Episode 386: RCLCO Fund Advisors Says U.S. Institutional Investors Under-Allocating to REITs

William Maher, director of strategy and research at RCLCO Fund Advisors (RFA), was a guest on Nareit’s REIT Report podcast.RFA’s clients include some of the larger public pension funds, and increasingly non-U.S. investors.Maher said that most U.S. institutional investors today allocate less than 10% of their real estate allocation to REITs. “I think that indicates a big underweight that they're probably not aware of,” Maher said. He added that RFA’s investor clients continue to want greater exposure to a broader range of property types and will continue to look to REITs to provide that access.Mid-size and larger institutions should have a “permanent long-term position in REITs for diversification, market knowledge, [and] exposure to property types that are difficult to access in the private markets,” he said.