This article was originally published on The DIV-net on May 7, 2009

I continue to believe that every asset class has its significance and its own importance. Every asset class has a role to play in investment portfolios. However, individual investors need to understand these factors in the context of their own portfolios. Being a do-it-yourself investor, I like to ignore the market noise and understand how any asset class will affect my portfolio objectives. In earlier posts, I have discussed about my investing approach with respect to commodity asset class, international developed/emerging asset class, and the investment vehicles that I like to use.

Master Limited Partnership (MLP) is another asset class that provides relatively higher yields than compared to commonly known dividends. MLPs were established by congressional act in mid-to-late 1980s to increase investments in energy and natural resource projects. If not always, then in most of cases, there are the companies that are engages in exploration, production, mining, processing, refining, marketing or transportation of mineral and natural resources. These natural resources could be oil, coal, propane, natural gas, timber, etc. Among other, MLP asset class has three significant differences when compared to corporate equities. These differences are: continue reading rest of the article….