Ascend REIT Evaluation

Consider the following situation: You are working as a financial advisor for several institutional investors and have decided that a public REIT is the right investment choice for your specific portfolio goals. Information for the following public REIT ends up on your desk. Review the summary of the prospectus below.

Ascend REIT is a large and diversified commercial REIT in North America. The stated objective of the fund is to provide a high level of return by tracking the performance of a benchmark index based on the performance of other REITs and other real estate$-$type investments. Currently, the fund engages in a continuous offering of shares of beneficial interest of the fund and has a registered $500,000$ shares as of $2020.$ The most recent value per share was $$9\mathrm{.}50.$ Ascend requires a minimum investment of $$4,000$ for regular accounts and $$1,600$ for retirement plan accounts.