Mormon Stock Index

[negragardenia]

Can anyone explain to me... in simple English if possible... what is the Mormon Stock Index? I have a person saying that certain companies.. that I know are own by LDS ... but I don't understand what it means the Mormon Stock Index.

Thanks!

[Freedom]

http://www.mormonstockindex.com/

It appears to be someones effort to track companies with lds directors, not necessarily just owners. An index tracks sectors of the economy, and anybody could create their own index. I have an index that I created on an online investment website that tracks my mutual funds for example. There are 'official' indexes such as the DOW Jones or the S&P 500. Some list prominent tech companies, others oil and gas. I suppose the theory is that companies run by members of the church should perform better than those not run by the church.

The problem is that you cannot compare a shoe manufacturing company run by a catholic to a medical supply company run by a mormon. For that matter, you cannot compare a brand new atheist-run medical supply company in Toronto with 50 employees that caters to dentists to an established mormon-run medical supply company in Seattle with 4,000 employees that caters to pharmaceutical companies. Also, a mormon index would be too divers to be of any value. You would have a cattle ranch with a software development firm and an auto parts manufacturer. You would also have a research and development firms lumped in with more blue chip companies.

It appears that the website I note has not been updated for over a decade.

This site has a pretty comprehensive list. I check it each morning.

http://www.bloomberg.com/markets/indexes/

[negragardenia]

I believe that this person...wants to say that the LDS church has stocks in certain companies ... like Black and Decker, Sky West, La Quinta Hotels, Marriot's, Franklin Covey, American Express, etc. etc.

Where did he get this info... I don't know... he says he is a member of the church and that he is disappointed by the finances of the church ... etc. etc.... I only knew that they were companies where the CEO where members of the Church...but not that the church own's them ...is that correct?

[Freedom]

The church does own stocks in several companies but they have been divesting much of them over the years. Often they hold ownership where they have a vested interested. For example, for many years they owned part of kiro news in Seattle because they broadcasted church programming. When satellite technology came about, they no longer required a network affiliation. Also, many wealthy members pay their tithes and offerings through stocks or real estate so the Church inherits ownership on companies in this manner. They have an asset manager that manages these funds, buying and selling as needs be. I did meet with someone who worked for the church in this aspect and have a very fascinating conversation but this was several years ago so what I learned then would no longer be relevant. I would be pretty disappointed if all the church funds were sitting in a bank account not collecting any interest but I am not privy to the direction the Lord has given on the manner.

I am also not familiar with fund management in the US. In Canada there are very strict regulations about trust accounts that can limit investment options in some cases. Since the Church does not publish their financial records, however, it would be very difficult to determine what companies they own. You would have to get a list of the stock holders of the companies in question but even this is not often available. I owned preferred stocks in a company that only published names of common stock holders over a certain percentage so my tiny holding never appeared on the radar.

My business interests no longer have me involved in trading, I am more focused on real property and so I am not much of an expert on these matters any more. I have not followed the churches investment interests for many years so hopefully someone else with more expertise will respond here. Your friend would have to provide some evidence before we could investigate further.

[Stargazer]

I believe that this person...wants to say that the LDS church has stocks in certain companies ... like Black and Decker, Sky West, La Quinta Hotels, Marriot's, Franklin Covey, American Express, etc. etc.

Where did he get this info... I don't know... he says he is a member of the church and that he is disappointed by the finances of the church ... etc. etc.... I only knew that they were companies where the CEO where members of the Church...but not that the church own's them ...is that correct?

Does the person say that the church owns Coca Cola stock? Or even the entire company? Heh.

I remember reading something several years ago in which the Church reported that it did not own stocks, except when a member gave them either by donation or by will, in which case the Church owned them only for the brief time between receiving them and selling them. I think this was in the "I have a question" feature in the Ensign, but I am not totally certain.

[Stargazer]

The church does own stocks in several companies but they have been divesting much of them over the years. Often they hold ownership where they have a vested interested. For example, for many years they owned part of kiro news in Seattle because they broadcasted church programming.

In fact, Bonneville Communications used to own a number of broadcast stations -- I am pretty sure they owned KIRO outright, not just the news portion. I specifically remember that we could get all sessions of General Conference at one time from KIRO. It is also certain that Bonneville owned the Seattle-area FM radio station KBRD, which at the time broadcast classical music. I live in the greater Seattle area (well, Olympia, 60 miles southwards) so this was fairly commmon knowledge amongst LDS in the northwestern part of Washington state.

When satellite technology came about, they no longer required a network affiliation. Also, many wealthy members pay their tithes and offerings through stocks or real estate so the Church inherits ownership on companies in this manner.

Hey, that's what I said! JK. Of course I dithered around gathering data for my reply (there was more I wanted to say, but couldn't find the info I was looking for). So you "scooped" me!

My business interests no longer have me involved in trading, I am more focused on real property and so I am not much of an expert on these matters any more. I have not followed the churches investment interests for many years so hopefully someone else with more expertise will respond here. Your friend would have to provide some evidence before we could investigate further.

That's interesting -- my wife and I are about to start investing in real estate. I imagine that Canada is having about as much foreclosure problems than the US? Although, in your case you have a Prime Minister who is more business friendly than our current administration and things may be going better for you up north. Apologies for mentioning politics, but politics very often drives economics, so ...

[Freedom]

That's interesting -- my wife and I are about to start investing in real estate. I imagine that Canada is having about as much foreclosure problems than the US? Although, in your case you have a Prime Minister who is more business friendly than our current administration and things may be going better for you up north. Apologies for mentioning politics, but politics very often drives economics, so ...

Our real estate market was largely unaffected by the crash. You cannot buy a house here of any value for under $600,000. Growth in value slowed but did not drop. I manage real estate portfolios with apartments selling for $500,000. It is crazy. We have a much more controlled banking system so the crazy loans that were given out in the states were not allowed up here; in fact, lending policies became more strict. I am not suggesting that our system is better, but it certainly did work in our favor this time around. From my perspective, the Bush administration was very unwise to jump start the economy by making loans easier to access. Houses in my neighborhood were selling for $200,000 10 years ago, they are now selling for $600,000. Values have gone up 6% this year and are expected to increase another 8% next year. I have a friend who purchased a 6000sqft house in South Carolina for $60,000. That isn't enough for a down payment up here.

Seattle is a great town. I miss our trips to the temple down there. I have an uncle in Spanway that I visit from time to time and one of my daughters goes to Seattle for competitions each spring.

[negragardenia]

Thanks for your posts... I'm learning from them...

I don't know how people ... in this case a "member" says he has the information about it... since you mention that no one really knows...

His concern or pet-peeve... is that the church owns stocks in these companies and don't let the members know... (which I don't care... I know I give my tithing to the Lord and that's is all). I'm trying to understand why bother with this...information and why use it. It bothers me because the way is coming across or the way his putting it ... is all about money. Any thoughts?

Corporación Descripción AgReserves Inc, Salt Lake City, Utah El productor más grande de nueces en los Estados Unidos Beneficial Life Insurance Co. Activos de $1.6 mil millones. Bonneville International Corporation La 14ta cadena de radio más grande de los Estados Unidos El rancho más grande de vacas del mundo (312.000 acres). Solamente la tierra vale $858 millones. Farmland Reserve, Inc Posee 228.000 acres en Nebraska, perdiendo solamente para Ted Turner, que tiene 290.000 acres. También posee tierra al este de Orlando, valorada en $10 millones. Polynesian Cultural Center, Hawaii La principal atracción para visitantes (con fines lucrativos) en Hawai.

Estas son las conocidas ampliamente en Estados Unidos las cuales la misma iglesia reconoce los ingresoa anuales por estas empresas rondan aproximadamente los 6 mil millones de dolares.

Ahora veamos algunas de las cuales la iglesia es accionista y ademas empresarios mormones son dueños.

Black & Decker

Sky West

La Quinta Hoteles

Franklin-Covey

American Express

Iomega (discos duros externos y demás)

Hunstsman Chemical

Oakley (gafas de sol)

priceline.com

Albertsons

Nu Skin

Marriot Hotels

Jet Blue Aerolineas

Novell

Bain Capital

Dell Computers

Edited December 8, 2011 by negragardenia

[Calm]

The Mormon Stock Index was apparently part of the now defunct Mormon News (it was either owned by Mormons Today or changed its name to it or was taken over by MT.). It was not officially connected with the Church in any way. They used to have archives of the old newsletters online, if I recall correctly. This was likely one of the ways they came up with to try and tbroaden their appeal, but as described above it seems pretty meaningless. Looks like the owner, Kent Larsen just looked up the top businesses in Forbes magazine's list and used the top businesses where he recognized the name of the CEO or owner as being LDS. He still does something similar, see a link I post below.

Individuals have just appropriated the list and are passing it around. This most often happens from what I've seen for those calling for people to boycott these companies because they are owned or run by LDS. However, the list doesn't look like it's been updated since 2001 so it may be inaccurate, one has only to look at the changes that took place over the year to see the high turnover.

There are other sites that have different lists that have been created simply to boycott the Church or any business that looks connected in some way in order to limit the amount of tithing the Church gets. I've seen sites that promote not hiring LDS at all for this reason and others.

If the person is claiming that this means that the church owns stock in the company he has misunderstood the claim. It looks like the preceding paragraph attached to the list is a description of Church own companies, but the list itself is a rip off of the Mormon News site.

Edited December 8, 2011 by calmoriah

[Calm]

Here is an example of an old Mormon News article: http://www.mormonstoday.com/001229/A2Barty01.shtml

Kent Larsen, the owner, is active on Times and Seasons: http://timesandseasons.org/index.php/author/kent/

He apparently continues to have an interest in LDS in top businesses as well as likes to make lists: http://timesandseasons.org/index.php/2011/10/the-forbes-shuffle/

A post about using lists of LDS names for "affinity information" with a discussion following it: http://timesandseasons.org/index.php/2011/05/who-is-the-worlds-wealthiest-mormon-should-we-care/

Edited December 8, 2011 by calmoriah

[Calm]

If you want a relatively accurate list of businesses owned by the Church, Wikipedia at least requires references for its claims.

See here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deseret_Management_Corporation

[Nofear]

Does the person say that the church owns Coca Cola stock? Or even the entire company? Heh.

Short answer: No. Just a malignant rumor. I've heard it about Pepsi too.

Snopes.com: The Mormons own the Coca-Cola company