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ANA Financial Information
GregL
Posts: 470 ✭
There was a request in a different thread that had some questions regarding the ANA's financial information. Rather than discuss them in a thread about a different topic, I wanted to post some information here. This information is from the ANA's Audited Financial Statements for the Fiscal Year ending October 31, 2012.
The ANA has total assets of $69.6 million and liabilities of $3.8 million, resulting in net assets of $65.8 million.
The ANA's assets include:
The ANA's liabilities include:
The ANA's investments include:
Investment decisions are made by the Board through an investment company. The ANA's current investments are very conservative, relying mostly on fixed income with some equity investments, to minimize the chance of loss. The current board has not made any changes to the ANA's investment policy, although a committee has been formed to look at possible changes.
To answer some specific questions raised by member bidask:
There is no formal foundation endowment at the ANA. What is called our "endowment" are additional assets of the ANA which are typically not used for operating expenses -- but that is a board decision.
Donations which are made to the ANA can be designated for a specific purpose and are listed as "temporarily restricted assets," of which the ANA has approximately $1.2 million. These include donations for YN programs (currently $478,000), exhibit awards ($227,000) and nine other categories.
There currently is no restriction on what amount of our "endowment" can be used for operating expenses on a yearly basis. That is something of great concern to me and I have had some discussions -- both within the board and external to the ANA -- to determine how to put a cap of that nature in place. That is one of the topics I refer to when I say that a main focus of my next term would be to put a limitation of that in place. Obviously, there are some good capital uses for those funds (including the development of our IT infrastructure and new website) which need to be considered.
I hope that helps answer some of the questions.. please let me know if you have any others.
Greg
The ANA has total assets of $69.6 million and liabilities of $3.8 million, resulting in net assets of $65.8 million.
The ANA's assets include:
- The numismatic collection, valued at $36.3 million.
- Property & Equipment (net of depreciation), valued at $1.9 million.
- Future donations from a remainder trust, valued at $10.5 million. (Details below)
- Cash & Equivalents, valued at $0.8 million
- Investments, valued at $19.8 million
- Pre-paid expense & other current assets, valued at $0.3 million
The ANA's liabilities include:
- Accounts payable, accrued liabilities and deferred revenue, valued at $1.4 million
- Deferred Life membership fees, valued at $1.2 million
- Accrued pension liability, valued at $1.1 million
- Other liabilites, valued at $0.1 million
The ANA's investments include:
- Cash & money market funds of $37,000
- Equity securities, valued at $2.1 million
- Mutual funds, valued at $.5.4 million
- Ben E. Keith company stock, valued at $12.3 million
Investment decisions are made by the Board through an investment company. The ANA's current investments are very conservative, relying mostly on fixed income with some equity investments, to minimize the chance of loss. The current board has not made any changes to the ANA's investment policy, although a committee has been formed to look at possible changes.
To answer some specific questions raised by member bidask:
There is no formal foundation endowment at the ANA. What is called our "endowment" are additional assets of the ANA which are typically not used for operating expenses -- but that is a board decision.
Donations which are made to the ANA can be designated for a specific purpose and are listed as "temporarily restricted assets," of which the ANA has approximately $1.2 million. These include donations for YN programs (currently $478,000), exhibit awards ($227,000) and nine other categories.
There currently is no restriction on what amount of our "endowment" can be used for operating expenses on a yearly basis. That is something of great concern to me and I have had some discussions -- both within the board and external to the ANA -- to determine how to put a cap of that nature in place. That is one of the topics I refer to when I say that a main focus of my next term would be to put a limitation of that in place. Obviously, there are some good capital uses for those funds (including the development of our IT infrastructure and new website) which need to be considered.
I hope that helps answer some of the questions.. please let me know if you have any others.
Greg
Greg Lyon, ANA Board of Governors 2011-2017 -- The views represented here are my own personal opinions and do not represent those of the American Numismatic Association.
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Comments
<< <i>If anyone is interested in perusing the organization's IRS Form 990 for the last available year it can be found here: Form 990 - October 31, 2011 >>
Thanks for the link! The 2012 Audited Financial Statements and IRS Form 990 should be on the website within the next week or two. They were both approved by the Board in New Orleans.
Greg
There does not appear to be a coherent investment policy
statement for the ANA assets.
There is no stated formula or policy that lays
out what % of the corpus can be used to support the
Annual operating budget of the ANA,
Whoever on the board of governors is making the
investment decisions are making decisions supposedly based
on fear of loss rather than growth . So the whole mindset of the board is
wrong in my view.
The assets of the ANA are way over concentrated in coins.
These coins should have been for the most part sold
off over time and proceeds placed in a well diversified
asset allocation plan.
The board appears to have very little experience managing money.
They should have hired a professional money management
firm (s) long ago and then as a board monitor their performance.
I give away money. I collect money.
I don’t love money . I do love the Lord God.
<< <i>The assets of the ANA are way over concentrated in coins.
These coins should have been for the most part sold off over time and proceeds placed in a well diversified asset allocation plan. >>
Just clarifying... you want us to sell the museum collection?
Greg
P.S. FYI - The values of the museum collection on the financial statements reflects their value when initially added to the financial statements (2009 / 2010) or when purchased / donated. Values are not updated on a yearly basis and thus the actual value may be higher or lower than what is actually stated.
Sounds like my type of club!
Seriously, Dan, I think you're making the mistake of thinking that the coins are being held as part of an investment portfolio. In fact, the coins are museum holdings, used for display and research purposes, etc. The investment potential of the coins is of minimal consideration, because the intention is to maintain the museum through up and down markets.
And while we're on the subject of the coins, Greg, can you tell us what procedures and/or committees are in place to handle deaccessions and museum acquisitions?
Doggedly collecting coins of the Central American Republic.
Visit the Society of US Pattern Collectors at USPatterns.com.
<< <i>There is no stated formula or policy that lays out what % of the corpus can be used to support the Annual operating budget of the ANA. >>
As I stated earlier, this is a serious problem and discussions are underway to put a cap in place.
<< <i>Whoever on the board of governors is making the investment decisions are making decisions supposedly based on fear of loss rather than growth . So the whole mindset of the board is wrong in my view. >>
As I stated earlier, the current board has not made any changes regarding investment decisions but an investment committee has been formed -- with outside expertise -- to review and possibly change the ANA's investment decisions. A main reason regarding this is the significant changes in pension liabilities over the past few years.
At the same time, if our assets were heavily invested in stock in 2008-09, I'm sure all the members would be happy to see the significant losses we would have suffered.
I believe there is a valid case for taking on some additional risk but still need to keep a significant portion of our investments in more stable assets.
>>
The board appears to have very little experience managing money. They should have hired a professional money management firm (s) long ago and then as a board monitor their performance. >>
As I stated earlier, the ANA has an investment firm we work with. The Board does not pick specific investments but does choose the general style of investments.
Greg
If not, shouldn't they be for protective and security purposes?
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<< <i>
<< <i>The assets of the ANA are way over concentrated in coins.
These coins should have been for the most part sold off over time and proceeds placed in a well diversified asset allocation plan. >>
Just clarifying... you want us to sell the museum collection?
Greg
P.S. FYI - The values of the museum collection on the financial statements reflects their value when initially added to the financial statements (2009 / 2010) or when purchased / donated. Values are not updated on a yearly basis and thus the actual value may be higher or lower than what is actually stated. >>
That is the problem with coins. Its hard to value them until sold
I am not sure how many true 'museum specimans' are in the ANA collection....perhaps
those should be kept but yes the rest of ithe collection should have been sold off
long ago. It should been invested in a diversified and more liquid portfolio ( that can be valued) for the future growth of the ANA.
I give away money. I collect money.
I don’t love money . I do love the Lord God.
<< <i>And while we're on the subject of the coins, Greg, can you tell us what procedures and/or committees are in place to handle deaccessions and museum acquisitions? >>
There is a museum committee, of which I am not a member, so I can't provide much further detail there. Tom Hallenbeck would probably be able to provide better information than I can.
Another area of great discussion has been determining what the ANA Museum collection policy is -- basically, what is the goal of the museum? Yes, you'd think that would have been done when the museum was first opened, but apparently not -- another example of issues we face in the change from being a large coin club to a $6 million a year non-profit.
Regarding museum acquisitions, I think you'd want to talk to the museum committee or Tom about that in detail. One thing I can say is that the insurance settlement from the Yeager theft has been dedicated for museum purchases to improve the collection.
Greg
<< <i>Greg- are the museums collection of coins slabbed? If not, shouldn't they be for protective and security purposes? >>
All high value coins have been placed in what are called "museum holders" by NGC - this was a decision made by the current Board. They are similar to slabs but are not permanently sealed.
As you can imagine, a lot of numismatic research requires physical access to the coins. Putting them in slabs would eliminate that possibility.
Greg
<< <i>Some initial observations
There does not appear to be a coherent investment policy
statement for the ANA assets.
There is no stated formula or policy that lays
out what % of the corpus can be used to support the
Annual operating budget of the ANA,
Whoever on the board of governors is making the
investment decisions are making decisions supposedly based
on fear of loss rather than growth . So the whole mindset of the board is
wrong in my view.
The assets of the ANA are way over concentrated in coins.
These coins should have been for the most part sold
off over time and proceeds placed in a well diversified
asset allocation plan.
The board appears to have very little experience managing money.
They should have hired a professional money management
firm (s) long ago and then as a board monitor their performance. >>
Bidask,
I think it would be illuminating for those who've listened to your observations and conclusions to know what professional and personal competencies inform your remarks. As a "for instance", have you served on the Board of Directors of a museum or some other such entity ? Been responsible for the direction of an eleemosynary trust?
My uninformed response to your suggestion that ANA divest itself of a major portion of its numismatic assets is a surmise that these assets are the contents of the Money Museum. I'm hoping this is incorrect.
I'm trying to decipher the ANA web pages devoted to museum thefts.
The thefts by ANA employee Wyatt Yeager are documented for the most part.
It appears that there may be other missing coins, not taken by Yeager.
If so, is this being investigated, or did the ANA board sweep it under the rug ?
When I interned there, we found a USPS box in the vault that had been donated to the ANA. The box had been there for months and was never opened, checked in, nor were there records of it. The box contained a collector's hoard of about 150 1877 Indian Cents in poor to VG condition, a pretty decent sized donation.
The lack of oversight on a box like this was admittedly concerning. But, I wouldn't see the problem with the ANA selling off excesses of items like this to maintain/raise funds for other projects.
For a large selection of U.S. Coins & Currency, visit The Reeded Edge's online webstore at the link below.
The Reeded Edge
<< <i>Is the Bass collection considered a part of the $36.3 million in numismatic assets ? >>
I believe the Bass Sylloge is on long-term loan from the Bass Foundation.
<< <i>... swept under the rug >>
Dispassionate inquiry or channeling Darrell Issa?
<< <i>
<< <i>Some initial observations
There does not appear to be a coherent investment policy
statement for the ANA assets.
There is no stated formula or policy that lays
out what % of the corpus can be used to support the
Annual operating budget of the ANA,
Whoever on the board of governors is making the
investment decisions are making decisions supposedly based
on fear of loss rather than growth . So the whole mindset of the board is
wrong in my view.
The assets of the ANA are way over concentrated in coins.
These coins should have been for the most part sold
off over time and proceeds placed in a well diversified
asset allocation plan.
The board appears to have very little experience managing money.
They should have hired a professional money management
firm (s) long ago and then as a board monitor their performance. >>
Bidask,
I think it would be illuminating for those who've listened to your observations and conclusions to know what professional and personal competencies inform your remarks. As a "for instance", have you served on the Board of Directors of a museum or some other such entity ? Been responsible for the direction of an eleemosynary trust?
My uninformed response to your suggestion that ANA divest itself of a major portion of its numismatic assets is a surmise that these assets are the contents of the Money Museum. I'm hoping this is incorrect.
Colonel, I have been in the money management business for 32 years. My wealth management team acts as an advisor and fiduciary to over 450 million in assets. Not a big deal in my world.
In that course of time I have had first hand experience working with boards, high net worth clients, pension plans ,401k plans, etc. and I can tell you that the ANA as a 501c3 organization, compared to how other 501c3 organizations are invested, are woefully lacking.
And I personally love coins as much as anyone at the ANA or on this message board.
I give away money. I collect money.
I don’t love money . I do love the Lord God.
I doubt if Greg is able to continue to piecemeal out enough info to satisfy anything like a trenchant analysis.
I'm a bit confused. Superficially, I don't see a connection between treatment of the needs of high net-worth individuals, pension plans or 401K's with the entities mentioned below?.
How does ANA compare to ANS, Boston MFA, the Barnes Museum, Getty Museum and other such entities with custodial and educational missions?
What proportion of their assets are, for lack of a better term of art, "working inventory".
Are these typical 501c3's or, due to their assets in custody as a proportion to the overall worth of all assets, a somewhat atypical subset of same?
Are there any protocols for de-accessioning such items in their custody?
Any past histories of legal costs?
While I know it's an endowment with high liquidity, and thus not wholly analogous to ANA's situation, Princeton University just went through a very long and very expensive lawsuit brought by the heirs of a donor because the nature of the activities supported by the endowment did not conform to the conditions under which the contribution was made.
I may have misused or misapplied the term "eleemosynary trust".
Have you examined the documents and analyzed the legal structures and strictures which may or may not direct and/or control ANA's activities in possible de-accessioning scenarios, as well as those of some of the other seemingly similar entities?
Have you considered donating some of your knowledge, expertise, time and energy to assisting ANA in avoiding ill-informed decisions?
What kind of commission structure do you anticipate for the auction of what dollar value of the numismatic assets over what period of time?
How many of the 1804 $1 's on display at ANA could go on the auction block?
I've got at least 5 buyers for an 1804 $1, even a sucky one. Seriously. And I can work much more cheaply than an auction house. With, of course, the money escrowed before delivery.
I'm sure my ability to deliver customers is not unique.
Is there any way ANA can leverage the existence of private treaty potential to position itself for a better commission rate?
I received my copy of the NUMISMATiST recently and was saddened to read the letter from Colonel Steven Ellsworth entitled “ Hemorrhaging Money”.
The ANA is going through a very tough time as a result of revenue streams drying
up and the impact on the longtime ANA services which are being threatened.
Some of the questions asked were :
What is our fiduciary responsibilities as elected stewards?
Do we continue to drain our long term future investments to continue as business as usual with no immediate end in sight ?
Do we bunker down and keep our “powder dry “ until we see the pandemic truly subside ?
The Colonel went on and asked other questions..... including stating towards the end of his letter......:
Perhaps the light at the end of the tunnel is that this may be a good opportunity to reset our priorities. This has been long overdue for our Association and our hobby .
In reading this I thought of this thread .
I had advocated divesting much of the museum coin collection ( not the important coins ) but duplicates and unimportant coins that had been donated
and reinvesting much more in growth oriented investments ( stocks ) as part of a diversified portfolio that perhaps could have been used for stormy days that the ANA is now encountering .
Hope things work out .... I love the ANA and what the provide and I love coin collecting .
I’m going to up my donation in 2020 .
I give away money. I collect money.
I don’t love money . I do love the Lord God.
I'm sad, but not surprised to hear this. The world is changing and the ANA needs to change with it.
Laura, Don, and others have struggled to get the ANA online more.
This reminds me of the New York Times before they figured out how to make money in the online economy.
Hopefully the people at the ANA will be able to figure this out.
This is one reason much of the ANS collection is raw.
The NNC seems to use NGC-like slabs as well.
I do miss the posts from ANA insiders on this forum. It seems like we used to have a few people posting here but none now.
Wasn't there a post/thread in the last few months that the ANA had a huge increase in
enrollment, something like 2000+. I looked thru recent issues of the "Numismatist"
and did not see any such increase. They also laid off some of their staff blaming COVID-19.
Couldn't they auction off some of the hundreds of duplicates in their collection?
For many businesses, the impact of the pandemic, combined with adjusting to the new business model of online operations and social media, has been severe. This is a time for major changes in operations, and 'fighting the last war' will result in failure. Cheers, RickO
Maybe someone can get the Colonel to come on here and give us some first hand updates. He is a stand up guy and I have always liked him. Raising awareness of the issue on a forum like this could generate some positive outcomes. There are a lot of very generous posters who may not even be aware of the issues.
They are a nonprofit organization so their tax returns are publicly available. I looked it up (see guidestar.org). Their latest returns available are for the year ending 2018. They lost $724,000 that year. Their 'endowment' appears to consist mainly of their collection and stocks/bonds/other investments. They value the collection at $37,865,973. The other investments are $22,811,800. If you sell off part or most of the collection then you're losing most of the assets of the organization.
Total Revenue is $5,058,000. The main parts are Revenue from Conventions is $1,800,000, Annual Seminars $315,000, Membership $954,000, Contribution $590,000
Total Expenses are $5,800,000
They only had $400,000 in cash and savings (not including the above investments) so I can see how they are bleeding cash in the current environment.
My main take-away is if things don't change, it does appear to be dire. Unless something happens or they sell investments or part of the collection BUT that is a temporary fix.
I had advocated divesting much of the museum coin collection ( not the important coins ) but duplicates and unimportant coins that had been donated
and reinvesting much more in growth oriented investments ( stocks ) as part of a diversified portfolio that perhaps could have been used for stormy days that the ANA is now encountering .
I totally agree with this statement. The ANA doesn't have to sell any of the good stuff they have. They have loads of unadulterated junk that has no research value whatsoever that they could unload and immediately solve their cash flow problems. For instance, a former ANA Governor told me they have numerous examples of low-grade key coins (like VG 1877 Indian Cents) just taking up space. The Virus won't last forever and, hopefully, the shows will get back to "normal" in a year or so (fingers crossed). That way, the ANA can do some housecleaning, pay their bills, and set up a more secure future.
Member ANA, SPMC, SCNA, FUN, CONECA
Selling duplicates, while likely produce some additional income, is a bandaid to a organization that needs a new direction to survive. COVID exacerbated the problem, but this decline is institutional.
The ANA could have sold those duplicates and unimportant coins years ago and invested in simple S&P 500 index .
That would have been a new direction .
I give away money. I collect money.
I don’t love money . I do love the Lord God.
Maybe Brent Howe will do something ....
https://uscoinnews.com/2020/08/12/new-chief-financial-officers-joins-american-numismatic-association/
I give away money. I collect money.
I don’t love money . I do love the Lord God.
Making $5 million and spending $5.8 million was a problem before COVID hit. They have to balance their budget...... just like all of us have to do with our homes & businesses (but not Congress, of course).
If their assets aren’t generating income to further their mission, they need to manage their assets differently. If they have $58 million in assets, that should be generating 2-3 million per year Even if invested poorly.
Doesn’t seem too hard to understand.
36% of revenue from conventions is a scary number. No one can predict where conventions are going, and the auction houses have obviously learned that conventions aren't crucial to attracting bidders.
To make more revenue, they can do what the Smithsonian NNC is doing. The Smithsonian has been making and selling replicas of their coin holdings, all slabbed by NGC. The replicas generally sell for much more than melt. It has the additional effect of marketing that they have the original. This matches the very common museum practice of selling inexpensive prints of their painting holdings. I'm not generally a buyer of these Smithsonian pieces but they come up in my searches and seem to sell well enough.
According to the Numismatist membership went up by 505 from July to September.
Many professional organizations are struggling. Not just hobby groups like the ANA, but major science and engineering professional societies for example. This is a long-term trend, with many bits and pieces to the story, but the short version is that the Internet has rendered much less valuable some roles these organizations play. The way forward is to adapt. Yes, I'm sure the ANA could survive for a couple decades by selling off their collection to cover costs. But remaining useful and relevant will require different moves than just an alternative investment strategy.
LIBERTY SEATED DIMES WITH MAJOR VARIETIES CIRCULATION STRIKES (1837-1891) digital album
I think the ANA should sponsor eBay sellers in exchange for a 3% cut off the top. That would be listed as a donation and be tax deductible by the seller. The seller gets an extra boost from buyers and buyers get exposed to and possibly join the ANA.
Saw that editorial in my issue the other day. I really did like their online summer seminar classes, and they have some more coming up for the fall. I really think the ANA needs some new younger blood and some fresher voices in their organization, especially on the investment side for their assets. Like other have said, investing in some long-term stock indices would have down them far more good over the past couple of decades.
While the Colonel comes across as a stand-up guy, his weird rant of having the World's Fair of Money Pittsburgh show cancelled left a sour taste in my mouth. This is just a hobby and quite a few people have been laid off and lost their health insurance. I'm sure any collectors affected by that are no longer thinking about coins or the ANA, unless they are selling.
10-4,
My Instagram picturesErik
My registry sets
The eBay cut is already 10% and climbing. With 3% for the ANA, that would make it 13%, if I understand your proposal.
I think the coin & bullion market needs a new low-cost venue. Instead of the ANA investing their assets in the "stock market", maybe the ANA should invest in setting up and promoting a revenue-generating venue that collectors and dealers could use ?
And if such a thing was set up, the ANA would be in a better position than eBay to weed out unsatisfactory listings. eBay is full of spurious items for sale. If the ANA's venue was clean, that would be a selling point right there.