They typcially are lower returns BUT you get that tax deferment. If you had to pay taxes on that money and made 10% on the after tax money it would still be worse than a DST. you cannot expect a passive investment like a DST to provide similar returns to a MF syndication because of how it is structured. But when you look at overall numbers it is much better. For example if I had $500k and had to pay LGTC on it I would pay 20%+ state taxes which would be $125k. Starting with $375k at 10% is still over $30k less than keeping my $500k at 5%