Fine Print: You “May or May Not” Get an Offer [Note to Readers: The views expressed here are solely those of Ross Kaplan, and do not represent Edina Realty, Berkshire Hathaway (“Berkshire”), or any other entity referenced. Edina Realty is a subsidiary of Berkshire.] It turns out there are three main catches (at least) with Twin Cities...Read More
Better Read the Fine Print — and Take Good Notes Along with the proliferation of home warranties in home sales — the option to include such a warranty is now baked into Minnesota’s standard Purchase Agreement — has come (at least to this practitioner) a spike in complexity as well. Here’s just a partial list...Read More
What’s the Catch? “Earn 5% Cashback Bonus when you shop at Rainbow Foods with Discover.” –Credit card promotion Five percent back sounds awfully good, especially when most credit cards are only offering 1% or 2% these days. So, what’s the catch? How about four of them? Catch #1: the purchases have to be at Rainbow...Read More
Synonyms for “Receive”: “Charge,” “Levy,” “Assess,” “Subtract,” “Deduct,” “Reduce” “TFLIC receives an asset charge of 1.18% from the assets of the separate account.” –Prospectus On the list of really annoying things about a great many mutual funds and how they disclose their (too-high) fees, add this one: a bond fund sponsored by Transamerica Financial Life Insurance (“TFLIC”)...Read More
Porous Guaranty; or, “But, Can You Take it to the Bank?” I feel the same way about “guaranteed” Pre-Approval Letters that I do about “guaranteed” pizza delivery or promises of “on-time” service calls by my cable company: a) Officially dubious; and b) Reminded of the reason companies (often) need to offer such promises in the...Read More
