An important part of my business between 2010 and 2017 was pension advisory. The role of an advisor to plan sponsors was evolving as regulatory reforms were placing employers under higher scrutiny as ERISA fiduciaries. Questions that retirement services professionals had to consider included: “What should our process look like for investment selection and monitoring?” …
Becca and I joined some friends last week to see David Byrne’s American Utopia. While I was familiar with David Byrne, I was pleasantly shocked by how wonderful the show was. I previously thought that his voice was special, but mostly just idiosyncratic; In fact, his voice is remarkable. I expected his message to be …
Over the holiday, I spent time reflecting on my time in the insurance brokerage industry. One interesting area that drew some of my attention was the sale of Zenefits to TriNet Group Inc. I was personally invested into the impacts of Zenefits on our legacy employee benefits brokerage as Zenefits experienced its meteoric rise; The …
This morning, December 13, 2021, the @WSJ posted this article: Parthenon Capital to Buy Kroll Bond Rating Agency in $900 Million Deal. Given my recent blogpost on the debt ratings industry, I thought it would be interesting to delve a bit into this announcement. @WSJ has a good series of articles reviewing the history of …
It is a Sunday morning in State College, PA. I spent time this morning thinking about reading and research I have done over the past weeks about the business of credit ratings. I will share some thoughts. Background The US market for credit rating agencies, also known in SEC parlance as NRSRO, includes nine competing …
One person, on doing well by others, immediately accounts the expected favor in return. Another is not so quick, but still considers the person a debtor and knows the favor. A third kind of person acts as if not conscious of the deed, rather like a vine producing a cluster of grapes without making further …
I have been thinking about my experiences in the insurance business. As I have written about in this blog, I really enjoy the insurance business. I find it helpful to periodically review the financials of industry firms. Some examples of reviews that led to me posting on this blog: my review of GoodRx, my review …
The Loughran family lived next door to my grandparents in Paramus, NJ when I was a child. I have memories of sneaking, as a young boy, across the grass over to Mrs. Loughran’s backdoor to pick a few candies from a dish in her living room. Mrs. Loughran apparently shared that, when she asked me …
I had an inquiry from a friend earlier this week about my impressions of eHealth, Inc ($EHTH) as a possible investment. I was aware of the existence of this broker, but never looked closely at the business. So, I offered to take a look. I have been interested in the continued investments being made into …
I enjoy the slow pace of Saturday mornings during the pandemic. This morning included a casual stroll with Becca and Odie as well as some time invested into a Python project; I also listened to an interview with Niall Ferguson. Some meandering thoughts about experiences in personal finance I wrote in a blog post last …