What the experts say

Fresh REITs

The real estate market may be “moribund,” but real estate investment trusts have been among the top performers of the year, said Alyssa Abkowitz in SmartMoney. “As a group, they’re up 12 percent, with residential REITs up almost 25 percent.” Consequently, real estate executives are flooding the market with these “stock-like investments” to raise funds to pay off debt or “gobble up” distressed properties. Some 20 REITs are expected to go public this year, and some “show promise,” say analysts. Piedmont Office Realty, whose holdings include Chicago’s Aon Center, is among the “highly regarded newcomers.” Shares are up 27 percent since it went public in February.

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Don’t be fooled by a bunch of “fancy initials” after a financial advisor’s name, said Jason Zweig and Mary Pilon in The Wall Street Journal. While some credentials, such as certified public accountant, chartered financial analyst, and certified financial planner, require years of study and rigorous tests, others are “dubious designations” that can be earned over a couple of days or by writing a check. Since 2005, the number of designations tracked by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has nearly doubled, to 95. To keep from getting burned by the alphabet soup, verify qualifications and check complaints at Finra.org, or with state insurance and securities regulators. Then ask “plenty of questions” about who grants each designation, and what’s required to earn and keep the title.

Buffett: Don’t buy gold

Warren Buffett is “so smart it curls your hair,” said Ben Stein in Fortune. So when the Oracle of Omaha gives his 2 cents (or, in his case, $40-something billion) about where to put your money today, it pays to take note. Buffett tells investors looking to create real value in their portfolios that they should stick with old-fashioned equities and pass on trendy investments. Case in point: gold. Purchasing “all the gold that’s ever been mined” would give you control of a pretty big block of metal, Buffett says, but at today’s prices you could instead buy all of the farmland in America and 10 ExxonMobils, and still have “$1 trillion of walking-around money.” When he puts it that way, gold doesn’t seem like such a smart buy.