DST Demand is Clear. Advisor Preparedness is Not.

What 2025 Volume and a Fast Start to 2026 Mean for Advisors 

For many wealth advisors, investment real estate remains peripheral to the core advisory practice. Nevertheless, many affluent individuals and families hold substantial exposure to investment and business-owned real estate, introducing planning considerations that extend beyond traditional wealth management frameworks.  

As those real estate assets mature, tax, operational, and planning complexity often intensifies, particularly at moments of sale or when owners begin considering transitions away from active ownership to better align with lifestyle, retirement, estate, and succession planning priorities.   

Recent reporting from AltsWire, citing data from Mountain Dell Consulting, provides useful context on where the Delaware Statutory Trust (DST) marketplace stands following a strong 2025 and an unusually fast start to 2026. 

As growth has accelerated, a growing share of transactions has been facilitated through larger advisory and broker dealer organizations that, as a function of their size and internal operating philosophy, limit advisors to a highly constrained menu, frequently a single sponsor offering a single DST structured as a mandatory UPREIT. 

While such structures can be appropriate in specific circumstances, their exclusive use may suggest that firm-level compliance and risk management priorities are taking precedence over client-first planning. In many cases, this may also signify that a DST product is being offered to the firm’s salesforce primarily to satisfy availability expectations rather than reflect a deeper commitment to the DST market. 

That distinction matters, because the fundraising data from 2025 and early 2026 makes one point unambiguous: demand for DST-based solutions is real, sustained, and meaningful enough that advisors who sidestep the space risk weakening client relationships, forfeiting real estate–driven growth opportunities, and diminishing their relevance within CPA and legal referral networks. 

DST Market Activity: 2025 Strength and a Record Start to 2026 

Against this backdrop, the fundraising data from 2025 and early 2026 helps clarify what is actually happening in the DST marketplace. 

DST programs raised approximately $8.4 billion in equity during 2025, making it the second-highest fundraising year on record for the sector. 

That level of activity occurred despite conditions that many expected to slow participation, i

ncluding higher interest rates, tighter lending standards, and uneven transaction volume across commercial property types. Rather than retreating, capital formation remained resilient, indicating that DSTs continued to be utilized where they addressed concrete planning needs rather than serving as opportunistic yield vehicles. 

Importantly, this momentum did not fade at year-end. More than $714 million in DST equity was raised by January 31, 2026, marking the strongest January start ever recorded for the DST market. 

Early-year figures should always be interpreted with care. Still, historically strong starts have tended to reflect sustained exchange-driven demand rather than short-term market sentiment. The pace of fundraising at the beginning of 2026 reinforces a central point: the underlying planning challenges facing real estate–owning clients, including concentrated exposure, aging ownership, embedded gains, and tax-sensitive transition events, remain firmly in place. 

For advisors, the takeaway is not growth for its own sake. It is durability. DSTs continue to occupy an active role in real-world planning conversations, which raises the bar for how thoughtfully and deliberately the structure is evaluated, implemented, and integrated into broader client strategies. 

Implications for Advisors 

For wealth advisors, these trends point to more than an implementation challenge, they point to an opportunity. Even for advisors whose practices have not historically centered on investment real estate, DST activity reflects a persistent planning need among affluent individuals and families that often goes unmet within traditional advisory frameworks. 

Advisors who choose to engage this space thoughtfully can strengthen relationships with existing clients who hold real estate outside the advisory channel, while also creating a credible on-ramp to real estate–owning prospects who may not initially seek traditional wealth management services. Done well, this capability also increases an advisor’s relevance to CPAs, estate attorneys, and real estate counsel, many of whom are navigating a crowded and uneven DST landscape and are seeking disciplined partners rather than product-driven intermediaries. 

DSTs are valuable precisely because they are purpose-built structures designed to hold institutional-quality real estate in tax-sensitive planning contexts. The difference lies in how those structures are selected and applied, including sponsor quality, asset and market underwriting, capital structure and leverage, geographic exposure, exit assumptions, and whether a DST or UPREIT structure is appropriate in the first place. 

That level of informed decision-making determines how effectively real estate strategies align with a client’s objectives, constraints, and long-term plan, and it directly shapes an advisor’s ability to collaborate with CPAs, estate attorneys, and real estate counsel in complex planning situations. 

Looking Ahead 

As 2026 unfolds, the relevance of DSTs is unlikely to hinge on market cycles alone. It will continue to be shaped by the same forces already present across many advisory practices: aging real estate ownership, concentrated exposure, tax-sensitive liquidity events, and compressed decision timelines driven by transaction activity. 

For advisors, the implication is not that they must build internal real estate expertise from scratch. Effective engagement increasingly depends on having a clear plan of action and access to the right infrastructure when these situations arise. In practice, that often means the ability to triage complex scenarios quickly, assess viable options within tight 1031 timelines, and coordinate confidently with CPAs, attorneys, and real estate counsel under real-world pressure. 

Advisors who have already thought through how they will approach these situations, including how t

hey source diligence, evaluate structures, and implement solutions efficiently, are better positioned to serve clients when it matters most. That preparation transforms real estate complexity from a reactive scramble into a managed extension of the advisory relationship. 

Market data may highlight where demand exists. Execution determines who is prepared to meet it. 

For advisors seeking a structured, professional way to engage the DST marketplace, we welcome a conversation about how disciplined diligence, systems, and support can remove barriers to entry. 

This is not an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any securities. 

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Some of the risks related to investing in commercial real estate include, but are not limited to: market risks such as local property supply and demand conditions; tenants’ inability to pay rent; tenant turnover; inflation and other increases in operating costs; adverse changes in laws and regulations; relative illiquidity of real estate investments; changing market demographics; acts of God such as earthquakes, floods or other uninsured losses; interest rate fluctuations; and availability of financing. Investments in real estate or real estate securities are not guaranteed and have the potential to suffer losses.

This site provides brief and general description of certain tax strategies including Opportunity Zones, Sections 1031, 1033, and 721 Exchanges. There are various risks related to purchasing securities as part of any planning strategy, including tax complexity, illiquidity and restrictions on ownership and transfer. RCX Capital Group and its representatives do not provide Tax Advice. Because each prospective investor’s tax implications are different, all prospective investors should consult with their tax advisors.