A Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) is a company that owns, operates, or finances income-producing real estate. REITs allow investors to gain exposure to professionally managed portfolios of commercial real estate while receiving potential income through dividends—without directly owning or managing properties.
Congress created REITs in 1960 to give individual investors access to large-scale commercial real estate investments in much the same way they invest in publicly traded companies.
A Preferred Equity Investment is a form of real estate financing in which an investor provides capital to a property owner in exchange for a preferred return and a priority claim on cash flow, ranking ahead of the common equity owners but behind the property’s senior lender.
Preferred equity is commonly used to help finance the acquisition, development, or recapitalization of commercial real estate. It offers investors the potential for higher income than senior debt while providing greater downside protection than common equity.
An Interval Fund is a professionally managed investment fund that combines many of the diversification benefits of a traditional mutual fund with the ability to invest in less liquid assets, such as private real estate, private credit, infrastructure, and other alternative investments. Unlike mutual funds or ETFs, interval funds are not traded on a stock exchange and provide liquidity only through periodic share repurchase offers.
A Business Development Company (BDC) is a publicly registered investment company that provides financing to privately held and middle-market businesses through loans, preferred equity, and equity investments. BDCs allow investors to access private credit and private company investments while receiving the potential for regular income through dividends.
Congress created BDCs in 1980 to increase the flow of capital to growing U.S. businesses while giving individual investors access to an asset class that was traditionally available only to institutional investors.
A Structured Note is a customizable investment issued by a financial institution that combines a traditional debt security (bond) with one or more derivative components to provide a defined investment outcome. Structured notes can be designed to pursue enhanced income, downside protection, growth, or a combination of these objectives based on the performance of an underlying asset or market index.
Rather than owning the underlying investment directly, investors receive returns according to the terms established when the note is issued.
A Private Credit Investment is a non-publicly traded loan or debt investment made directly to businesses, real estate projects, or other borrowers outside of the traditional banking system. Instead of purchasing publicly traded bonds, investors provide capital through privately negotiated loans that are typically originated and managed by specialized investment firms.
Private credit has become one of the fastest-growing alternative asset classes as banks have reduced lending following increased regulatory requirements, creating opportunities for private lenders to fill the financing gap.