The annual Tiger 21 Member Favorites Survey, released Friday, shows that public equities again ranked as favorite investment of the 200-strong ultrawealthy peer group, representing more than $19 billion of combined investable assets.
The percentage of Tiger 21 members who said their favorite investment category was public equities rose to 39% from 31% in 2011.
This was the third year in a row that equity-themed investments ranked as the members' favorite, although allocations to various vehicles within this space have shifted from prior years.
For those who favored individual stock purchases, this category decreased from about 50% last year to 43% this year. However, ETFs/index funds increased four percentage points to 23% this year. Six ETFs were among the top 20 favorite equity picks.
Master limited partnerships continued to appeal in the equities investment category; these provide the tax benefits of a limited partnership with the liquidity of publicly traded securities. Members invested either through MLP funds, direct investments into MLP equities or baskets of equities managed by advisors.
For the second consecutive year, members chose Apple (AAPL) as their favorite individual stock. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY), Berkshire Hathaway (BRKA), Exxon Mobil (XOM) and Microsoft (MSFT) rounded out the top five.
The most favored public equity sectors for investment, in order of importance, were ETFs, financials, energy, health care and consumer staples.
"The generally positive stock market performance over the past year may be partly responsible for the increase in the percentage of respondents who said public equities were their favorite investment in the past year," Tiger 21's founder and chairman, Michael Sonnenfeldt, said in a statement.
