Ensign Peak has since made what amounts to a stunning series of quarterly reports to federal authorities on the portion of the Utah-based faiths overall holdings it manages, not least for the portfolios sheer size. Doctor Thorleys publications have been presented at academic and professional seminars around the world. If you read the early patriarchal blessings, many early members were told they would see Jesus before they died, because they truly believed they were in the final years before his return. A federal judge recently tossed out the lawsuit, but Huntsmans lawyers plan to appeal. The 90-page memorandum obtained by ReligionUnplugged.com and embedded in this story summarizes evidence of false statements, systematic accounting fraud, private inurement violations of the Internal Revenue Code and other federal statutes and a Klein conspiracy by Ensign Peak Advisors, Inc. (EPA) and others.. More than 150 other stories followed in other media outlets. Back to the article: "The funds handlers are instructed not to invest in industries that Latter-day Saints consider objectionable including alcohol, caffeinated beverages, tobacco and gambling, he said, alluding in part to the churchs health code known as the Word of Wisdom, which bars those substances (although caffeinated sodas are not part of that prohibition). Ensign Peak Advisors ( email) 60 East South Temple 4th Floor Salt Lake City, UT 84111 United States. According to its first 2020 report to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, filed months after allegations by whistleblower. The members who take their tithing money and donate it to local animal shelters, food pantries, or children's programs are doing the work that the church claimed to be doing when demanding 10% of every member's income. 6 (November/December 2016), Available at SSRN: If you need immediate assistance, call 877-SSRNHelp (877 777 6435) in the United States, or +1 212 448 2500 outside of the United States, 8:30AM to 6:00PM U.S. Eastern, Monday - Friday. This is another area where the church is trying to obfuscate the problem of hoarding $124 billion in liquid assets while bailing out their own business ventures and not using any of it to help those in need. Ensign Peak Advisors ( email) 60 East South Temple 4th Floor Salt Lake City, UT 84111 United States. It noted that the whistleblower report and media reporting on it heaped pressure on the church to be more transparent about its finances, something the church has avoided for decades.. 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. Ensign Peak Advisors ( email) 60 East South Temple 4th Floor Salt Lake City, UT 84111 United States. See all articles by Roger G Clarke Roger G Clarke. Harindra De Silva. Suggested Citation, 60 East South Temple4th FloorSalt Lake City, UT 84111United States, 555 West 5th Street50th FloorLos Angeles, CA 90013United States213-688-3015 (Phone)213-688-8856 (Fax), 616 TNRBBrigham Young UniversityProvo, UT 84602United States801-378-6065 (Phone)801-378-5984 (Fax), Mutual Funds, Hedge Funds, & Investment Industry eJournal, Subscribe to this fee journal for more curated articles on this topic, Capital Markets: Market Efficiency eJournal, Econometric Modeling: Capital Markets - Portfolio Theory eJournal, We use cookies to help provide and enhance our service and tailor content. Although Mr. Nielsen could have earned significantly more working for a traditional hedge fund, Mr. Nielsen accepted EPAs offer because he believed at that time that EPA actually supported the Churchs religious and charitable activities, the document states. Wait, what? 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 complaint added that Roger Clarke, the president of Ensign, claimed that the investment branch collected the funds in preparation for "the second coming of Christ." Visit Insider's homepage for more stories. Financial Analysts Journal, Vol. Harindra de Silva. We believe at some point the Savior will return. Carolyn Homer, a Latter-day Saint who lives in Virginia, told The Journal that after she heard about the money held by Ensign Peak, she resolved to tithe less and give more to other charities. Combining long-only-constrained factor sub-portfolios is generally not a mean-variance-efficient way to capture expected factor returns. 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. Latter-day Saint officials acknowledged that it used Ensign funds to underwrite construction of City Creek Center mall in downtown Salt Lake City and rescue Beneficial Life, a church-owned insurance company, but said there was nothing illegal in that. Foreign accounts: EPA now admits having foreign accounts, after denying it under oath for 10+ years: Mr. Nielsens prior submissions demonstrated that EPA has falsely denied under oath each year since at least 2007 that EPA has long had foreign bank and investment accounts, estimated to exceed $9 billion and thus EPA is liable for FBAR (Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts) penalties of more than $2 billion. Get Contact Info for All Departments Ensign Peak Advisors Org Chart Paul Davis Chief Operating Officer 6 Isnt amassing wealth and then saving it the equivalent of burying talents, that Christ condemned in the biblical parable? Miner asked. Over many years, a portion is methodically safeguarded through wise financial management and the building of a prudent reserve for the future., The Wall Street Journal, which didnt cover the story until February 2020,made a unique contributionby visiting Salt Lake City and interviewing leaders of EPA and the church who confirmed the previous reporting ofReligionUnpluggedandthe Post. See all articles by Roger G Clarke Roger G Clarke. The Journal reported that employees of the firm sign lifetime confidentiality agreements and most current employees were no longer told the assets under management figures for the firm. Though not named as parties, Ensign Peak Advisors and the words and actions of its senior managers were at the center of a high-profile lawsuit filed last March in U.S. District Court in California. That would mean the church isn't doing any better or worse than the average, which is what you'd expect from an organization that is run by men. From the church's manual on honesty: "When we speak untruths, we are guilty of lying. "In June 2019, the SEC first expressed concern about Ensign Peak's reporting approach," LDS said in a statement on Tuesday. Ensign Peak Advisors. It accused church leaders of fraud over their handling of billions of dollars in members tithing. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' has a $100 billion investment portfolio,according to a 13F form. (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. This page was processed by aws-apollo-l1 in. He urged the agency to strip the denomination of its tax-exempt status, saying Ensign may owe billions in taxes. David Nielsen, the former Ensign Peak fund manager, said the tithing-fueled fund held at least $100 billion during his nine-year tenure there ending in 2019. Just as in the Gospel Topics essay on Joseph Smith's polygamy, they are using carefully worded denials when they know full well that they are purposefully misleading their members (and the public) at best. "We allege that the LDS Church's investment manager, with the Church's knowledge, went to great lengths to avoid disclosing the Church's investments, depriving the Commission and the investing public of accurate market information," Gurbir Grewal, Director of the SEC's Division of Enforcement, said in a statement. That suggests a remarkable level of trust in church leadership, Sam Brunson, a professor of tax law at Loyola University in Chicago, told The Tribune, not just on spiritual/religious matters but also on more mundane secular matters.. 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. . Nielsens document notes the media attention to the original IRS whistleblower document generated great interest from the public. A post shared by Scottie Scheffler (@scottie.scheffler). The filings do not include all the churchs financial holdings, such as bonds, and the church isnt required to disclose its holdings in property or private companies. Ensign Peaks holdings include $40 billion of U.S. stock, timberland in the Florida Panhandle and investments in prominent hedge funds. In several rounds of clashing court motions, the closely watched dispute led church attorneys to reveal innermost business details to a federal judge on some of Ensign Peaks biggest transactions including how it helped fund the City Creek Center mall in downtown Salt Lake City. Companies Connections. From 1995-2020 he served as president of Ensign Peak Advisors, Inc., an investment management affiliate of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 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 Mormon Church and its investment adviser will pay millions to settle charges with the SEC. 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. So how does the church go from claiming $2 billion in donations over 34 years (which is overwhelmingly based on service hours that are converted to donation amounts) to $1 billion per year as church officials are claiming just months later? 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? 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. Again, the church refuses to be transparent with their members as they enjoy the benefits of being a tax exempt corporation. That should not surprise anyone considering the way they do accounting of these donations. To learn more, visit As Deuteronomy 14:28-29 makes clear, the church is supposed to use the tithes collected to actually help those in need: 28 At the end of every three years, bring all the tithes of that years produce and store it in your towns, 29 so that the Levites (who have no allotment or inheritance of their own) and the foreigners, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns may come and eat and be satisfied, and so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.". In 2003, the lawyers assert, the church earmarked money for City Creek from Ensign Peaks investment gains. Despite being among the worlds largest investment funds, the Salt Lake City firm functioned largely unseen until late 2019, when a former top manager-turned-whistleblower claimed it had amassed up to $100 billion, allegedly without its senior leaders telling much of anyone. By clicking Sign up, you agree to receive marketing emails from Insider The document said it also had no nonexecutive directors or a board to which EPA had to report. Steven Thorley Analytic Investors, Inc. Steven Thorley. Grald Causs is the church's Presiding Bishop who oversees church finances, including EP. Ensign Peak Advisors' articles of incorporation confirm Ensign Peak is an arm of the Church of Jesus . Back to the article: "Clarke and former Ensign employees said the firm created a system of more than a dozen shell companies to make its stock investments harder to track. Court documents in the Huntsman lawsuit have called it a hedge fund which holds in excess of $128 billion.. The statement here by the church is a flat out lie, and as a member of record I beg any church leader to explain to me how this is not as damning towards their honesty as it appears to be. (Deseret News) Bouncing back since early 2020, Ensign Peak has posted quarterly gains of between $2.4 billion and $6.9 billion. That was in keeping, they said, with then-church President Gordon B. Hinckleys declaration that the faith had a compelling responsibility to protect the environment of the Salt Lake Temple and that it was imperative to do something to revitalize this area.. It's the same reason that many believing members refuse to read anything that questions the church, which for many includes church sources and even the Gospel Topics essays. We take seriously the responsibility to care for the tithes and donations received from members, the church statement said. Paying tithing demonstrates obedience and love and helps strengthen our faith in God.". Roger G Clarke Ensign Peak Advisors Harindra de Silva Analytic Investors, Inc. Steven Thorley BYU Marriott School of Business Date Written: June 1, 2010 Abstract Empirical studies document that equity portfolios constructed to have the lowest possible risk have surprisingly high average returns. Software Updates. Downloads 496 (82,744) Thank you for supporting local journalism. For members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, tithing donating 10% of ones income to the faith is more of a sense of commitment than it is the church needing the money, Roger Clarke, head of Ensign Peak Advisors, which manages the denominations investing holdings, told The Wall Street Journal. In the document, he estimates that his former employer has evaded payments of more than $20 billion in taxes and concealed foreign accounts that should total $2 billion in penalties. Back to the article: "The church cant predict when the next 2008 is going to take place, Christopher Waddell, second counselor in the faiths Presiding Bishopric, told The Journal. Clarke, Roger G and de Silva, Harindra and Thorley, Steven, Fundamentals of Efficient Factor Investing (October 11, 2016). Analytic Investors, Inc. Steven Thorley. As we've pointed out in countless pages on this site and others, the church will never be true. BYU Marriott School of Business. He also served as president and chief investment officer of TSA Capital Management in Los Angeles, CA for ten years and as chairman of the board of Analytic Investors for twenty years. 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. I don't really know what more to say here, because Carolyn is actually doing something more in line with what the Bible teaches about helping those in need than the church that claims to speak for God. Ensign Peak Advisors ( email) 60 East South Temple 4th Floor Salt Lake City, UT 84111 United States. But there is a time, she told The Tribune on Saturday, to use resources to help and lift people. The church responded that Nielsens assertions amounted to hearsay and supplied its own sworn statement from Clarke, who was president and managing director over Ensign Peak from its 1997 founding until he retired in May 2020. Ensign Peak, Tithing, and Why the Church Claims They Hid it from Members (Feb. 10, 2020), Whenever we lead people in any way to believe something that is not true, That same poverty continues from one generation to another, until people pay their tithing, created a system of more than a dozen shell companies, earns a million dollars on the gain alone every single hour, Joseph Smith's implementation and use of polygamy and polyandry, Gospel Topics essay on Joseph Smith's polygamy, "Now You Know" video on the Word of Wisdom, Joseph Smith promising exaltation to marry the young daughters, shutting down questions about church history, God called the Native Americans Lamanites from Israel, God changed his mind in just 3.5 years on treating LGBT members as apostates, according to church historian Elder Marlin K. Jensen. The Ensign Peak Advisors management team includes Anthony Kirkham (Vice President and Senior Portfolio Manager), Jason Butterfield (Chief Compliance Officer), and Roger Clarke (President). This page was processed by aws-apollo-l2 in. He said "Paying tithing is more of a sense of commitment than it is the church needing the money. That touched off waves of new scrutiny for a global church used to keeping the slimmest of financial profiles. And on to the article: "Latter-day Saint officials kept the size of the churchs $100 billion investment reserves secret for fear that public knowledge of the funds wealth might discourage members from paying tithing, according to the top executive who oversees the account. Financial Analysts Journal, Vol. The fund held $885 million in REIT shares as of June, along with another $750 million in index funds, whose gains and losses are wired to overall market trends. 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?" 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. Do they not realize that many members have 401K accounts that are run in the exact same way? 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 Roger Clarke, who leads Ensign Peak, has said that part of the reason the Church sought to conceal its wealth was to ensure continued tithing by believers. Ensign Peak Advisors. Editors note This story is available to Salt Lake Tribune subscribers only. The church contends this is not illegal and I am not a legal expert, but I can say it looks awful when a church uses a tithing investment fund to bail out its for profit ventures yet has never spent a dime to help those who truly need it. Beyond tech, Ensign Peaks top holdings read like a typical blue chip roster: J.P. Morgan, Merck, Berkshire Hathaway and Intel. Unlike the Corporation, Mr. Huntsman is confident that these charities will actually use his donations for their intended purposes.. "We don't really answer questions with the public press. Latter-day Saints, like many Christians, believe there will be a period of war, hardship and natural disasters before Jesus comes back. Whether you're a believing member or have left the church, the only thing I can say is that if you want to continue tithing, follow the Bible and use the money to help those around you whether it's a children's program, a local animal shelter (always a favorite of mine), or a food pantry. According to several rounds of clashing court motions, the legal dispute between Huntsman and the church hinges on whether up to $2 billion transferred from Ensign Peak and ultimately used for the City Creek Center mall and an ailing insurance firm were drawn from sacred donations or, as church leaders maintain, investment earnings generated from that initial giving. So in other words, over those 24 years the church donated an average of just $13.65 million a year in actual cash, while *valuing* the volunteer time of its members at $36.85 million a year. Ensign Peak also has at least $1.3 billion in shares of oil and gas companies, even after dumping 44% of its stock in Exxon Mobil early in 2020. Steven Thorley is an Emeritus Professor of Finance at the Marriott School of Business. Those organizations will not only help people in need with the money, but they will be transparent about how they spend your money. As we tend to do, we'll go through it in chunks to cover what the church is saying along with what they're not saying. The regulator says the Church's investment manager "went to great lengths" to avoid disclosures. 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. (Illustration by Christopher Cherrington | The Salt Lake Tribune). Ensign Peak Advisors Jan 1995 - May 2020 25 years 5 months . 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. In the 2019 filing, EPA continued to withhold that required information from the IRS, and to repeat the annual, false and deceptive statement, OVER 1,000,000.. And he suggested Congress and regulators have a duty to act upon the disclosures. Cookie Settings. That strategy, Clarke said, was designed to prevent members from parroting what Ensign was doing and to, as the paper stated, protect them from mismanaging their own funds with insufficient information., Church officials described the fund as a rainy-day account and to help fund operations in poorer parts of the world such as Africa, where the faith is booming where member donations cant keep up.". Obviously I no longer believe in the truth claims of the church after researching the historical and doctrinal topics, but I am still a member of record who has contributed to the church's wealth. It has shifted since mid-2020 into stocks in basic industries and capital goods that might expect to take off in an economic recovery. Roger G Clarke, Harindra de Silva and Steven Thorley. He wrote that it avoided having a compliance officer between 1997 and 2015. Even apologist Patrick Mason isn't trying to sugarcoat the juggernaut that is the church's excess liquid asset holdings, and the fact is that Harvard's endowment is actually being used to help people while the church's Ensign Peak fund has only been used to help the church's own businesses. This week, Roger Clarke, the head of Ensign, told WSJ, 'Paying tithing is more of a sense of commitment than it is the church needing the money.' 'So they never wanted to be in a position. 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. For example, in one instance where we do have some transparency: Ensign Peak's top stock holdings as of December 31 include Walmart, Microsoft, Apple, and JPMorgan. After The Post piece, Patrick Mason, head of Mormon studies at Utah State University, told The Salt Lake Tribune that stories like this will undoubtedly trouble many church members and lead them to wonder whether their charitable giving is best directed toward an institution that reportedly has a stockpile twice as large as Harvards endowment.. Nielsen notes that EPA was operated by people with similarly impressive backgrounds in finance, including advanced degrees from institutions such as Stanford University and experience at hedge fund and Wall Street firms such as Credit Suisse and UBS. If we truly believe that the world is going to fall into chaos before the second coming of Christ, does the church really believe that stocks and bonds are going to hold value then? 72, No. Its holdings dwarf those ofendowments at any university,such as Stanford, Harvard or Yale. Roger served as a professor for more than ten years on the faculty of the Marriott School of Management at Brigham Young University. While on academic leaves from BYU, Professor Thorley served as the interim Research Director for Analytic Investors, a quant fund based in Los Angeles, and for Ensign Peak Advisors in Salt Lake City. EPA has always had billions in assets since its formation in 1997. This new memorandum to the U.S. Senate clarifies and follows up on his complaint about EPA. But when Clarke says the gains are "mainly from returns on existing investments," he is being careful not to say that those "existing investments" were made with tithing money. Ensign Peak is a huge investor in iconic technology stocks. . [Get more content like this in the Mormon Land newsletter, a weekly highlight reel of developments in and about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. And any organization that threatens to take away your exaltation for helping local causes instead of their investment portfolio isn't worth your time, money, or worship. , UT Previous President for Ensign Peak Advisors Inc (801)240-3053. David Nielsen explains in his new document to the Senate Finance Committee that he was a lifelong member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a person whose family was part of the church since the mid-1800s, who graduated from Brigham Young University and who served as a missionary for the church for two years in Brazil. deductible, Report a missed paper by [email protected] calling801-237-2900, For e-edition questions or comments, contact customer support801-237-2900or [email protected]. I remember when I first got married how tight money was, and thinking that the 10% we gave to the church was not even needed makes me feel betrayed considering we added stress to our lives so that the church could pad their bank account. This guide to factor exposures and payoffs contains material from our journal publications over the last several years, compiled in a way that provides a quick start and somewhat self-contained guide to analysts that are new to factor investing. All rights reserved. Keywords: Portfolio Theory, Factor Portfolios, Factor Investing, Portfolio Constraints, Smart Beta, Suggested Citation: This was approximately $2 billion to fund classic private interests., Senate Finance Committee - by Paul Glader. He has reported from dozens of countries for outlets ranging from The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Der Spiegel Online and others. This story makes me angry because we have all seen and heard of countless examples where families skip buying food or paying their bills to make sure they pay their tithing, because without it the church cuts off their membership to the temple. BYU Marriott School of Business. I mean it's just so nonsensical that I can't believe they even try that line of thinking, but when you're caught with your hand in the cookie jar you say whatever you can to get out of the situation. . 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. So, yes, it is a remarkable trust in church leadership. [4] As of February 2020, Roger Clarke is EP's Chief Executive Officer. 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. Upon learning of Mr. Nielsens IRS submission in December 2019, EPA abruptly began filing in its own name as required. The investment activity has been the subject of. The vast majority of these funds areused immediately to meet the needs of the growing Churchincluding more meetinghouses, temples, education, humanitarian work and missionary efforts throughout the world. This is so contradictory to what the leaders say today, yet they say it with a straight face because they need members to believe that they need to follow the prophet, no matter how dishonest and wrong the prophets have been throughout the church's history. So they never wanted to be in a position where people felt like, you know, they shouldnt make a contribution, Clarke said.". It has significantly upped those holdings since. 1. sltrib.com 1996-2023 The Salt Lake Tribune. 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. Please email us anytime at [email protected] if you would like more resources to learn about these issues or if you are looking for people that you can safely talk to as you continue your faith journey. The firm had nearly $1 billion worth of shares in Amazon and Googles parent company, Alphabet, as well. See all articles by Roger G Clarke Roger G Clarke. . Its initial filing revealed EPA had $38 billion in stocks and mutual fundsat the end of 2019, including $1.5 billion in Apple and Microsoft. By 2003, Ensign Peaks assets had grown, according to court documents, though the church isnt publicly saying by how much. 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.
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