Is This TIC Article For Real?

A link to this article on Tenant In Common investments just showed up on my Yahoo! Finance front page.  It was written by a securities attorney who is listed as a contributor to Forbes.  What a sloppy, credibility-destroying article.   I'd expect an attorney to at least get basic facts right.  He starts by saying that Tenant In Common (TIC) investments offered safe, guaranteed returns.  I am not aware of any TIC deal offered guaranteed returns.  Certain TIC deals were structured with contractual lease payments to pay income (Master Leases), but this is not a guarantee. 

The attorney calls TIC deals "strange partnerships."  Wrong.  As the name states, a TIC deal is direct, tenant in common ownership of a piece of real estate, not a partnership.  Investors own a specific percentage of a property, not an interest in a partnership, which in turns owns the property.   Direct property ownership is why investors were able to defer taxes. 

I love the contradictory use of the negative buzz words - private, illiquid and volatile - in this sentence:

Problem is, the value on the partnership, which is privately held and completely illiquid, can be extremely volatile and not nearly as safe as promised.

Yes, TIC deals were private and illiquid, all of which was fully disclosed.  Private, illiquid investments cannot be volatile.  Volatility implies a market that frequently sets prices - up and down - which an illiquid investment does not have.  Any investor buying a TIC deal had just sold an illiquid property that had been held privately.   There are many faults with TIC deals, but the private and illiquid argument fails, and the use of the term "volatile" is the author trolling for clients. 

The other negative buzzword the author uses is "stock broker."  TICs were not sold by stock brokers, but by financial planners and advisors that focused on real estate.  Transaction oriented stock brokers avoid illiquid deals that are going to tie up investor capital for five to ten years or more. 

There are more problems with the article, but I've wasted enough time with it.  If I was an unhappy TIC investor this author would be the last attorney I'd call.