Cohen & Steers Tax-Advantaged Preferred Securities & Income Fund

William Scapell leads the preferred securities team at Cohen & Steers and has managed the fund since its launch in 2003. He is supported by Elaine Zaharis-Nikas and a dedicated team of credit analysts who cover the institutional preferred market globally. Scapell joined Cohen & Steers in 1988, giving him tenure that spans multiple rate cycles and credit events across the preferred universe.

The fund explicitly targets securities where distributions qualify for the reduced tax rates applied to qualified dividend income, typically 0–20% depending on the investor's bracket, rather than ordinary income rates that can reach 37%. This is achieved by owning preferred stock issued by corporations and REITs, as well as certain hybrid securities where the issuer structures payments as dividends for US tax purposes. The tax character of distributions varies year to year and is confirmed annually on IRS Form 1099-DIV.

The fund concentrates in fixed-to-floating and fixed-rate preferred securities issued by global banks, regional US banks, insurance companies, REITs, and electric utilities. Since the 2008 financial crisis and subsequent Basel III rules, large-cap bank preferreds have comprised a significant weighting, given their improved regulatory capital standing and relatively liquid secondary markets. The team also allocates to contingent convertible securities and $1,000-par institutional preferreds not available to most retail investors.

It is neither. The Cohen & Steers Tax-Advantaged Preferred Securities & Income Fund is a publicly traded closed-end fund listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Its sponsor, Cohen & Steers, is a publicly listed asset manager founded in 1986 that manages capital for institutions, financial advisors, and individual investors. Any investor with a brokerage account can purchase shares of the fund on the secondary market.

Yes, the fund has historically employed leverage, typically through bank borrowings or preferred share issuance, in a range of roughly 25–35% of total managed assets. The leverage amplifies both income and price volatility, amplifying losses in periods of rising interest rates or credit spread widening. The portfolio team can adjust leverage within the limits set by the Investment Company Act of 1940.

The closed-end structure means the fund issues a fixed number of shares that trade on an exchange, so investors transact with each other at market-determined prices that may diverge from net asset value. Cohen & Steers also operates an open-end interval fund (CPXIX) targeting similar securities but with periodic liquidity, and managed separate accounts for institutional investors. Each wrapper solves for different liquidity and tax-reporting requirements across the client base.

The mandate explicitly avoids common equity and most corporate debt that pays ordinary interest. While the firm's REIT practice invests heavily in common equity REITs, this fund focuses on the preferred and hybrid layer of the capital structure. Sectors that rarely issue qualified-dividend-paying preferreds — such as technology companies or private equity-backed firms — are mostly absent from the portfolio.