Iron Mountain’s racking system, which was designed to “withstand the 8.8 magnitude earthquake in 2010 that devastated the Chilean regions of Maule and Bio Bio.” Yikes… not exactly exciting, right? Wrong. In fact, Iron Mountain’s locations provide a home to some of the most important documents in modern history. Recognize any of these people?

They’re all clients of Iron Mountain (in a sense)…That’s right — the company stores the wills of figures like Princess Diana, Charles Dickens, and Charles Darwin… as well as the original recordings of pop culture icons like Frank Sinatra and Prince. Achieving the Coveted REIT Status The reason Iron Mountain was able to achieve the REIT designation was thanks to its steel shelving systems. Specifically, just over four years ago, Iron Mountain obtained a private letter ruling (PLR) from the IRS, characterizing its racking structures (seen in the top photo) as real estate. This was an important milestone — it allowed IRM to follow the steps of Equinix EQIX +1.2% and other data center REITs. By converting to a REIT, Iron Mountain was also able to pay out a larger dividend. (Currently, the payout represents about an 8 percent yield, according to CEO William Meaney, whom I had on my podcast recently to interview about the company.) Click to read more at www.forbes.com.