ALCOR finances
Mike Darwin has posted some financial history of Alcor in a post, “The Armories of the Latter Day Laputas, Part 5”. While there were some errors (see the comments), Darwin has apparently corrected them.
It makes interesting reading in general. It’s not a straight analysis of filings like Brandon’s “SIAI—An Examination”, but more of a financial history (eg. the graph of revenues vs expenses etc.)
This troubles me. Is there a comparable financial history of CI anywhere?
CI publishes unaudited financial reports on their website. I scrape the data into excel...it’s not very reassuring; the cash on the balance sheets doesn’t match the cash flows from the cash flow statements. That said, their accounting and finance team is very open and candid (you can call them). I think they are perfectly well-intentioned, though they ought to make it a priority to get a real auditor.
Alcor is another story entirely. The financials statements tick and tie, but their investment process is one of the more alarming and loony I have ever encountered (as a partner at an investment firm, I can say this with a high degree of understanding). I ultimately decided not to contract with Alcor for this reason. If you’re an Alcor member, do yourself the favor of learning about their shady investment strategy.
What shady investment strategy are you talking about? I’m a member, and I’ve done plenty of research without reading anything about this. I’m not totally inclined to trust you, given the lack of specifics, and the fact that you’re going by “randomname”—clearly a throwaway account on this site, with no other posts. However I am curious to know what you’re referencing, although I doubt I’ll ever hear back..
Some quick Googling led me to http://www.alcor.org/AboutAlcor/patientcaretrustfund.html
The investment into the building & equipment is a little curious, but I think it’s defensible: the trust should always have the upper hand over the corporation. Which mostly leaves the regular investments which for 2012 lists it as half stocks/ETFs and half CDs.
I dunno if that’s good or bad, but it doesn’t sound to me obviously insane or ‘loony’ (unlike if it were, say, invested into classic comic books and new fine wines).
I haven’t looked, but I wouldn’t expect to find one. Darwin was president of Alcor for ~5 years and so it’s obvious why he would have such information for Alcor.