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In other words, if Clarke is contending that he was misunderstood because money will likely have no value when Jesus comes back, does it make rational sense that money would hold value in the years leading up to it if the world truly falls into chaos? That might seem flippant to those who are active members, but the bottom line is that the survey referenced is making the point that the more entrenched in the church you are, the less transparent you want them to be. And the funny part about the quote is that many church leaders thought they knew when Jesus was coming back, but they just happened to be wrong. Editors note James Huntsman is a brother of Paul Huntsman, chairman of the nonprofit Salt Lake Tribunes board of directors. But he filed an appeal in February of 2022 to the 9th U.S. Ensign Peak Advisors. Keywords: Portfolio Theory, Factor Portfolios, Factor Investing, Portfolio Constraints, Smart Beta, Suggested Citation: Now he has a podcast about it. The Not-So-Well-Known Three-and-One-Half Factor Model. Roger served as a professor for more than ten years on the faculty of the Marriott School of Management at Brigham Young University. But there is a time, she told The Tribune on Saturday, to use resources to help and lift people. The fund relies on a healthy share of so-called real estate investment trusts (REIT), which package landholdings into shares for sale. . Back to the article: Others may not be as concerned. If EPA were a hedge fund, itwould rank among the top five hedge fundsfor assets under management. Ensign Peak Advisors employs 11 employees. By clicking Sign up, you agree to receive marketing emails from Insider 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. All rights reserved. A judge could issue a ruling any day in that appellate case. 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?" Software Updates. 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. According to lead counsel for Mr. Nielsen, Michael A. Sullivan of Finch McCranie, LLP, the team representing Mr. Nielsen includes a former senior official of the SEC, more than one former federal criminal prosecutor, a former IRS Criminal Investigative Division agent, another former IRS official, and an international tax lawyer, all with decades of experience. After the stories broke in 2019, the churchpublished a statement to its members and constituents worldwide and posted three short videos to YouTube. 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. 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. The Salt Lake Tribune, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) public charity and contributions are tax Neilsen's complaint claims Ensign president Roger Clarke has said the fund would be used should the second coming of Christ occur, while the Post reported that high-ranking cleric Bishop. Locations . 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.. If Jesus does come back, I can't wait to see his reaction when the leaders of the church that claims to speak exclusively for him explain that they hoarded all of the cash they could instead of helping the very people they are commanded to help in the very Bible they (incorrectly) use as justification for collecting tithing from their members in the first place. Use tab to navigate through the menu items. Huntsman, who owns the film distribution company Blue Fox Entertainment, is the son of the late billionaire Jon Huntsman Sr. and brother of former Utah governor and U.S. Presidential candidate Jon Huntsman Jr. Mr. Bouncing back since early 2020, Ensign Peak has posted quarterly gains of between $2.4 billion and $6.9 billion. Note: ReligionUnplugged.com will update this story with responses from relevant parties. The financial acumen of the church and its members, often referred to as Mormons, is a significant attribute of a distinctly American religious minority that recently celebrated its bicentennial a 200-year history that includes persecution, resilience and ambition. There might be ways to get there with creative accounting such as including what the church gives in assistance to members on the ward level, but remember again that local help is heavily funded by members on the local level and is also a way to evade the matter at hand which is how the church handles tithing contributions. 72, No. Upon learning of Mr. Nielsens IRS submission in December 2019, EPA abruptly began filing in its own name as required. Grald Causs is the church's Presiding Bishop who oversees church finances, including EP. A closer analysis of Ensign Peaks latest disclosures show that beyond big name stocks, technology in a variety of forms accounts for up to 27% of all its shares worth nearly $13.3 billion. Please email us anytime at ldsdiscussion@gmail.com 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. To learn more, visit 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. Manage Products and Account Information. Latter-day Saints, like many Christians, believe there will be a period of war, hardship and natural disasters before Jesus comes back. In 2016, "Dallin H. Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles said that each year The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints spends about $40 million on welfare, humanitarian and other LDS Church-sponsored projects around the world and has done so for more than 30 years." He was a kid when the Swift raids split his family. Nielsen was also someone who had experience on Wall Street, working at a major New York hedge fund for five years and obtaining an MBA at UCLA before EPA recruited him in 2010 as an investment portfolio manager. 212.744.6825, Research Coordinator Counselor says: March 19, 2022 at 9:10 pm. 72, No. Roger G. Clarke This is the same exact reason the church refuses to be transparent with members about problems with church history whether it's Book of Mormon translation, Joseph Smith's implementation and use of polygamy and polyandry, or the vast issues with the First Vision as they celebrate the 200th anniversary. Other former employees said the firms war chest related to preparation for the second coming of Jesus Christ. 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? 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. 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. The church doesnt dispute that payments made to City Creek came from Ensign Peak. Analytic Investors, Inc. Steven Thorley. And do not forget that Prophet Joseph F Smith said this about tithing at the 1907 General Conference: "Furthermore, I want to say to you, we may not be able to reach it right away, but we expect to see the day when we will not have to ask you for one dollar of donation for any purpose, except that which you volunteer to give of your own accord, because we will have tithes sufficient in the storehouse of the Lord to pay everything that is needful for the advancement of the kingdom of God." . Court documents and Security and Exchange Commission filings shed additional light on how the church invests its money. It accused church leaders of fraud over their handling of billions of dollars in members tithing. Since that time, 13 quarterly reports have been filed in full accordance with SEC requirements.". That result also would encourage fraudulent claims of exempt status and weaken tax administration within the tax-exempt sector generally, and within non-exempt religious organizations in particular.. That case, brought by prominent former Utahn James Huntsman, sought at least $5 million in donations, interest and penalties, alleging the faiths top authorities fraudulently misled members about spending donations meant for spiritual endeavors on commercial projects instead. As for the idea that the $124 billion is for the years leading up to Jesus' return, I also think that is a ridiculous notion. (Deseret News) Contact Us Of course the church (and church apologists) would reply that Joseph F Smith was speaking as a man in that instance, and that $124 billion in liquid assets is not "sufficient" for the church's needs. And yet somehow they don't need to set up shell companies to hide it from the government or their family. 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. Huntsman seeks to recover his tithing funds that were fraudulently obtained by the LDS Corporation, the lawsuit stated. . When you look at the details of the story along with the church's rationale for deceiving members, it quickly goes from dishonest to reprehensible. EPA did not need cash from its investments to pay tax, private equity funds could rely upon EPA to leave their investments intact for the long term, the document said. Those organizations will not only help people in need with the money, but they will be transparent about how they spend your money. So they never wanted to be in a position where people felt like, you know, they shouldnt make a contribution, Clarke said.". That result would also encourage fraudulent claims of exempt status within the tax-exempt sector generally, and by non-exempt religious organizations in particular.. Ensign Peak Advisers, the non-profit that oversees the Church's portfolio, failed to comply with the regulator's disclosure rules by filing forms for shell companies that "obscured" the Church's investments, according to the SEC on Tuesday. 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. Alongside that stream of new financial information, a few other cracks in the walls of secrecy around Ensign Peak are being widened in federal court. 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. As of June, the funds shares in five Big Tech companies Apple, Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Facebook were worth nearly $9 billion, or 18% of its total value. 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. This is absolutely ridiculous. 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. 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. 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.. Ensign Peak's investing strategy turns the $100 into $150 (Ensign Peak pays no tax on the gain because its passive . The regulator says the Church's investment manager "went to great lengths" to avoid disclosures. 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. 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. The church literally created over a dozen shell companies to hide their finances, so please forgive me if I don't believe the church's prophets when they declare the church complies with all applicable law governing our donations, investments, taxes and reserves.

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