Quest is no more. It has been sold to Inspira.
For those who are interested in some background, here is today's public Facebook post from my friend John Hyre, the brilliant tax attorney well known to most real estate investors, one of the keynote speakers at every Quest Expo.
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by John M Hyre III
8/1/2024
With regard to Quest:
I am rushed (as usual) and haven’t the time to write. But I also haven’t the time to wait because people are people. And people are fast to panic, to turn on others, to talk smack. Also, the other custodial vultures are circling. But I also have to have a care. Being both a lawyer (e.g., privileged communication) and Youngstowner (where omerta is still a thing), I sometimes learn things I cannot discuss. Facts will also change, I'll edit as appropriate.
So.
Quest Trust aka Quest IRA sold to Millenium Trust (now Inspira, ugh, did the Bud Light marketing lady get hired there? OK, it's just a name). The sale evidently resulted in Quest's owners getting zippo (hearsay, working to confirm that).
Per Beatriz Adkins (acting Prez at Quest), Inspira shall honor Quest's pricing schedule. Which based on the gnashing of (mostly "frugal" REI) teeth, was the lowest in the industry (for most of you, especially with multiple, active accounts).
I have my IRA, HSA, and CESA accounts (more on Solo's shortly) with Quest. They shall go to Inspira and remain there (especially with the transfer of the pricing structure) unless Inspira gives me reason to move them. They get a chance.
Quest had two kinds of 401k’s: The cheap version and one with a “Does bookkeeping and some (perhaps all) federal forms” apps. They were priced differently. The cheap DIY (“rent a plan”) 401k’s need to be moved to a new custodian. Some people online (I’d be especially wary of prior Quest employees who were long ago let go as well as opportunistic custodian vultures) are being real a**hats & throwing tantrums over that…along with Quincy under the bus. A few thoughts on that:
1) The reason those accounts are “administratively unfeasible” is that they were so cheap that nobody (like say Inspira) wanted them, even for free. THAT is the kind of value Quest gave. You got a screaming bargain that was so good that no one else wanted it from the provider side, even for free. So, for the crap-talkers & whiners, maybe a little gratitude would be in order.
2) There are other rent-a-SoloK-plan providers out there who let you DIY for a pretty low fee. Moving to one of them involves some paperwork & hassle. That’s life, things happen. Be grateful for the screaming deal you had, adapt to change. It’s not that big of a deal.
For those who had Quest’s “fancier” 401k with the app that does an awful lot: Those accounts are being moved to SEPIRAK. It’s run by JP Ruiz. JP Ruiz: Knows more about 401ks than anyone I’ve ever met…crazy smart, articulate, highly inappropriate sense of humor. He and his team built the app that Quest’s “fancy” 401k used. People on that app with Quest shall be on exactly the same app (which does an awful lot for the money…some of you are so penny wise, pound foolish when it comes to your time & money, valuing the latter over the former by much too much) with different window dressing. That’s it.
So everyone take a Quaalude or whatever it is people use nowadays.
As to “The Texas Banking Commission destroyed Quest” and “Boy, did Quincy mess up” crowd: Screw you and your backbiting ways.
First, I am biased. I’ve known Q for over 20 years. I did and do consider him a Man Among Men. But not without reason.
There’s the genius. Everyone knows about that, so I’ll move along.
There’s also the big heart…minus the Jesus fish on the sleeve or the cards. He lives it without bragging about it – which is how it is supposed to be done. It’s not my place to cross that line…but let’s just say I learned of some serious generosity on his part, generosity that most of us cannot or will not (mostly “will not” from what I’ve seen) match – and I did not learn of it from Quincy. Some honest little birds might have mentioned a few things…. God bless good-hearted, honest little birds.
There’s the fighter. Parkinson’s scares me, probably more than death itself. Q has handled it manfully, with gratitude (“it could always be worse”) and attitude. In Quest he and his attitude built a thing that I (and 99% of you) sure as **** could not have. He was at the heart (and brain) of a fantastic educational operation – one that was undervalued because he did not charge much for it. He wrote a great & practical book – with Parkinson’s, dammit. He taught deal structuring that has helped many make & protect wealth.
He does have a blind spot. He sometimes attributes his own good nature to those who do not deserve it. It is a weakness, but a noble one. You might think about that one for a second.
But the Texas Department of Banking!
Yeah, they hit Quest with an order (with which Quest was complying before being sold) – after Q had stepped back. How dare he! Yeah, screw those of you who “think” that. Even someone of his phenomenal fortitude has limits against a dread disease. And even (no “especially”) someone who has done so much for so many (that awesome free or cheap education, those fees so cheap at Quest that he evidently sold for nada and, as to most of the 401k’s, no one wanted them even for free) perhaps deserves a freaking break. Both a literal break (time off, not legs) and perhaps a little freaking grace (especially from those of you who profess to be Christians).
I do NOT trust “regulators”. Google Operation Chokepoint for just ONE example of what banking regulators do with their massive power. These same banking regulators required banks (which include Trust Companies) to hold reserves of safe assets. One of those “safe” assets are US Treasury bonds. Talk about self-serving! For those of you who follow the news, banks did what the regulators (who could instantly destroy them at any time, why do you think Operation Chokepoint worked? “Be a shame if sometin happened to dat liddle bank of youz”) forced them to do: Bought T-Bills as “Safe Assets”. Then what? The Fed raised rates and dropped the values of those T-Bills. Which meant that the banks suddenly did not have enough “safe” assets like that super-valuable & honest Treasury Paper. Some banks adapted. Some – almost invariably small ones that did not or could not adapt fast enough to suit their regulatory Masters – had to be sold for pennies on the dollar to banks that are Too Big To Fail. That is, banks that are connected enough to have, umm, “fewer regulatory issues” and ex-employees or soon-to-be employees “regulating” them. And when the Too Big To Fail banks fail? Bailouts! Nice gig. Screw up, get bailed out. Someone little screws up – buy them for a song. A great book on the overall subject is Jonathan Tepper’s “The Myth of Capitalism: Monopolies and the Death of Capitalism”. Tepper is no leftist, very much the opposite. Just setting some context here. Quest was a little bank. A buyer needed, I heard through the grapevine, $100M of liquid capital to acquire them for very darned little. Hmm, no pattern here. Nope.
But let’s say the Texas Banking Commission was right: Q screwed up. I’m not so sure, but let’s say. He loses his baby. He spent 20 years building it. Providing superior service, cheaply. Doing a lot for employees (not that he’d expound on that, not in his nature). Creating something 99% of us simply could not do. A brief inattention with horrid regs and horrid regulators (talk to small community bank officers & owners privately & with alcohol. I have.) and 20 years of excellence at generous prices, all gone. Sorry, no soup for you. Have a nice day.
The customers were protected. The employees were protected.
But some of you want to pile on?
I think Q paid dearly for errors he did or did not make. He built a great thing that helped a great many people. He did it while confronting obstacles that would make invalids of most. He confronted (and still does confront, present tense) the hand he was dealt with dignity and a “no excuses” approach. Good Lord, given what he’s accomplished with his challenges (not just Quest, but also being a very good man), what in the heck is our excuse for doing less?
Quest account holders face some inconvenience. Big deal.
Show a Great Man some grace and Heaven forfend, a little gratitude.
PS: I don’t think Q is done. I don’t think Q is capable of being done until it’s time for him to depart this mortal coil. Good.
PPS: When reading or listening to the smack talkers, the ones who kick when one is down…you are next if they get the chance. Just saying.
