The head of EPA, Roger Clarke, indicated to the Journal that EPA is a "rainy-day account to be used in difficult economic times." Some church leaders suggested the fund could be used in the . Instead we have talk after talk demonizing those with doubts, telling the poor that only tithing can get them out of the poverty cycle, and that they are as transparent as they know how to be. More than 150 other stories followed in other media outlets. This is absolutely ridiculous. With the 7% annual return they are getting, they could fund the entire church (approximately $5 billion a year) and still have well over $2 billion left over each year. Religion Unplugged reached EPA's managing director Roger Clark by phone on Monday, offering to explain key parts of this story and to ask questions for EPA to give a response. While some may look at that as a good thing, I actually think it's another instance where we can see that the church is not only untrue, but not good either. Cookie Settings. Ensign Peak Advisors ( email) 60 East South Temple 4th Floor Salt Lake City, UT 84111 United States. Ensign Peak, which manages $124 billion in investments cultivated from tithing funds, is admitting that the church doesn't tell its members about the fund because they know members aren't going to keep paying tithing if they knew the church is sitting on so much money that they could cover every administrative cost for the church with the yearly gains and still have billions left over in gains each year to grow the account. BYU Marriott School of Business. 212.744.6825, Research Coordinator Before that, the reserves were managed by the churchs Investment Securities Department, a top church financial official disclosed. Ensign Peak held $349,000 in shares in Beyond Meat, maker of plant-based meat substitutes, at the end of 2019, but that was down to $5,000 in June, making it the smallest holding in the portfolio. In the document, he argues that holding EPA accountable will promote better compliance by religious and other nonprofits with tax laws and will discourage fraudulent attempts by other organizations tempted to abuse exempt status.. Clarke, Roger G and de Silva, Harindra and Thorley, Steven, Fundamentals of Efficient Factor Investing (October 11, 2016). There is no faith promoting answer here which is apparent from their terrible answer here. By clicking Sign up, you agree to receive marketing emails from Insider Ensign Peak Advisors. Roger G. Clarke currently serves as a research collaborator with Wells Fargo Asset Management (WFAM) Analytic Investors. Roger G Clarke, Harindra de Silva and Steven Thorley. So they never wanted to be in a position where . Ensign Peak Advisors Inc., which oversees a $32 billion equities portfolio for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, will pay $4 million to settle regulatory claims that the money. A Salt Lake Tribune analysis shows the next highest concentrations of its investments beyond tech are in consumer goods, health care and financial sectors, each at stakes of between 12% to 15% of Ensign Peaks total value, for shares worth a total of $8.6 billion, $6.9 billion and $6.6 billion, respectively. Wait, what? This new memorandum to the U.S. Senate clarifies and follows up on his complaint about EPA. Back to the article: Church leaders may be right to worry that the financial revelations could have a negative impact on tithe paying. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' has a $100 billion investment portfolio,according to a 13F form. (Illustration by Christopher Cherrington | The Salt Lake Tribune). A federal judge recently tossed out the lawsuit, but Huntsmans lawyers plan to appeal. As he grew disillusioned with leadership, the document says he eventually resigned on Aug. 29, 2019, and filed a document to the IRS Whistleblower Office in November of 2019. In a complaint filed with the IRS, Nielsen accused Ensign of taking in billions from members tithes and other donations and not spending any of it over a 22-year period for charitable purposes. The document states in several places that Nielsen became more disillusioned over time as he worked at the firm and believed EPA was not using its resources for charitable, educational or religious purposes. If EPA were a hedge fund, itwould rank among the top five hedge fundsfor assets under management. The church contended no actual tithing was ever used and instead came from Ensign Peaks earnings. Ensign Peak Advisors ( email) 60 East South Temple 4th Floor Salt Lake City, UT 84111 United States. Harindra de Silva. A post shared by Scottie Scheffler (@scottie.scheffler). The Mormon Church and its investment adviser will pay millions to settle charges with the SEC. 1907, 7) And the concept of tithing in the Mormon church wasn't always like that and it was never supposed to be like that according to Prophet Joseph F Smith. This is no surprise, although I'd just note that if you've never looked at the Word of Wisdom, we covered their recent "Now You Know" video on the Word of Wisdom and you can see how silly the Word of Wisdom is not just in the actual revelation, but the implementation of it as well. Again, the church refuses to be transparent with their members as they enjoy the benefits of being a tax exempt corporation. Here is some of what all these documents have brought into focus: (Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' Administration Building in Salt Lake City on Thursday, Aug. 26, 2021. The church here is saying they need the $124 billion for when the "next 2008" takes place so they "won't have to stop missionary work," yet when the 'Great Recession' actually did hit, the church never tapped into the fund nor did it halt missionary work. Whenever we lead people in any way to believe something that is not true, we are not being honest.". The Mormon Church's investments weren't publicly disclosed until a former Ensign portfolio manager filed a whistleblower complaint in 2019, alleging that the massive fund doesn't engage in any charitable activities and shouldn't have tax-exempt status. But its lawyers go to great lengths in challenging Huntsmans lawsuit including filing rare financial documents under seal and blocking information from public view on others to show that no actual tithing went into those transactions. Do they not realize that many members have 401K accounts that are run in the exact same way? And as we're learning more and more each day, they are right to fear that, because if you're willing to approach their history and practices in the way you approach any other organization, product, or belief, you will realize that not only is the church demonstrably false, but it's actually not very good, either. Deceptive statements: Nielsens document states that EPA was deceptive in describing its assets to regulators even after the stories broke in 2019 and the firm came under national scrutiny. Penske Automotive Group, for example, released its quarterly earnings on Nov. 21, 2020, andnoted in its press release that, among institutional and hedge fund investors, Ensign Peak Advisors increased its stake in Penske by 2,651% and now owns 181,578 shares of Penskes stock, valued at $7 million. Software Updates. And those companies might consider it an honor when a morally and financially scrutinizing investor such as EPA buys shares. It has significantly upped those holdings since. (Christopher Cherrington | The Salt Lake Tribune). And yet somehow they don't need to set up shell companies to hide it from the government or their family. The Ensign Peak Advisors office is located above a food court in Salt Lake City and doesn't appear in the list of companies at that building lobby. The SEC alleges that from 1997 through 2019 Ensign Peak failed to file 13F forms, which are documents that certain investment managers must disclose quarterly, listing the securities that they manage. Nielsen referred to a March 2013 meeting with the firms then-president, Roger Clarke, in which he heard Clarke outline $1.4 billion in spending on City Creek over five years and a one-time payment of $600 million to Beneficial Life, a struggling church-owned insurance company. Financial Analysts Journal, Vol. There are few clues as to how directly involved church leaders are in Ensign Peaks moves, although officials over the fund have said they eschew debt in keeping with the faiths tenets and steer clear of investments Latter-day Saints consider objectionable, such as tobacco or gambling stocks. Roger has published a variety of articles and articles about tactical asset allocation and currency management. Neither Clarke nor other officials would provide The Journal with details on the size of the churchs annual budget or how much money goes to Ensign Peak. Not only is the church being dishonest by leading the church members to believe that they areWe are not a wealthy people but we are good people, and we share what we have" as Elder Andersen said in 2018, they are taking active steps to obfuscate their financial dealings in order to keep members thinking the church needs their money. From the Deseret News: "We preach tithing to the poor people of the world because the poor people of the world have had cycles of poverty, generation after generation," he said. His document argues that EPAs tax avoidance gave it a distinct competitive advantage over other investment firms. The document alleges the firms cash-rich position and secretive, stable status made it a preferred investor in private equity institutions. . And now that the church has now been caught doing so, their excuse is that it was to "protect them [active members of the church] from mismanaging their own funds with insufficient information?" Now, EPA has finally admitted in a recently published Form 990-T filing in November 2020 (for 2019) that EPA does have foreign bank and investment accounts. Nielsens document argues that EPA should be liable for more than $2 billion in penalties. This big concession here is that the church admits they used this tax exempt fund to underwrite a for profit venture in the City Creek Mall and to rescue Beneficial Life, both of which were originally reported by the whistleblower. There is simply no statistical evidence that paying tithing brings people out of poverty (anecdotally I have been much better off in my career since I left as have thousands of others who leave the church), and tithing was not enforced to enter the temple until 1899, which is why Prophet Joseph F Smith assured members there would be the day that the church would have "sufficient" money to not require tithing money from members. If you're reading this post, you have almost certainly heard of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints holding an investment fund worth around $124 billion dollars called Ensign Peak in recent weeks. And, sadly, as we see with the way leaders shut down critical thinking, demonize those who research it, and hide information from its members, the church will never be good, either. See all articles by Roger G Clarke Roger G Clarke. To give a better overview of this topic, we're going to refer to the Salt Lake Tribune's coverage of the recent Wall Street Journal article by Peggy Fletcher Stack, because it covers some of the quotes from Mormon leaders along with Ensign Peak about the fund without getting as deep into the weeds as the WSJ article does. Keywords: Portfolio Theory, Factor Portfolios, Factor Investing, Portfolio Constraints, Smart Beta, Suggested Citation: Ensign Peak is a huge investor in iconic technology stocks. According to its first 2020 report to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, filed months after allegations by whistleblower. See all articles by Roger G Clarke Roger G Clarke. Ensign Peak's investing strategy turns the $100 into $150 (Ensign Peak pays no tax on the gain because its passive . Do you really think when Jesus comes back to Earth that he's going to congratulate Russell Nelson on leaving those in need out to dry while accumulating a stock portfolio for his return? View Roger Clarke's profile on LinkedIn, the world's largest professional community. Executive Director Thank you for supporting local journalism. The financial records destroy Huntsmans fraud claim, its lawyers argued in Aug. 31 court filings. See all articles by Roger G Clarke Roger G Clarke. The firm had nearly $1 billion worth of shares in Amazon and Googles parent company, Alphabet, as well. But if church leaders truly believed that, why not be transparent with the members who are taking their hard earned money and funding the church's investment portfolio? "We don't really answer questions with the public press. ReligionUnplugged.com reporters also made similar calls and sent emails to leaders of Ensign Peak Advisors and to the media relations office of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City. You can Google patriarchal blessings about seeing Jesus before you die and read them, which is yet another example of why this church has no more connection to the divine (or revelation/discernment) than anyone else. This is a true 'liar liar pants on fire' moment for the church, and the leaders of the First Presidency are all in on it. Isnt amassing wealth and then saving it the equivalent of burying talents, that Christ condemned in the biblical parable? Miner asked. Grald Causs is the church's Presiding Bishop who oversees church finances, including EP. Ensign Peak's top stock holdings as of December 31 include Walmart, Microsoft, Apple, and JPMorgan. The new document alleges several new violations by EPA and its leaders. The head of EPA, Roger Clarke, indicated to the Journal that EPA is a rainy-day account to be used in difficult economic times. Some church leaders suggested the fund could be used in the event of an economic or financial crisis. In criminal conduct, EPA has engaged in a Klein conspiracy to defraud the IRS by pretending to be tax-exempt while concealing and falsifying the facts of its massive securities investment business, the document states. . (The Salt Lake Tribune) President Gordon B. Hinckley assured Latter-day Saints during General Conference in 2003 that no tithing money went toward the City Creek Center mall. Check us out on Twitter or Facebook as well for future posts and updates, and thank you again for reading! Analytic Investors, Inc. Steven Thorley. Other former employees said the firms war chest related to preparation for the second coming of Jesus Christ. . There are families that are struggling and continue to pay tithing because they were taught that the church needs it more than they do (and that the prosperity gospel will reward them with blessings to make up for it), and yet church leaders have been lying to every one of these families about the church's own means. The Mormon church created a system of more than a dozen shell companies to make their investments harder to track? Huntsman countered that tithing funds and earnings from those member donations were commingled at Ensign Peak. Huntsman seeks to recover his tithing funds that were fraudulently obtained by the LDS Corporation, the lawsuit stated. This page was processed by aws-apollo-l2 in 0.084 seconds, Using these links will ensure access to this page indefinitely. such as LGBTQ, African American and womens rights groups. 72, No. This page was processed by aws-apollo-l1 in. To support that, he offered a freshly sworn statement by David Nielsen in which the whistleblower says that for officials at Ensign Peak every penny was referred to as the widows mite a biblical allusion to its sacred nature. The investment activity has been the subject of. When it does happen, we dont have any idea whether financial assets will have any value at all. In the same late 2020 window, Ensign Peak bought shares in index funds targeting Saudi Arabia and India, to the tune of $3.3 million and $12.6 million, respectively. Now the church in this case is saying that eventually they will use the money to fund church operations in the parts of the world where they are actually growing at a decent page (where there is a lack of access to Google to research their truth claims), but why would that be needed if paying tithing will bring them out of poverty as Prophet Russell M. Nelson declared to the members just last year? I know some believing members will take offense at that characterization, but please tell me where I am wrong. Keywords: factor investing, rules-based portfolios, quantitative portfolio management, Suggested Citation: Harindra De Silva. (In Conference Report, Apr. [4] As of February 2020, Roger Clarke is EP's Chief Executive Officer. deductible, Report a missed paper by emailingsubscribe@sltrib.comor calling801-237-2900, For e-edition questions or comments, contact customer support801-237-2900or emailsubscribe@sltrib.com. BYU Marriott School of Business. Circuit Court of Appeals. Ensign Peak Advisors, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints multibillion-dollar investment fund, has gone from operating nearly incognito 19 months ago to facing an uncomfortably hot spotlight. This page was processed by aws-apollo-l1 in 0.078 seconds, Using these links will ensure access to this page indefinitely. Asia Pacific +65 6212 1000. 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