J.D. Steinhilber

Interview: Luciano Siracusano, Director of Research for ETF Firm WisdomTree Asset Management

Luciano,

I have two questions:

Given your firm's focus on dividends, I would think you would be interested in income oriented equity securities such as REITs, energy MLPs, and RIC BDCs such as Allied Capital and the like. Is there a reason why you would not consider launching products in these areas. Do you have any thoughts on why the ETF marketplace has not created any products using energy MLPs, which along with REITs, have been one of the top performing asset classes over the past ten years?

How does your dividend oriented philosophy account for the fact that corporations have increasingly used stock buybacks rather than dividend payments as a means of returning capital to shareholders. Doesn't the huge volume of share repurchase activity tend to distort the dividend yield measure of valuation?

Thanks,

J.D. Steinhilber
AgileInvesting.com