Comments on: Daniel Kahan, director of Maxlife Fund Corp, follows my advice

By: Michael Goode

Michael Goode — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 15:21:51 +0000

Thanks for bringing that up. I had not noticed that.

Here is the form 15 filing: http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1379377/000121390011001918/f1515d_maxlife.htm

By: daniel kahan

daniel kahan — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 21:09:19 +0000

Michael, I was expecting to find some comments from you about the recent developments at MXFD culminating with their voluntary filing of Form 15 which means they will no longer be trading publicly. If you were following the Trinity Life deal then for the public record (for anyone finding me on your blog) you should be aware that I introduced Trinity in Chicago to MaxLife and got the negotiations going. So while I resigned as a Director in Jan. 09 because I felt the stock options they gave me were worthless from day 1 (despite the way they wre expensed by their auditors) I have still tried helping MXFD from the sidelines in recognition of the 3,000 restricted shares I had been given in April 07 to be on their Advisory Board.

By: Michael Goode

Michael Goode — Sat, 20 Nov 2010 03:07:15 +0000

Good question, Yue. We are not doing it, because we are happy with the low cost of her current 401k (it is run through Fidelity and thus there are several cheap index funds available). We are not converting any pre-tax deductible IRAs into Roths, because our Roth assets are already of decent size and we believe in the concept of tax diversification (having multiple different kinds of accounts in case Congress decides to change the tax code such as by taxing Roth withdrawals.

If we were in a lower tax bracket it would be a no-brainer to do the Roth conversion, but I am not convinced it would be the best for us. The sad thing is, we can’t make an informed decision (nor can anyone) because no one has a clue what the tax code will look like in 35 years.

By: Yue

Yue — Sat, 20 Nov 2010 01:17:23 +0000

Michael,
With the great opportunity of Roth conversion this year, do you and your wife still want to keep her old 401K at her former employers or are you considering an IRA and then possibly Roth? I am asking ’cause I am contemplating which is better.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

By: daniel kahan

daniel kahan — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 16:15:08 +0000

As I just noticed your reply, I would like to reply for the public record that although MXFD was not on the original short sellers ban list, there is a strong positive correlation between the 2 periods when the ban was in place and the steep rises in the MXFD share price last year.
Besides the intellectual capital there is a considerable time and effort spent to find a strategic investor or investment to move the company out of its development stage status. Given MXFD’s Canadian roots and origin when it bought my Ontario numbered company back in August 06 to go public, it would make a lot of sense for it to have concentrated on developing a Candian marketplace for both investors and policyholders. Since January when I resigned as a director, I have been doing this on my own through my private company Scotia Life Line and anyone interested is welcome to contact me at 416-782 8766.

By: michael

michael — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 23:18:23 +0000

Mr. Kahan, I did post about you leaving Maxlife (see here: http://www.goodevalue.com/2009/01/12/maxlife-fund-corp-makes-it-easy-no-comment-necessary/); I see that you found that post and commented there, too.

Was Maxlife on the short sale ban list? I couldn’t find them on the original ban list here: http://www.sec.gov/rules/other/2008/34-58592.pdf
I doubt short sellers have much to do with the current share price — there were under 100,000 shares sold short as of December 23, 2008. Even back in March 2008 there were under 200,000 shares sold short

As to the intellectual capital, I do not care how much of that there is, an investment company (what Maxlife purports to be, although not in the technical sense, investing in life insurance policies), capital is essential. Even assuming astronomical returns of 50% on each insurance policy bought and sold, there is no way for Maxlife to justify its current market capitalization (or anything near it) with book value under $1 million.

By: daniel kahan

daniel kahan — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 21:28:25 +0000

Today is January 18 and I just discovered your comments about me. You may want to update your blog with the fact that I recently resigned as a director from Max Life because I felt the stock options they awarded me for becoming a director in April 2008 were worthless because the stocks would be restricted for 6 months as stated in the 8-K.
The 3,000 shares I sold in your article were shares I was awarded for joining the Advisory Board in September 2007 and were restricted for 12 months so I was fortunate that the restriction ended in September 2008.
As far as the MXFD share price you are presumably aware it is thinly traded and there were a lot of short sellers who got squeezed each time the SEC placed restrictions on the short selling of financial stocks.
The underlying business of life settlements is sound and profitable if done properly and there was a considerable amount of time and effort spent in R&D over the past year by both myself and Bennett Kurtz which does not show up in the revenue stream or the balance sheet. I expect intellectual capital is an off balance sheet item which doesn’t meet your definition of “goode” value.