Is timberland a risk management tool?
Timberland is a very low risk asset class. The biggest risk is paying too much for it. This will act like any other REIT? We’ll be purchasing a diversified portfolio of timberland by species, age class, and geography. That diversity will blend together in a total return way so we’re not dependent on the logging market in the Pacific Northwest, or what a paper mill in Alabama is doing [at any given time]. Not unlike a commercial property portfolio. How do advisors gain access to this? We’ll do it the same way as the other Wells REITs, primarily through independent broker/dealers. The registration of this fund is effective now; it will become a very visible product by the end of May. We expect there might be interest from a lot of different fronts. We could have some smaller institutional investors, but our focus is the Wells’s independent B/Ds. It sounds like this is democratizing timberland investing. You could say that. There’s a minimum investment of $5,000, and the minimums mandated
