Destra Insights

For years now, investors have been struggling with historically low interest rates and the search for yield has pushed more and more people to invest in lower quality bonds and loans – junk or high yield as it is sometimes called. But did you know that high yield bonds are not the only asset class with high yields.

Qualified dividend income is a part of the tax rule that allows certain dividends from US corporations and qualified foreign corporations to be taxed at rates lower than ordinary income rates. This may equate to substantial tax savings for investors, especially those in higher tax brackets. While QDI is often associated with common equity dividends many preferred securities issue dividends which qualify for this tax treatment as well. Historically, preferred securities have scored well on both fronts, credit quality and coupons. But certain preferred securities may have yet another potential source of value, called Qualified Dividend Income treatment or QDI.

Often, decisions about which income investments to buy come down to balancing the amount of credit risk that we might we willing to accept as an investor, against the expected yield or stream of coupons off an investment. Historically, preferred securities have scored well on both fronts, credit quality and coupons. But certain preferred securities may have yet another potential source of value, called Qualified Dividend Income treatment or “QDI”.

It’s all about the intangibles…. Innovation improves lives and typically, the capital markets reward those companies that drive innovation. As our society and economy evolve, we have changed the perception of what we appreciate, ….what we value.

Even though interest rates have risen significantly off their all-time lows in 2020, they remain historically low and investors continue to search for yield wherever they can. As a result, preferred market sectors with higher yield have tended to outperform over the past year.

Here in mid-December 2021, we anxiously await the Fed’s announcement on the direction of interest rates and whether they will speed up their efforts to end the bond buying that the Fed has been conducting since early 2020. All of this, in response to inflation that is proving to be much more than transitory. This is spurring a lot of talk about where the stock market goes from here. But there is seemingly much more agreement on where the bond market goes, in the face of rising rates ------ down!

We all know how annoying telemarketing calls can be and frankly, many of us just don’t like being called. Well, there is an analogy to that in the investing world, with income securities like preferreds, most of which have provisions that allow them to be called after a certain date at the issuers discretion.

The preferred market space is complex and nuanced. No two preferreds are alike. In this video, Eric Chadwick of Flaherty and Crumrine Incorporated breaks down some specific examples.

In today's relatively low yield environment, many income seekers are looking for more diversification. The hybrid nature of preferred stocks have historically exhibited low correlations to other major asset classes, making them an attractive diversifier to traditional and non traditional fixed-income asset classes.

In the preferred market, call protection allows investors to tolerate lower interest rates for a period of time without reinvestment risk – and we place a high value on call protection in process.