Every DST is built to end. Most advisors focus on the front end of the exchange, but your client will eventually ask how the investment wraps up.

Here are the three exit paths at the end of a DST hold period (take the cash, exchange again, or a 721 UPREIT conversion), plus what to check in the PPM before your client asks.

A 1031 exchange is not just about reinvesting the cash. To defer all gain, your client also has to replace the debt paid off at sale, and missing it creates taxable boot.

Here’s how debt replacement works across levered and all-cash DSTs, and three practical ways advisors close the gap.

The 45-day identification deadline is unforgiving. When a client’s primary replacement property falls through after day 45, the exchange can fail and the full tax bill comes due.

Here’s how naming a DST as a backup identification protects the exchange, how it fits the 3-property, 200%, and 95% rules, and when to have the conversation.

DSTs get favorable 1031 tax treatment because the trust is passive. The price is control: once the offering closes, the sponsor cannot simply step in and fix problems.

Here are the seven IRS restrictions behind every DST, from no new capital to no lease renegotiation, and what they mean for due diligence and client conversations.

A 1031 exchange, a DST, an UPREIT, and a REIT get lumped together, but they are four different things: a tax strategy, a replacement property, a bridge, and an operating company.

Here’s what separates each one, how they connect as stages in an investor’s path, and how to match the right stage to your client.

Most advisors know how to sell the upside of a DST. The ones clients trust through a ten-year hold are the ones who also explained the risks — clearly, and before the check was written.

Illiquidity. No operational control. Exit timing you don't control. Here's how to explain each DST risk to a 1031 client in a way that builds confidence instead of killing the deal.

The sponsor due diligence question that should keep you up at night isn't how good they are today. It's how you'll know when something goes wrong.

In 2022, the dominant DST due-diligence question was "what's the yield?" In 2026, it's "show me the sponsor." From inside the only publicly-traded U.S. DST sponsor: the four themes broker-dealers are asking about now, and why the shift is good news for the DST industry.

The advisors whose clients later have problems usually didn't ask these three questions. A sponsor-side perspective on the due diligence that matters before any client writes a 1031 check into a DST.

In most of the private alternatives world, transparency is a marketing posture. In the public company world, it's a disclosure regime, quarterly filings, PCAOB-audited statements, independent boards, and executive certifications signed under penalty of law. For advisors placing client capital into DSTs, that difference is structural, not rhetorical.

For advisors working with real estate investors, the 1031 exchange window is one of the most time-pressured moments in a client relationship. Delaware Statutory Trusts belong in that conversation, but timing and framing matter more than most advisors realize. Here's a practical guide to positioning DSTs with confidence, from the first conversation through closing.

Most DST sponsors are private companies, meaning compliance teams have to take their word for everything. Publicly traded sponsors operate under SEC reporting requirements that make corporate governance, financials, and executive compensation independently verifiable before the first phone call. Here's what that difference means for your due diligence process.

Getting a DST sponsor onto a Broker-Dealer's alternative investment shelf is one of the most rigorous vetting processes in the securities industry. Here are the 8 criteria due diligence teams use to evaluate sponsors — and why publicly traded sponsors have a built-in advantage at every stage of the review.