REIT Unit Investment Trusts and Fund Manager Skill

This study examines fund manager skill using a sample of Real Estate Investment Trust Unit Investment Trusts (REIT UITs). It also investigates how REIT UIT performance compares to investing in REIT mutual funds. Are REIT UIT fund managers able to select REITs that deliver superior performance? Using a hand-collected sample of REIT UITs from May 2009 to July 2015, this study finds that REIT UITs do not deliver statistically significant positive alpha. This result is consistent with the Comer and Rodriguez (2015) finding for a sample of diversified UITs, but counter to the Cici et al. (2011) finding of positive alpha for REIT mutual fund managers. This is the first paper to investigate fund manager stock selection skill in REIT UITs