Serving the Country, or Himself the Next 4-8 Years? Once everyone recovers from our collective, national OMG moment, what’s next? For the approaching Trump Administration, I’d argue that step #1 isn’t making key White House personnel decisions, appointing Cabinet members, or (God forbid), tweeting in response to inane provocations. Rather, it’s putting his business interests...Read More
Dual Agency Dilemma #17 Never having represented both the Buyer and Seller in the same transaction (I consider it a classic conflict of interest), one of the questions I have for agents who do act as dual agents is, “how do you navigate things like the Buyer’s walk-thru inspection? Provided for in the standard Minnesota Purchase...Read More
Transparent Compensation vs . . . Not “An astounding 75 percent of consumers believe, incorrectly, that all financial advisers already have to act in their best interest.” –“Is Your Financial Adviser Making Money Off Your Bad Investments?”; The NYT (Sept. 29, 2015). Want one more reason why millions of Mom-and-Pop investors are opting for low-cost index...Read More
[Editor’s Note: The views expressed here are solely those of Ross Kaplan, and do not represent Edina Realty, Berkshire Hathaway, or any other entity referenced.] Protecting Taxpayers From Bank Robbers Wall Street “The best way to rob a bank is to own it.” –book title; William K. Black “The biggest bank there is . ....Read More
Not Biting the Hand That Feeds Them: Academe’s Deafening Silence on Runaway Pay “Yale President Richard Levin could have been in investment banking, he could have been in venture capital, he could have run a corporation. Obviously, if he’d gone into other fields, the compensation would be orders of magnitude greater.” –John Pepper, Yale compensation committee;...Read More
