alexischristoforous-blog

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My "hero" pilot is also a pro financial planner

I was nestled into my seat on the plane, cocktail in hand, happily watching “Creed” when the pilot interrupted with an inflight announcement: “Folks, this is your captain speaking. We’re experiencing some engine trouble.”

What?! Did I just hear that right? Those are precisely the words you never want to hear, especially when cruising at an altitude of 38,000 feet. Three of my Yahoo Finance colleagues were on the same flight bound for Omaha, Nebraska, to cover this year’s Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholder meeting. Unfortunately, my coworkers were sitting nowhere near me. I wondered if they were also freaking out.

Then there was a loud grinding noise, the Boeing 737 shook, and a female passenger let out a blood-curdling scream. The man to my left started praying.

In a calm and steady voice, the pilot announced that our flight was going to make an emergency landing in Cleveland. Then, he warned that we would be landing at a higher speed than normal because of the engine trouble. I cinched my seat belt, clung to my armrests, closed my eyes tight and began to pray silently.

In a matter of minutes, we landed without a hitch at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, and the scariest plane ride of my life was over. In a few hours, my colleagues and I were were on another plane bound for Omaha.

We later learned that Glenn Nevola, the hero pilot who safely landed our plane in Cleveland, is also a financial planner and the founder of Flight Line Financial. His eight-year-old, New Jersey–based investment advisor firm specializes in financial planning for airline pilots.

“There was a real need for pilots to have post-retirement wealth management,” Nevola tells me in the video above, citing the 65-year-old mandatory retirement age for commercial pilots. His business has since expanded to also help younger pilots navigate their future wealth management.

Nevola, who has been a commercial pilot for 30 years, believes he’s uniquely suited to service this niche market. He says a bond among pilots plays a major role.

“By nature of what we do,” Nevola says, “we trust each other every time we get on an airplane together, so as one pilot to another, it’s a natural bridge to trust that person with your finances.”

But it’s not just blind trust. Nevola has the street cred to back up his finance resume. Before founding Flight Line Financial, he worked as a licensed financial advisor for a team at Morgan Stanley that managed $1.5 billion in assets.

At 54, Nevola plans to continue to make his living in two of the most highly regulated industries in the world—flying and finance.

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How world leaders are "sleepwalking" through the refugee crisis

  “Our leaders are sleepwalking,” that’s how Salil Shetty, Secretary General of Amnesty International, describes the reaction of world leaders to the refugee crisis. 

More than 65 million people have been driven from their homes—which is more than any time since World War II.  Among them are more than 21 million refugees from three countries ravaged by war —Syria, Afghanistan and Somalia.

FindTheData | Graphiq

Shetty tells Yahoo Finance that September’s United Nations “Summit for Refugees and Migrants” ended in “abject failure” because leaders “missed an opportunity to make specific commitments to help end the suffering of refugees across the world.”

Days later, US president Barack Obama’s “Leaders’ Summit on Refugees” in New York did only slightly better, according to Shetty, but still fell far short of what is needed to address the global refugee crisis.

States attending Obama’s summit committed to increase funding by $4.5 billion. Fifty-one US companies also pledged to donate, invest, or raise more than $650 million in aid.

That total includes a $500 million donation from investor and philanthropist George Soros. Shetty points out that Soros’ individual donation is $200 million more than the country of China has donated to the refugee crisis.

“We can’t underestimate the importance of money to aid the crisis,” Shetty said, “but wealthy countries can’t just commit money and walk away.”

According to New World Health, China is the second wealthiest country in the world, when comparing total individual wealth. The United States ranks first, while Japan is third.

Amnesty International is asking these and other rich countries to host more refugees.

Currently, more than half of the 21 million refugees are being hosted by smaller, neighboring countries, including Lebanon, Turkey and Jordan.

According to the German newspaper, Die Welt, Germany took in about a million refugees in 2015. That’s more than the US has taken in—in the past decade.

Shetty says the popular belief that people don’t want refugees in their countries is not necessarily true. A recent Amnesty International survey of 27,000 people in 27 countries found that 4 in 5 people would welcome refugees into their countries and even consider taking them into their homes. Shetty says the results show how governments that are turning their backs on refugees are “badly out of touch with reality.”

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Here's why more companies like Coca-Cola are paying attention to "sustainability"

Coca-Cola (KO) says it is working to repay Mother Earth for all the water it uses to make its products around the world.

“Water is our number one critical ingredient,” Bea Perez, Coca-Cola’s chief sustainability officer told Yahoo Finance at the recent Concordia Summit in New York City. The Atlanta-based beverage giant uses water to make its billions of soft drinks, juices and purified waters.

In 2015, Coca-Cola says it returned 115% of the water it used globally that year, roughly 192 billion liters.

“India was our wake-up call,” Perez says. Coca-Cola’s massive water footprint in India has drawn harsh criticism from residents and activists who accuse the company of using too much local groundwater, particularly in drought-stricken areas and in regions where homes and farms need it to survive.

Perez says the company has since made water a key business priority, spending $2 billion on water initiatives around the world. Those efforts include water sanitation and infrastructure, watershed support and even reforestation in dozens of countries, including China and India.

Coca-Cola’s biggest competitor, PepsiCo, has taken similar steps, and a growing number of US companies are understanding the value of global sustainability, not just to society, but to shareholders.

The rise of the CSO Perez has been with Coca-Cola since 1996 in various roles and was named the company’s first chief sustainability (CSO) officer in 2011. According to the Weinreb Group, DuPont was the first publicly-traded company to appoint a chief sustainability officer back in 2004. As of late 2014, 36 public companies in the US had a CSO, and that number is expected to grow. In general, CSOs are charged with monitoring and addressing a company’s community impact both socially and environmentally.

Graphiq

Nearly 50 business programs in the US currently offer degrees or a concentration in sustainability, including Brandeis International Business School, MIT Sloan School of Management, and Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon.

Perez says today’s young people are demanding this shift in higher education and believes it represents a huge opportunity for both employers and employees. “There are so many businesses today that are growing with sustainability right at the heart.”

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Greek Prime Minister: Debt relief will bring the curtain down on a modern Greek tragedy

Greek Prime Minister, Alexis Tsipras, says “the time is now” for lenders to give Greece debt relief.

“This is the responsibility of our international creditors,” Tsipras said during a speech at the Concordia Summit in New York on Tuesday. “Debt relief will bring the curtain down on a modern Greek tragedy. For this reason, nobody has the right to hesitate or procrastinate,” he added. Tsipras said specific measures for the reduction of Greek debt by the end of the year would give markets and investors a clear message that “Greece is back.”

Tsipras wants to show the world that Greece’s third bailout package since 2010 is bearing fruit. Nearly forced out of the euro zone last year, Greece enacted painful tax hikes and deep pension cuts as part of its 86 billion euro bailout.

“Last year Greece made bold and decisive steps to secure its internal political and economic stability,” Tsipras said. “This year marks the turn of the economy from recession to economic recovery.”

Tsipras believes Greece could grow by 0.2 to 0.4% this year and has committed to attaining a primary budget surplus of 3.5% of economic output by 2018.

For some economists, those numbers are too optimistic. Greece’s economy contracted 0.5% from January to March, and Greece’s unemployment rate remains stuck at 23.5%. That’s more than double the eurozone’s average of 10.1%.

Still, Tsipras hopes that within the next six months, Greece will be included in the European Central Bank’s quantitative easing program and make a partial return to the bond markets in 2017.

Tsipras used his time in New York to reach out to foreign investors who have been skittish about placing bets on Greece.

He touted what he called “investment-friendly” initiatives, including 12 years of stable taxation for investments exceeding 40 million euros and stressed that, “Every day we fight against corruption and the interests of the oligarchy which was connected with the old political system and hindered transparency and competition.”

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CDC Director warns Zika is still a big threat to the US

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) declared Miami’s Wynwood neighborhood Zika-free on Monday. However, the CDC recommends pregnant women and their partners remain cautious about travel within other parts of Miami Dade County. The virus is linked to neurological disorders in the fetuses and newborns of women infected with the virus.

Wynwood, the first US city where Zika was contracted by local mosquitoes, was under a federal and state travel warning for two months. Florida Governor Rick Scott says the state hasn’t seen any evidence of mosquito-transmitted Zika in Wynwood for at least 45 days.

“It’s a striking result,” CDC Director Tom Frieden tells Yahoo Finance at the Concordia Summit in New York City. Frieden explains that Wynwood was not an easy place to control Zika because of its many construction sites, vacant lots and hard-to-get-to places. He said weeks of ground-based spraying had little to no impact.

“Then they applied aerial spraying,” says Frieden, “and almost immediately the mosquito counts went to zero and transmission of the disease stopped.”

Aerial spraying is controversial because of its possible harmful effects to people’s health and the environment.

Local businesses in Wynwood are cheering about the travel warning being lifted. The Wynwood Business Improvement District estimates that restaurant and retail sales in the area sank 50% year-over-year since Zika transmission first made headlines.

Meanwhile, just six miles away in Miami Beach, the CDC has tripled the Zika virus transmission zone. It now includes a 4.5 square-mile zone running from 8th Street to 63rd Street.

Frieden says a mosquito travels just 500 feet in its lifetime, which is why it’s possible to declare Wynwood Zika-free, even though nearby Miami Beach is still under threat. “Unlike West Nile Virus, where we see it in a whole region,” Frieden explains, “[Zika] is very focal in the US.”

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What Wall Street can learn from the Marine Corps

Before becoming a successful entrepreneur and investment banker, Ken Marlin was in the Marine Corps, where he spent 10 years as an infantry command officer. Marlin tells Yahoo Finance that he took the skills he learned as a Marine and turned them into success in the boardroom. He lays out those principles in his new book, “The Marine Corps Way to Win on Wall Street.”

“Take the long view,” Marlin explains. Whether on the battlefield or in the office, Marlin says to know your organization’s long-term strategic mission.

“Then, all tactics need to help that organization achieve that long-term mission,” he says. He believes all bankers should be focused on their clients’ long-term goals, even if that means telling them what they don’t always want to hear.

As founder and managing partner of the New York–based investment bank Marlin & Associates, he says too many business people are reactive and not willing to “take a stand.” Marlin is quick to point out that this is more than just being decisive, which is a major Marine Corps trait. He says it also means being willing to “speak truth to power.”

He uses the recent scandal at Volkswagen to illustrate his point. “Had a bunch of executives at Volkswagen taken a stand on faulty emission controls, Volkswagen wouldn’t be paying billions of dollars in fines, recalling cars, losing sales, losing reputation.”

In short, Marlin says the art of the deal is about more than winning and simply using whatever leverage you have to crush the other side. It’s also about doing the right thing.

“We have evolved into a culture,” he says, of too many people who “believe it’s okay to cut corners … and it’s even ok to commit fraud, if you think you won’t get caught,” he says.

He says Wall Street and Main Street can both learn from the Marine Corps credo, “Do the right thing, for the right reasons, every time, no exceptions.”

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Trump’s childhood home comes with a 'HUGE' price tag!

Here’s where it all began for Donald Trump. This modest house in the wealthy enclave of Jamaica Estates, Queens, was Trump’s early childhood home. And it’s a far cry from his palatial triplex today at Trump Tower on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue.

Trump’s father, Fred, built the 2,500-square-foot brick-and-stucco Tudor Revival in 1940. Now, it’s on the market for $1.65 million. That’s $700,000 more than what typical homes in the neighborhood are selling for.

Is the home’s real estate agent banking on a “Trump premium”? “No, I think the house is very well priced,” Howard Kaminowitz, with Laffey Fine Homes tells Yahoo Finance.

Kaminowitz says he left a message with the Trump organization, letting them know the home is up for sale. As of this writing, he’s yet to receive a response.

Current owner and restaurateur, Isaac Kestenberg, bought the six-bedroom, four-and-a-half bath home in 2008 for $782,500. He believes the property has more value because Trump once lived there. “There’s something in the walls,” he says with a grin. “It’s a president’s house, maybe a president’s house.”

The home, at 85-15 Wareham Place, boasts a lot of original details, including a carved oak fireplace and staircase, plus a mahogany paneled library.

Kestenberg, who plans to vote for Trump in November, imagines the home’s smallest bedroom was most likely little Donald’s room. Walking on the same wooden floors that Trump’s toddler feet walked makes him feel “elevated,” he says.

When Trump was a preschooler, his family upgraded and moved around the corner into a stately 4,182-square-foot brick Georgian Revival.

Still, if Trump does become the 45th president of the United States, the little house at 85-15 Wareham Place will become rooted in American history. If not, at least the new owners will have a pretty cool story to tell.

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Marco Rubio will run for reelection

On Wednesday June 22, 2016, Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida announced he will run for reelection for a second term after initially saying he would not. Wall Street Journal columnist Kimberley Strassel joined Yahoo Finance Anchor Alexis Christoforous on “Yahoo News Now” to talk about Rubio’s decision to run again and her new book “The Intimidation Game: How the Left is Silencing Free Speech.”

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The Great Reformation: Pope Francis’ push to clean up church finances

Excitement is building for Pope Francis’ inaugural visit to America. As interest in his trip grows ahead of his arrival, we decided to take a closer look at the sweeping financial reforms he has attempted to put in place.

He may be the "Pope of the Poor," but Pope Francis is also an elite manager who is working to reform the Vatican’s troubled finances.

Fortune Magazine’s Editor-at-Large, Shawn Tully, says Pope Francis is much more hands-on than any previous pope in his managerial style, “He’s a very pragmatic manager. The Vatican has had big deficits for a long time and a lot of the money that was supposed to be earmarked for charity has gone for operating expenses. He wants to make sure that never happens again.”

Tully says to serve his higher calling as a pope of the people, Francis knows he must keep one eye on the bottom line.

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After spending two weeks in Rome last year, researching and writing about how the Pope is trying to create a leaner, more efficient Vatican, Tully found that the 266th Pope has cut overtime and shrunk the size of the Vatican bureaucracy. He also created the Vatican equivalent of the Securities and Exchange Commission. “He wants to make sure that all the controls are in place,” Tully says, “to make sure that there’s no money laundering and to root out the corruption that’s tarnished the reputation of the Vatican.”

As CEO of the Vatican, Pope Francis is responsible for the world’s smallest country. This independent city-state employs about a thousand people, operates its own mint and post office, and is just 110 acres (about one-eighth the size of New York’s Central Park where Pope Francis will greet throngs of Americans next week).

Pope Francis will visit Cuba on September 19 to 22 as part of a tour that will also take him to the United States …

While popular perception is that the Vatican possesses great wealth, Tully says if it were a company, its revenue wouldn’t even come close to making the Fortune 500 list. He points out that the Vatican’s most valuable assets—its artwork – are virtually priceless and not for sale.

The Holy See holds about $920 million in stocks, bonds and gold and over a billion dollars in real estate holdings, but Tully says that’s not where most of its operating budget comes from. He found that “wealthy Americans are funding a tremendous amount (about a third) of the Vatican’s operating budget.”

But big-time donors shouldn’t expect any special treatment. Unlike previous popes, Francis “will not meet or have audiences with rich people,” Tully explains. “But fortunately, because of the improved image Pope Francis has brought to the church, private foundations have been able to raise more money.”