Page 1
Page 2
Page 3
Page 4
Page 5
Page 6
Page 7
Page 8
Page 9
Page 10
Page 11
Page 12
Page 13
Page 14
Page 15
Page 16
Page 17
Page 18
Page 19
Page 20
Page 21
Page 22
Page 23
Page 24
Page 25
Page 26
Page 27
Page 28
Page 29
Page 30
Page 31
Page 32
Page 33
Page 34
Page 35
Page 36
Page 37
Page 38
Page 39
Page 40
Page 41
Page 42
Page 43
Page 44
Page 45
Page 46
Page 47
Page 48
Page 49
Page 50
Page 51
Page 52
Page 53
Page 54
Page 55
Page 56
18 LOOK FOR EXCELLENCE A number of steps that will help you determine excellence in a custodian or a financial insti- tution can be found in the Solari article How to Find a Local Bank httpssolari.combloghow-to-find- a-local-bank Lets go through the basic steps. Intelligence Collect Information 1.Start with the website of the institu- tion. Typically the better the leader- ship the greater the disclosure that private companies provide directly through their About Us or Investor section. You will want to gather as much information as pos- sible about who owns controls governs and manages a private company. Excellence in leadership is what I look for first. 2.If the institution has stock that is publicly traded on the US stock markets you can access the EDGAR system at the US Securities and Exchange Commis- sion SEC to view the annual report proxy prospectuses and other filings including notices of any recent material changes. Check material changes by reviewing the last 10 to 20 years of stock performance relative to peers and to the general market index. You can use Yahoo Finances 10 Year SPY SP 500 Interactive Chart Com- parison here httpfinance.yahoo.com echartssSPYInteractive This may indicate market opinion of the quality or financial performance or both of your institution. 3.If an institution is a regulated bank that uses government insurance you should be able to access reports from the regulator or insurer. For example you can access the FDIC disclosure and call reports on the banks that use FDIC insurance. 4.Check with bank and credit rating ser- vices to find third-party analyst assess- ments of a bank company or government How to Find and Evaluate a Local Bank httpsolari.comarticlesbank_locallyfind_local_banks Yahoo Finance 10 Year SP 500 Interactive Chart Comparison httpfinance.yahoo.comechartssSPYInteractiverange10y allowChartStackingtrue Governance httpsen.wikipedia.orgwikiGovernance Management httpsen.wikipedia.orgwikiManagement EDGAR System httpswww.sec.govedgarsearchedgarcompanysearch.html FDIC BankFind httpsresearch.fdic.govbankfind Bank Rating Services httpwww.dfi.wa.govconsumersbank-rating-services Credit Rating Agency httpsen.wikipedia.orgwikiCredit_rating_agency The Big Three Credit Rating Agencies httpsen.wikipedia.orgwikiBig_Three_28credit_rating_agencies29 FINRA httpsen.wikipedia.orgwikiFinancial_Industry_Regulatory_Authority FINRA BrokerCheck httpbrokercheck.finra.org SEC Check Out Brokers and Investment Advisors httpswww.sec.govinvestorbrokers.htm SEC Investment Advisor Public Disclosure httpwww.adviserinfo.sec.gov Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board MSRB httpsen.wikipedia.orgwikiMunicipal_Securities_Rulemaking_Board MSRB Electronic Municipal Market Access EMMA httpemma.msrb.org PACER Public Access to Court Electronic Records httpswww.pacer.gov I. Options For Stashing Cash