Kim Flynn, President of XA Investments, talks about private market investments and how advisors are turning to them to create new opportunities for clients. With so many U.S. businesses still held by private funds, private offerings offer an enticing alternative to public equities, Flynn said. An interval fund, a type of SEC-registered closed-end fund, can house a range of private assets — including alternative credit....

John Cole Scott, President and CIO of CEF Advisors and Chairman of the Active Investment Company Alliance, provides a mid-year 2025 update on closed-end funds (CEFs) and exchange-traded funds (ETFs). He notes that his firm’s online database, CEFData.com, recently added a new 250-ticker symbol ETF data file with over 150 metrics in response to increasing interest in, and active management of, ETFs. Scott explains how both ...

Gaal Surugeon, Managing Director and Portfolio Manager at Brookfield Real Assets Income Fund talks about investing in real assets: infrastructure, natural resources, real estate and other tangible assets that play an essential role in the functioning of the global economy. “From an investment perspective, we don’t just look at these sectors through a single lens, we think about them being available throughout the entire capital structure ...

Roxanna Islam, Head of Sector and Industry Research at VettaFi, discusses exchange-traded funds (ETFs), the different types of ETFs and their evolution. ETFs have traditionally been passive and low-cost— factors that have always made them desirable, Islam said. But actively managed ETFs are skyrocketing in popularity, with some 90% of the more than 500 new ETFs ...

Christian Munafo, Chief Investment Officer, Liberty Street Advisors, Inc., and Portfolio Manager of The Private Shares Fund, explores the current investment landscape for closed-end funds: capital raising, M&As, IPOs, tariffs and more. “I think the tariff dynamics in April put a bit of a shock to the system and slowed things down temporarily, but ...

Mark Gatto, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of CION Investments, joins Jane King to discuss private alternative investments and how they differ from conventional investments such as stocks and bonds, which are traded on public exchanges. “Private assets … function outside of that marketplace and are relatively illiquid,” ...

Axel Merk, President and CEO of Merk Investments, joins Jane King in a conversation about tariffs and trade and how gold and gold mining fit into the current equation. He said President Trump’s efforts to balance trade are acting as a “wrench thrown into the global financial system,” thereby distorting U.S. influence and impacting financial flows

Stephen Hlavin, Managing Director and Portfolio Manager at Nuveen, sits down with Jane King to discuss high-yield municipal strategies, including the Nuveen Enhanced High Yield Municipal Bond Fund, an interval fund. The fund, which Lavin manages, is a part of the $191 billion in high-yield municipal strategies that Nuveen manages, which also includes multiple closed-end funds (CEFs).

In this interview with Jane King, John Cole Scott, President and CIO of CEF Advisors, explains how a well-managed portfolio should contain a mix of high-yielding closed-end funds (CEFs) and business development companies (BDCs) to help generate income for clients. Scott says those funds have been yielding between 7% and 14%, outperforming stocks and bonds. That can be helpful for retirees looking to avoid return risk, Scott says.

Scott also speaks to the tax-planning benefits of CEFs and BDCs, many of which often enjoy “pass-through” tax treatment. And municipal bond fund CEFs are federally tax-free, he adds. Scott also explains how these funds can offer diversification benefits and operate as a potential hedge against inflation. With an eye to monitoring market conditions, Scott says his firm actively manages portfolios containing CEFs and BDCs and makes changes as appropriate.

Learn more about John Cole Scott, CEF Advisors and Hybrid Income Portfolio

Chris Oberbeck, Chairman of the Board, CEO, and President of Saratoga Investment Corp., sat down with Jane King on October 24, 2024, for a NAVigator interview. Oberbeck shares his view of private credit markets — and the potential impacts of interest rate changes — and talks about Saratoga (SAR), the debt-focused business development company (BDC) that he represents. Oberbeck explains how BDCs can fill lending gaps for small, growing businesses, and how retail investors fit into that equation.

Review the SAR fund profile at CEFData.com