With 10-year Treasury yields at a less-than-enticing 1.92% and cash equivalents offering even more pidly yields, investors remain forced to consider other income-generating options.
Exchange traded funds have made the hunt for yield less taxing and that includes multi-asset funds, which as the name implies, offer investors exposure to a variety of income-generating asset classes under the umbrella of one fund.
The iShares Morningstar Multi-Asset Income Index Fund (NYSEArca: IYLD) is one such fund. IYLD, now three years old and home to $285.5 million in assets under management, tries to reflect the performance of the Morningstar Multi-Asset High Income Index. An easy of quantifying IYLD is that it uses the increasingly popular ETF of ETFs approach. [A Look at ETFs of ETFs]
All 10 of the ETF’s non-cash holdings are other iShares ETFs, which span asset classes including U.S. corporate bonds, foreign and domestic dividend stocks, real estate investment trusts, emerging markets debt, preferred stocks and Treasurys.
IYLD allocates almost 20% of its weight to the iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond ETF (NYSEArca: HYG) and 15.1% to the iShares Mortgage Real Estate Capped ETF (NYSEArca: REM). Other holdings include the iShares iBoxx $ Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF (NYSEArca: LQD) and the iShares Core High Dividend ETF (NYSEArca: HDV). [Income ETFs for Retirement]
IYLD focuses on high current income. Consequently, the portfolio is slightly riskier, with a heavy emphasis on high-yield, junk bonds and mortgage-backed REITs. That means the fund could face headwinds in a rising rate environment due to its heavy exposure to rate-sensitive asset classes. For investors willing to take on that rate risk, IYLD has its perks.