May 14, 2018 Vital Signs - Financial advisors? - Wishigan, winning, merciful, dopiods
I'm going to write about financial transaction advisors in the next two VS. This comes up as prospective financial advisory clients and their Boards work though the issues of (1) "do I need anyone?"; (2) "who do I need?"; (3) "why should I hire you?"; and, (4) "why won't you work for chump change?"
Let's start with my favorite advisor: investment bankers (as in me)!
Q: Do you need an investment banker to help you raise money for your company, help sell your company, or help buy a company?
A: In almost all cases, the answer is yes. If it's an early-stage capital raise, the answer is usually no as you'll look weak to investors and you're likely raising too little money to be of interest to an investment bank.
An attorney isn't an investment banker. Investment bakers aren't attorneys. Accountants aren't attorneys. Attorneys aren't accountants. Folks want to pretend, but that's not how its works. I watch Lockup. That doesn't mean I'm ready for the yard. Don't get me started on My 600 lb Life or Hoarders.
Q: Who do I need?
A: generally you'll need a financial advisor, an experienced attorney, and an accountant. They should be experienced in the type of transaction contemplated so avoid your brother-in-law who always wanted to advise on a sell-side and took a finance course in college. Avoid your friend who's a bookkeeper and can spell GAAP. Avoid using your sister who has a corporate law practice and is itching to paper her first deal.
One size doesn't fit all. Make sure that your deal isn't anyone's first rodeo. Make sure they know your space. And make sure you like and trust them as it's a stressful process.
Q: Why should I hire you?
A: Res ipsa loquitur. I'll get you more money than you'll get on your own if it's a sale assignment; get you a better pre-money from better investors if it's a capital raise; and, I'll optimize the likelihood that a deal will get done.
Q: Why won't investment bankers work for chump change?
A: Most of our fee is paid if and when a deal gets done. It's called a success fee for a reason. We don't bill by the hour.
We get a monthly retainer as it makes it more likely that the prospective client is serious versus someone who wants me to go out and kick tires for free to see if there's an outlier offer somewhere. And if the client is paying you, they'll show up. When you work for nothing you've implicitly priced the value of your services.
The only point I always make is that if you don't hire me, hire another investment banker. Go it alone at your own risk and get ready to be played. The only good news is that the client won't realize it.
Don't prove out the observation that an attorney who represents him/herself has a fool for a client and a fool for an attorney. It's penny wise and pound foolish.
More next issue.
ONWARD EVER
Oh how I wish again... - Think this was a "mistake"? The only mistake? Getting caught.
"According to an analysis by the Washington Post, of the 700,000 people who would be hit with the proposed requirements, 23% would be black and 57% white. However, among those who would qualify for the underemployment exemption, only 1% would be black, versus 85% white.
"The notion that the legislation was written to the benefit or detriment of one group of recipients is false," the state's Senate Majority Leader Arlan B. Meekhof, a Republican, told the newspaper in an email. 'The bill is in the early stages of the legislative process and will likely see changes and revisions before it makes its way to the governor.'"
DOD taking charge - Your tax dollars at work. If memory serves, the DOD wins by declaring that it's won. Reality is optional.
"While the Department of Defense contends that its initial deployment last year of MHS GENESIS-a new Cerner electronic health record system-at four military sites in the Pacific Northwest was a success, the EHR is "neither operationally effective nor operationally suitable," according to a new report from DoD's director of operational test and evaluation.
DOT&E's initial test and evaluation report, dated April 30 and released by DoD on Friday, is based on an assessment of three of four military sites in Washington State that were part of the rollout.
"MHS GENESIS is not operationally effective because it does not demonstrate enough workable functionality to manage and document patient care," wrote Robert Behler, director of operational test and evaluation, in a letter to senior Pentagon officials accompanying his report. 'Users successfully performed only 56 percent of the 197 tasks used as measures of performance. MHS GENESIS is not operationally suitable because of poor system usability, insufficient training and inadequate help desk support. Survivability is undetermined because cybersecurity testing is ongoing.'"
Until death's release - it sucks to be poor and be chased around by administrators as if you were in Hunger Games. I still remember Reagan's reference to "welfare queens": since then it's been off to the races squeezing the life out of the Have Nots. Then again, I also remember Nancy drug 'plan' "Just Say No" and its unrivaled efficacy.
"The Trump administration will not approve state requests to impose lifetime limits on Medicaid coverage, breaking with conservatives who have pushed for the strict limitation.
"We've indicated we would not approve lifetime limits, and we've made that pretty clear to states," Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma said Tuesday."
What? Me worry? All I ask is that no one feign surprise. Don't make me bring out the slides on how insurance works. My advice? Don't get sick and don't be poor.
URL: https://altarum.org/sites/default/files/uploaded-related-files/SHSS-Price-Brief_May_2018.pdf
Just say no redux - want to solve the opioid addiction problem? Jail the drug dealers/distributors. Do more than have the obligatory moment of silence in the House. On the other hand if I was an attorney advising these mutts, I'd tell them not to confess to criminal activity and to watch what they say because of the lawsuits that will be coming.
"George Barrett - Cardinal Health's executive chairman - said he wished the company had made different decisions in regard to two pharmacies in West Virginia situated in areas with small populations.
"We reached decisions at the time based in part on the demographics of the surrounding area, the characteristics of the individual pharmacy, and the views of our internal staff," Barrett said Tuesday before the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.
"Those decisions allowed the two pharmacies to continue to receive certain volumes of hydrocodone and oxycodone from Cardinal Health for longer than I think they should have, based on what I have since learned about the circumstances surrounding those pharmacies."
He apologized, saying, 'with the benefit of hindsight, I wish we had moved faster and asked a different set of questions. I am deeply sorry we did not.'"
West Virginia - take me home country roads:
Ten years, 21mm opioids sent to two pharmacies in a WV town of 3,000.
Two years, 9mm opioids sent to one pharmacy in a WV town of 392.
Five years, 780mm opioids sent to the state of West Virginia which has a population of 1.8mm
OBITER DICTUM
To be successful, a woman has to be much better at her job than a man - Golda Meir
We're first on executions. We're 49th in funding public education. We're in a race with Mississippi for the bottom, and we're winning - Kinky Friedman (about TX)
I don't believe that the meek will inherit the earth; The meek get ignored and trampled - Sylvia Plath
It is not enough that we do our best; sometimes we must do what is required - Winston S. Churchill
If I only had three words of advice, they would be, Tell the Truth. If got three more words, I'd add, all the time - Randy Pausch
The best is the enemy of good - Voltaire
I cannot choose one hundred best books because I have only written five - Oscar Wilde
See you in a few weeks