Investment firm Bluerock has launched the Total Income+ Real Estate Fund, a public fund of funds, that provides individual investors with an opportunity to invest alongside endowments and pension plans in leading institutional real estate managers otherwise inaccessible to them due to large minimum investment size or other restrictions.

Mercer Investment Management, Inc., a top-ranked global investment manager selection specialist, will serve as sub-advisor on the TI+ Fund under an exclusive long-term agreement with Bluerock. Mercer is a top-ranked advisor to sovereign wealth funds, pension plans, banks, family offices, insurance companies, endowments and foundations globally, and has over USD6.6 trillion in assets under advisement.

Access, says Dr Randy Anderson, Bluerock President and TI+ Portfolio Manager, is perhaps the most compelling attribute of the fund. “TI+ provides access to a carefully-vetted real estate portfolio whose objective is multi-strategy, multi-manager, and multi-sector.” he says. “Absent TI+, an individual investor seeking to access to the same managers and investments and build the same portfolio would require a USD50 - USD100 million investment. With TI+ an individual can access that investment portfolio for a USD2,500 minimum.”

“Additionally, TI+ provides individual investors the ability to invest like large pension and sovereign wealth funds using the ‘Endowment Model,’ popularised by the regularly top performing Yale Investment Office which attempts to capture the premium associated with private assets, while providing liquidity to the investor through quarterly redemptions at NAV,’ says Randy Anderson, TI+ Portfolio Manager.

Mercer and Bluerock will seek to invest in a select group of institutional funds that meet the primary TI+ investment criteria: stable current income plus capital appreciation, low volatility, and low correlation to the broader equity markets. Decision-making begins with Mercer’s proprietary screening process, which incorporates rigorous quantitative and qualitative assessments of fund management teams and their track records, in a process not generally available at the individual investor level. In addition, the partnership with Mercer provides an opportunity to invest at a much lower threshold.