Markel Group
also referred to as: markel
includes Markel Ventures
19 statements across 3 episodes · 8 bullish · 6 bearish · 2 people on the record · first statement Jan 23, 2024 by Tom Gaynor · said 31 times in 3 episodes since 2024 · across every show →
Mentions by year, the whole family
brought up most by Tom Gaynor (17), Shane Parrish (11), Morgan Housel (2), Christopher Davis (1)
tap a year for its mentions
2024 31 mentions in 3 episodes 10 per episode
Everything said about Markel Group, oldest first
Jan 23, 2024 bearish
Gayner Liquidated 20% of Markel's Equity Portfolio in Early 2020
“And as a consequence of that one, 18 that we put up, I did take about 20% of our equity portfolio chips off the table and sold some positions just because again, My number one job is to make sure we are always there to answer the bell for the next round of the…”
Jan 23, 2024 bullish
Gaynor: I've bought Berkshire and Markel consistently since 1990
“The great algorithm in life is do more of what's working. So I bought the first share of Berkshire in 1990. I can't remember what the last time I bought more of it was, but within the last year or two. So I've consistently bought that stock. For years. Done th…”
Jan 23, 2024 positive
Gaynor: Markel Adopted Berkshire's Playbook by Investing Specialty Underwriting Profits Long-Term
“I saw the idea of a specialty insurance operation that was dedicated to making an underwriting profit. And Steve Markel was the vice chairman and really the financial guy there. He was also interested in investing the underwriting profits long-term rather than…”
Jan 23, 2024 bearish
Gayner Sold 99% of Acquired Terra Nova's Tech Equities Within 20 Minutes
“Within 20 minutes of me getting my hands on that portfolio, I had sold 99% of the equity positions because in my sense, they had drunk the Kool-Aid and had a NASDAQ Laden portfolio at a time when those prices just made no sense to me whatsoever.”
Jan 23, 2024
Gayner: Markel Compensates Executives on Multi-Year Horizons, Not Single-Year Results
“Well, the basic architecture involved in everybody's compensation, including my own is multi-year. So for instance, I'm personally compensated over a five year rolling average for any incentive compensation. And while the specifics will be different for the CE…”
Jan 23, 2024 negative
Markel Liquidated Its Citigroup Position at $26 Ahead of the 2008 Crash
“We were not large shareholders of Citicorp, but we did own some and maybe our cost in it was 50 bucks and it was seven times earnings and yielding five percent or something like that... And as the crisis began to develop, I think at 26, I sold the entire posit…”
Jan 23, 2024 bearish
Gayner Automatically Rejects Investing in Companies That Issue Heavy Stock Options
“If I saw a company that was using a lot of option stuff, I would just put my pencil down and say, I just don't like that. So it's in the too hard pile, and I'm not going to try to calculate that to the fourth decimal point. I just don't want to be part of it.”
Jan 23, 2024 positive
Jan 23, 2024 positive
Markel Mitigates Cyber Risk by Keeping Subsidiary IT Systems Strictly Autonomous
“In addition to the insurance business, all the businesses within the Markel group operate autonomously. And their IT systems are autonomous, and by not unifying them or not linking them, you've created some level of Safety, some level of risk mitigation by vir…”
Jan 23, 2024
Gaynor: Long-Term Thinking Is a Privilege Enabled by Economic Security
“I have been given the gifts of being able to afford to think long term. So it would be irresponsible of me not to. But I don't want to cast judgment on those who are in a position where they don't have that same luxury that I have.”
Jan 23, 2024 negative
Gayner Suffered His Career's Worst Underperformance During the Late-90s Dot-Com Bubble
“Now, in the late nineties, that's when I would say the internet one point came along, and I struggled. I struggled massively, and I really had the biggest period of underperformance that I've ever had in my career, and that went on. I mean, it seemed like fore…”
Jan 23, 2024
Gaynor: Washington Post Vetted Him Using Real-Time Dot-Com Memos
“And so Don then asked me as part of their consideration of Me potentially being a candidate to join that board. Would I share with them some of the memos that I had written to our board Real time during 98, 99, 2002 1001, 2000, so five years where they could s…”
Jan 23, 2024 positive
Gaynor: Markel Maintains Low Leverage to Avoid Forced Decisions
“So by every single daily decision, I'm always trying to avoid exactly what you spoke of where you're in such a limited set of options that the circumstances make the decision for you. I hate that and trying to do every single thing I can to avoid that. So what…”
Jan 23, 2024 neutral
Acquirers Must Translate Sellers' EBITDA Internally Rather Than Attempting to Correct Them
“Where we are active buyers of businesses, sellers of businesses have been conditioned to use that phrase. So if you come in and try to academically explain the limitations or what adjustments you need to make, they're gonna sell that business to somebody else.…”
Jan 23, 2024 negative
Markel's Event Cancellation Insurance Book Suffered Total Losses During COVID-19
“One of the biggest hits that we took in our insurance business at that particular time Was event cancellation insurance. So the underwriter who would run our event cancellation book is doing things like Wimbledon in, in England the Tokyo Olympics, a wine festi…”
Jan 23, 2024 bullish
Jan 23, 2024 positive
Gaynor: Satisficing Over Optimizing Generates Superior Compounding Over Time
“And I am a satisfier, not an optimizer. I'm not smart enough or disciplined enough or calculating enough to really be a good optimizer. So I try to move from satisfaction to satisfaction, and to last long enough where that, that compounding effect of always be…”
May 28, 2024 positive
Housel: Personal assets consist exclusively of cash, home, index funds, and Markel
“I'm trying to think of what, like, the percentage-wise, it's probably something like, 15 to 20% cash, the house that I live in, and then the rest the rest index funds, and shares of Markel, where I'm on the board of directors. And that's it. Those are my only …”