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The Benefits of Real Assets Diversification in Defined Contribution Plans

By:
Vince Childers

Senior Vice President

With stocks and bonds facing the prospect of subdued returns, many fiduciaries of defined contribution (DC) plans are considering diversification options for their investment menu. We show how liquid real assets—including real estate securities, commodities, natural resource equities and listed infrastructure—may offer an attractive way to fill that diversification need, particularly as the market pivots away from quantitative easing and low interest rates to a policy-induced reflationary environment.

Highlights
 

An essential allocation for a new market regime: After a 35-year run of strong returns, bonds now face an uphill climb, offering little yield to offset the potential impact of higher interest rates in a strengthening economy. At the same time, stocks are trading at demanding valuations despite uncertainty around fiscal policy, rising protectionism and shifting global currents. We believe these dynamics are likely to shape global financial markets for years to come, positioning real assets to play a critical role in helping investors diversify risk, improve return potential and preserve the purchasing power of investment dollars.

What are real assets? Think toll roads, shopping centers, pipelines, grains, crude oil and precious metals—the structures and raw natural resources that support the basic functioning of the global economy. Many real assets investments are highly illiquid, but can be accessed through liquid publicly traded securities and commodities futures. Our study focuses on the four core real assets categories—real estate, commodities, natural resources and infrastructure—as well as a “Diversified Real Assets Blend” consisting of an equal-weighted mix of these four assets.

Investment characteristics of real assets: Our analysis examines the attributes of real assets based on three primary objectives:

  • Diversification: As a result of their different performance drivers, real assets have historically exhibited modest correlations with each other and with stocks and bonds, providing potential diversification benefits. Going a step further, listed real assets have generally performed well when both stocks and bonds have underperformed at the same time, helping to defend against otherwise challenging market environments.
  • Total returns: Since 1991, a Diversified Real Assets Blend generated a 7.7% annualized return.(1) This is notable considering that: a) commodities—which represent one quarter of the blend—experienced a bear market from 2008 to early 2016 due to significant oversupply conditions; and b) real assets achieved this return over a time when inflation averaged just over 2%, suggesting that real assets can potentially deliver strong full-cycle returns regardless of the inflation environment. 
  • Inflation sensitivity: Real assets may not depend on high inflation to deliver attractive full-cycle returns, but they generally exhibit a positive association with unexpected increases in inflation, compared with the generally undesirable impact of inflation surprises on stocks and bonds.

Implementing real assets in DC plans: While different real assets offer attractive attributes, they can be volatile on their own and may not excel equally across all three criteria noted above. By combining real assets together into a single multi-strategy solution, plan participants get a more balanced portfolio while benefiting from a simplified investment menu that encourages sensible allocations. Additionally, we believe the potential for added value through active stock selection and dynamic asset allocations can be an important factor in achieving investors’ return objectives.

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(1) At December 31, 2016. Data quoted represents past performance, which is no guarantee of future results.

Index Representations. Unless noted otherwise, all returns and investment characteristics discussed in this report are based on the indexes below. The period from May 1991 to December 2016 was chosen based on publicly available data for all categories. Stocks: S&P 500 Index; Bonds: BofA Merrill Lynch U.S. 7–10 Year Treasury Index; 60/40 Mix: Weightedaverage blend of 60% stocks and 40% bonds; Commodities: S&P GSCI through July 1998 and Bloomberg Commodity Total Return Index thereafter; Infrastructure: 50/50 blend of Datastream World Pipelines Index and Datastream World Gas, Water & Multi-Utilities Index through July 2008 and Dow Jones Brookfield Global Infrastructure Index thereafter; Natural Resource Equities: 50/50 blend of Datastream World Oil & Gas Index and Datastream World Basic Materials Index through May 2008 and S&P Global Natural Resources Index thereafter; Real Estate: FTSE NAREIT Equity REIT Index through February 2005 and FTSE EPRA/NAREIT Developed Real Estate Index thereafter; Diversified Real Assets Blend: Equal-weighted blend of real estate, commodities, natural resource equities and infrastructure.

Index Definitions. An investor cannot invest directly in an index and index performance does not reflect the deduction of any fees, expenses or taxes. The Barclays Capital U.S. Aggregate Bond Index is an index which covers the U.S. investment-grade fixed-rate bond market, including government, corporate securities, mortgage pass-through securities and asset-backed securities. The Bloomberg Commodity Total Return Index, formerly known as the Dow Jones-UBS Commodity Index, is a broadly diversified index composed of commodities traded on U.S. exchanges, with the exception of aluminum, nickel and zinc, which trade on the London Metals Exchange. The BofA Merrill Lynch U.S. 7–10 Year Treasury Index is composed of U.S. Treasury Notes with a 7–10 year maturity. The Datastream World Index Series encompasses global indexes of companies in their respective sectors (Gas, Water & Multi-Utilities; Materials; Oil & Gas; and Pipelines) compiled by Thomson Reuters Datastream. The Dow Jones Brookfield Global Infrastructure Index measures the stock performance of publicly listed infrastructure companies. The index intends to measure all sectors of the infrastructure market. The FTSE EPRA/NAREIT Developed Real Estate Index (net) is an unmanaged market-weighted total return index which consists of many companies from developed markets who derive more than half of their revenue from property-related activities. The FTSE NAREIT Equity REIT Index is an unmanaged, market-capitalization-weighted index of all publicly traded U.S. REITs that invest predominantly in the equity ownership of real estate, not including timber or infrastructure. The MSCI World Index is a free float-adjusted market-capitalization-weighted index that is designed to measure the equity market performance of developed markets. The S&P 500 Index is an unmanaged index of 500 large-capitalization, publicly traded stocks representing a variety of industries. The S&P Global Natural Resource Equities Index includes 90 of the largest publicly traded companies in natural resources and commodities businesses that meet specific investability requirements, offering investors diversified, liquid and investable equity exposure across three primary commodity-related sectors: Agribusiness, Energy and Metals & Mining. The S&P GSCI is a composite index of commodity sector returns representing an unleveraged, long-only investment in commodity futures that is broadly diversified across the spectrum of commodities.

Important Disclosures
Data quoted represents past performance, which is no guarantee of future results. The information presented in this commentary does not reflect the performance of any fund or account managed or serviced by Cohen & Steers, and there is no guarantee that investors will experience the type of performance reflected above. The views and opinions in the preceding commentary are as of the date of publication and are subject to change without notice. There is no guarantee that any market forecast made in this commentary will be realized. This material represents our assessment of the market environment at a specific point in time, should not be relied upon as investment advice, does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell a security, commodity interest or other investment and is not intended to predict or depict performance of any investment. This material is not being provided in a fiduciary capacity and is not intended to recommend any investment policy or investment strategy or take into account the specific objectives or circumstances of any investor. Please consult with your investment, tax or legal adviser regarding your individual circumstances prior to investing.

Please consider the investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses of any Cohen & Steers U.S. registered open-end fund carefully before investing. A summary prospectus or prospectus containing this and other information may be obtained by visiting cohenandsteers.com or by calling 800.330.7348. Please read the summary prospectus or prospectus carefully before investing.

Risks of Investing in Real Assets. A real assets strategy is subject to the risk that its asset allocations may not achieve the desired risk-return characteristic, underperform other similar investment strategies or cause an investor to lose money. The risks of investing in REITs are similar to those associated with direct investments in real estate securities. Property values may fall due to increasing vacancies, declining rents resulting from economic, legal, tax, political or technological developments, lack of liquidity, limited diversification and sensitivity to certain economic factors such as interest-rate changes and market recessions. An investment in commodity-linked derivative instruments may be subject to greater volatility than investments in traditional securities, particularly if the instruments involve leverage. Infrastructure issuers may be subject to adverse economic occurrences, government regulation, operational or other mishaps, tariffs and changes in tax laws and accounting standards. Foreign securities involve special risks, including currency fluctuation and lower liquidity. The market value of securities of natural resource companies may be affected by numerous factors, including events occurring in nature, inflationary pressures and international politics. Because the strategy invests significantly in natural resource companies, there is the risk that the strategy will perform poorly during a downturn in the natural resource sector.

Risks of Investing in Commodities. The value of commodity-linked derivative instruments may be affected by changes in overall market movements, commodity index volatility, changes in interest rates, or factors affecting a particular industry or commodity, such as drought, floods, weather, livestock disease, embargoes, tariffs and international economic, political and regulatory developments. The use of derivatives presents risks different from and possibly greater than the risks associated with investing directly in traditional securities. Among the risks presented are market risk, credit risk, counterparty risk, leverage risk and liquidity risk. The use of derivatives can lead to losses because of adverse movements in the price or value of the underlying asset, index or rate, which may be magnified by certain features of the derivatives.

Futures Trading Is Volatile, Highly Leveraged and May Be Illiquid. This is not an inducement to buy or sell commodity interests. Investments in commodity futures contracts and options on commodity futures contracts have a high degree of price variability and are subject to rapid and substantial price changes. Such investments could incur significant losses. There can be no assurance that the options strategy will be successful. The use of options on commodity futures contracts is to enhance risk-adjusted total returns. The use of options, however, may not provide any, or only partial, protection for market declines. The return performance of commodity futures contracts may not parallel the performance of the commodities or indexes that serve as the basis for the options they buy or sell; this basis risk may reduce overall returns.

Cohen & Steers Capital Management, Inc. (Cohen & Steers) is a registered investment advisory firm that provides investment management services to corporate retirement, public and union retirement plans, endowments, foundations and mutual funds.

Cohen & Steers U.S. registered open-end funds are distributed by Cohen & Steers Securities, LLC. Cohen & Steers U.S. registered open-end funds are only available to U.S. residents.

Cohen & Steers UK Limited is authorized and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN 458459). Cohen & Steers Japan, LLC is a registered financial instruments operator (investment advisory and agency business with the Financial Services Agency of Japan and the Kanto Local Finance Bureau No. 2857) and is a member of the Japan Investment Advisers Association.

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