I bet LDS Inc really really hates that they now have to publicly report their holdings of US publicly listed stocks and bonds every quarter.

The SLTrib article is "subscribers only", but there weren't any big revelations. They have recovered the losses from last year and are back up to $49.3 billion. The article also points out that EPAdvisors also controls many other holdings that do not have to be reported. Their total holdings are estimated at between $168 billion and $185 billion.

They have sold off about $500 million in stocks over each of the last 2 quarters. My guess is they will be moving their money to non-reportable assets.

They own $3.1 billion of Apple and a total of $9.7 billion in Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon and Facebook, just under 20% of their reportable portfolio.

https://widowsmitereport.wordpress.com
This is a pulbically available report and analysis of LDS church finances.

I'm disappointed that they are not investing one cent in Brother typewriters or DEC dot matrix printers.

I hope the ghosts of the former church leaders haunt them forever.

I am trying to understand buying and selling stock options. It is a bit more complicated than just buying stock. It can be very lucrative if a person just sits and does that all day.

I am sure the church uses every financial tool available to them but that just wasn't good enough. They had to BREAK THE LAW!

If my parents would have just bought blue chip stocks instead of donating money to the LDS Corp. life would be less stressful.

It is disgusting how many Utahns live pay check to pay check while the church brags about how much money it has.

The Church doesn't pay dividends, but it promises a big payout after your death. Obviously it appreciates quite a bit because of all the spirit wives you will be supporting. Plus feed and veterinary costs of unicorns.

Villager Wrote:
---------------------------

>
> I am sure the church uses
> every financial tool avai-
> lable to them, but that
> just wasn't good > enough.
> They had to BREAK THE LAW!
>

They were just trying to be modest and not show just how good they were at making money.  They didn't break the law to make more money, they just broke the law to hide from the members how much they were making.

Makes me feel so warm and fuzzy that I used to be assigned to clean their church to save them money.

>>>My guess is they will be moving their money to non-reportable assets.

Thanks for the report. That is my guess too.

A few things I didn't agree with.

First, the apostles don't know the extent of the church holdings

Our german apostle whose name I can never spell, certainly knew at one point as he was in the first presidency.

Second Gary Stevenson, who was at the helm as presiding bishop certainly cas the full picture.

Also, stating that any other "unknown" groups would be insignificant I don't buy.

The church has a huge pension plan, separate, as I understand it, from Ensign Peak.

Second, there are funds scattered in different regions where local laws do not allow the transfer of money out if the country.

While individualy they may be a few billion or more, combined I'd wager at least 40 to 50 billion.

Brother Of Jerry Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> My guess is they
> will be moving their money to non-reportable
> assets.

We know that, do we not? The fund had over $100 billion a few years ago and the stocks in the portfolio have appreciated significantly since then.

Absent a $50 billion spending spree that no one noticed, the only way to reconcile the present figure with the $100 billion figure is through transfers to other accounts or other assets.

The claim from the whistleblower that EPA had $100 billion in assets I don’t think distinguished between reportable and nonreportable assets. Since they weren’t reporting any assets at that point, we really don’t know how much they had in reportable assets.

Since they have been required to report their investments in public companies, all their reports have been in the $50 billion ballpark. They may be slowly bleeding down their public assets, but I see no indication that they were cut by 50% in the last few years.

My recollection is that the whistleblower document had the precise holdings in the portfolio. I went through them and their valuations and commented on its composition: standard market portfolio juiced up with some higher Beta positions in high tech.

I'm not sure how I could have misremembered having looked at those entries.

ETA: Or perhaps the public securities were only part of the portfolio and I only looked at them. It was a long time ago.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/26/2023 03:10AM by Lot's Wife.

Besides the $100 billion account, I also recall as secondary account that was somewhere in the mid-thirties, i.e. between, say, $34 billion and $37 billion. It may or may not have been managed by Ensign Peak. I seem to remember hearing about this separate fund before the revelations about EP were made. I think it's taken into account when the church's total assets are counted.

I wonder if the mormon church still holds stock options in Woolworth's. Or Skagg's.