prove temporary, but in the near and medium term, investors are worried about it, which means it will be dictating returns. How to hedge inflation is a question that investors haven’t had to worry about in some time, so it is worth noting that REITs have traditionally performed very well in inflationary periods. Since many leases are tied to inflation, rents tend to rise directly in line with inflation, providing an excellent hedge.

FINSUM: REITs are not as well appreciated as an inflation hedge as some others asset classes, but that is exactly why they might be a great buy right now.

(Frankfurt)

Bonds yields have been so far from even survivable for most income investors, but…see the full story on our partner Magnifi’s site.

(New York)

Something very interesting is happening in the annuities market: a new generation is taking the lead. While for many advisors, getting Baby Boomers into annuities as they near retirement has been the focus, a new generation—Gen X—has been turning to the product because of a lack of pensions. According to a new industry study “investors under 55 are considerably more interested in annuities than Baby Boomers; 58% embrace the product as an alternative to pensions”. According to Jean Statler, CEO of the Alliance for Lifetime Income, “The high level of interest in annuities and protection among younger investors is extraordinary … Unfortunately, there’s still a large gap between what investors say is important to them and what financial professionals think is important”.

FINSUM: This makes a lot of sense. The generations younger than Boomers have experienced more income insecurity and retirement uncertainty and are more focused on their ability to control their own retirement income.

(New York)

The low rate environment has been hard for bond market income investors…see the full story on our partner Magnifi’s site.

In the face of record inflation, the Virtus Real Assets Income ETF (VRAI) has done extraordinarily well, up 19% year-to-date, and significantly beating the S&P 500, which is up 14%. On top of this, the ETF generates compelling income of 3%, well above the 10 Year US Treasuries at 1.5%.

Investing in real assets is a winning strategy in an inflationary environment because tangible assets such as real estate, natural resources and infrastructure have intrinsic value. VRAI is the first ETF focused on real assets. Additionally, because of VRAI’s focus on income-generating real assets, VRAI also generates attractive income.

In terms of ETF construction, VRAI is designed to be one-stop solution for real asset exposure. VRAI consists of 90 US-traded companies, equally divided between real assets, natural resources, and infrastructure. Companies are filtered based upon market capitalization and selected based upon dividend yield. All stocks are equally weighted to ensure portfolio diversification.

Finally, in terms of costs, VRAI is very competitively priced at 55 bps (0.55%). This stands stark contrast to most energy and real estate ETFs and mutual funds, which typically cost over 100 bps (or 1%).

For more information on the investment case, check out this research piece produced by Virtus

n.b. This is sponsored content and not FINSUM editorial