Category: Real Estate
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Why Farmland Might NOT Be a Great Investment
“Investors Flock to Farmland Amid Market Volatility”[1] screams one headline. “Bill Gates Farmland: Why is the Billionaire Buying So Much?” asks another.[2] “How to Start Investing in Farmland” is a headline from the Motley Fool (The Motley Fool, June 30, 2025). When I typed “is farmland a good investment” into…
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Don’t Be Fooled by the Boom: Real Estate’s Real Return Story
In previous posts, we saw that real estate has had volatility similar to that of stocks, with correlation low enough to make it a useful portfolio diversifier. But we also want to know what kind of returns to expect from real estate if it is included in a portfolio. Historical…
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How Much Real Estate Should I Own? Examining Real Estate Volatility
In a previous post, we saw that real estate is by market value the largest asset class in the world. According to most interpretations of the efficient market hypothesis, this fact suggests that real estate should be a part of most portfolios that adopt an indexing approach. In this post,…
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The World’s Largest Asset Class, and How to Think About It
In previous blogs, we looked at bonds and stocks as asset classes. We developed an approach based on return factors and return correlations to decide which asset classes should be considered by most investors. In this post, we look at real estate. However, unlike the case with stocks and bonds,…
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Avoid These Top Ten Mistakes in Delaware Statutory Trusts
Delaware Statutory Trusts (often called “DST” but don’t confuse that with “deferred sales trust”) can be good solutions for certain very specific real estate tax planning purposes. How do you know if a Delaware Statutory Trust is right for your client’s situation? Consider Mark who owns $2 million of apartments in California.…
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Beware This “Abusive” Tax-Planning Trap; What to Do Instead
Recently we have talked to several advisors who have been pitched by promoters offering Deferred Sales Trusts – “DSTs” and Monetized Installment Sales – “MISTs.” Those are two names for basically the same scheme. The scheme (the IRS’ word, see below) is promoted as a tax deferral strategy. California has…
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Estate Exemption: Hidden AUM Opportunities
The lifetime estate tax exemption now is about $13.6 million for an individual and $27.2 million for a couple. Under current law, the exemption is scheduled to drop, about in half, on January 1, 2026. The new exemptions[1] will be about $7 million for an individual and about $14 million…
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Time to Get Out of New York Real Estate?
The New York Supreme Court, in the person of Judge Arthur Engoron, has caused an earthquake in the New York real estate market. Investors don’t like risk, and they particularly don’t like political risk. To a great many observers, the trial which resulted in Engoron’s ruling, a trial which some…
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Why Doesn’t Your Client Act? 4 Factors to Guide Financial Decision-Making
Advisors can spend hours explaining a great solution to their clients, only to have those clients not act on the solution. There’s no magic bullet. But sometimes clients appreciate it when their advisor helps them identify what’s making the decision hard. What makes a decision difficult? Decision analysts have found…
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Are Your Clients Choosing to Pay $2.5 Million in Unnecessary Taxes?
Every week, we meet with advisors who have a client who is choosing to pay two and a half million in taxes that could be permanently and legally avoided. Before you say that none of your clients would ever make such a choice, you might want to see why we…