Specialist

Real estate investment trusts (Reits) will be allowed to include stock dividends as part of their 90% income distribution requirements, Chancellor Alistair Darling has confirmed.

Interactive Financial Adviser

Ed Stuart-Brown, head of protection sales at Friends Provident, recommends advisers find alternative products to sell in these difficult market conditions

Advisers lacking specialist investment expertise should be "discouraged" from recommending funds of hedge funds and other alternative investments, despite the FSA unblocking access for retail clients.

Patrick Reeve, managing partner of Albion Ventures, says VCTs have become the default tax planning investment for higher earners.

ETFs tracking commodities and hedge fund indices are the best placed to receive new inflows this year, a survey by db x-trackers reveals.

Future Capital Partners (FCP), the £6 billion alternative investment boutique, has struictured a private equity deal that will allow UK investors to engage in the rapidly growing Renewable Transport Fuels (RTF) sector for the first time.

International Asset Management Limited, one of the oldest fund of hedge funds managers in Europe, has opened a branch office in Spain to enhance the service it offers to clients in Iberia.

The Stonehage Group, which advises high net worth families, has launched Stonehage Investment Partners Geneva to complement its existing Stonehage Investment Partners (SIP) business in London.

Industry experts discuss the commodities market and how ETFs and ETCs can efficiently tap this asset class