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Alaska Native Corporation Endowment Models OE - SNIGAROFFRICHARDS (DO NOT DELETE) 5/10/2021 6:42 PM ALASKA NATIVE CORPORATION ENDOWMENT MODELS ROBERT SNIGAROFF* AND CRAIG RICHARDS** ABSTRACT*** New settlement trust provisions in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 have significant implications for Alaska Native Corporation (ANC) business longevity and the appropriateness of an operating business model given ANC goals as stated in their missions. The Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) authorized the creation of for-profit corporations for the benefit of Alaska Native shareholders. But for Alaska Natives, cultural continuation was and continues to be a desired goal. Considering the typical life span of U.S. corporations and the inevitability of eventual failure, the for-profit corporate model is inconsistent with aspects of the ANC mission. Settlement trust amendments to ANCSA facilitate ANC cultural continuation goals solving the problem of business viability risk. We make a normative case that ANCs should consider increasing endowment business activity. We also discuss the Alaska Permanent Fund and lessons that those structuring settlement trusts might learn from literature on sovereign wealth funds and endowments. Copyright © 2021 by Robert Snigaroff and Craig Richards. * Robert Snigaroff, BS, Warner Pacific College; MBA, University of Southern California; Ph.D., University of Alaska Fairbanks, Economic Sociology. Robert Snigaroff is a shareholder and former director at both Aleut and Atxam Corporations (regional and village corporations). He leads the institutional asset management firm Denali Advisors he founded, and has published research in finance, investments, and financial economics journals. ** Craig Richards, BS in Commerce, Concentration in Finance, University of Virginia; JD, Washington & Lee University; MBA, Duke University. He is a Trustee of the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation and former Attorney General for the State of Alaska. *** Acknowledgements: Thanks to Sharon Lind, Professor at Alaska Pacific University for detailed financial data on Alaska Native Corporations that were relied on extensively throughout this article; Bruce Edwards, Sorenson and Edwards; Sarah Curtis, Holland and Knight; Julie Schrecengost, KPMG; Steve Colt, University of Alaska Anchorage; and Malan Rietveld, Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment. OE - SNIGAROFFRICHARDS (DO NOT DELETE) 5/10/2021 6:42 PM 2 ALASKA LAW REVIEW Vol. 38:1 “In the long run, we are all dead.” John Maynard Keynes1 “By the end of 2020, we will be publishing a 100 year plan that sets a foundation for future generations of Sealaska.”2 I. ANCS’ DUAL MISSION What is the purpose of the Alaska Native Corporation (ANC)?3 For publicly traded corporations, a common maxim taught in MBA programs is to maximize shareholder wealth. Milton Friedman argued, “There is one and only one social responsibility of business—to use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits so long as it stays within the rules of the game, which is to say, engages in open and free competition without deception or fraud.”4 Under this rationale, companies’ first, best, and only goal should be to maximize shareholder wealth.5 The “mission statements” of companies often do not state “maximization of shareholder wealth” or profit maximization as an explicit goal. That is the goal from the perspective of economics. From the perspective of companies’ businesses, mission statements emphasize their companies’ products or services and where they fit into the marketplace, or how they serve customers. In the case of ANCs, virtually all boards and shareholders would agree that maximization of shareholder profit or wealth is not the only objective. Regional and village ANCs received title to large tracts of traditional lands as part of the settlement under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA).6 ANCs want to retain their land and desire the cultural continuation that is part and parcel with the land protection 1. JOHN MAYNARD KEYNES, A TRACT ON MONETARY REFORM 80 (London, MacMillan & Co. 1924). 2. Joe Nelson, Sealaska’s 2020 Vision and Message from Leadership, SEALASKA (Feb. 18, 2020), https://www.sealaska.com/shareholders/sealaskas-2020-vision- and-message-from-leadership/. 3. ANCs were formed under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971, Pub. L. No. 92-203, 85 Stat. 688 (codified as amended at 43 U.S.C. §§ 1601–29 (2018)). Although the examples in this article are from regional ANCs, most of the discussion pertains equally to village corporations. 4. Milton Friedman, The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase Its Profits, NY TIMES MAG., Sept. 13, 1970, at *33. 5. Id. Hansen and Lott have a somewhat different view where externalities cause shareholders to want to maximize portfolio value. Robert G. Hansen & John R. Lott, Jr., Externalities and Corporate Objectives in a World with Diversified Shareholder/Consumers, 31 J. FIN. & QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS 43, 43 (1989). 6. Pub. L. 92-203, 85 Stat. 688 (1971) (codified in scattered chapters and sections of U.S.C.). OE - SNIGAROFFRICHARDS (DO NOT DELETE) 5/10/2021 6:42 PM 2021 ALASKA NATIVE CORP. ENDOWMENT MODELS 3 objective. This is reflected in a sampling of ANC annual reports, which often address management’s adherence to these goals in addition to financial success. Consider the mission statements of the twelve surviving regional ANCs.7 Ahtna, Incorporated: Wise stewardship of Ahtna lands and responsible economic growth for future generations of Ahtna people. Aleut Corporation: To Maximize Dividends and Opportunities for Our Shareholders. Arctic Slope Regional Corporation (ASRC): ASRC’s mission is to actively manage our businesses, our lands and resources, our investments, and our relationships to enhance Iñupiaq cultural and economic freedom - with continuity, responsibility, and integrity. Bering Straits Native Corporation (BSNC): Our mission is to improve the quality of life of our people through economic development while protecting our land and preserving our culture and heritage. Bristol Bay Native Corporation (BBNC): Our Mission: Enriching our Native way of life. Our Vision: To protect the land in the Bristol Bay region, celebrate the legacy of its people, and enhance the lives of BBNC shareholders. Calista Corporation: Increase Shareholder benefits and economic opportunities through innovation, growth, leadership, partnership, execution and financial discipline. Chugach Alaska Corporation: Committed to profitability, celebration of our heritage, and ownership of our Lands. Cook Inlet Region, Incorporated (CIRI): The mission of CIRI is to promote the economic and social well-being and Alaska Native heritage of our shareholders, now and into the future, through prudent stewardship of the company’s resources, while furthering self-sufficiency among CIRI shareholders and their families. Doyon, Limited: To continually enhance our position as a financially strong Native corporation in order to promote the economic and social well-being of our shareholders and future shareholders, to strengthen our Native way of life, and to protect and enhance our land and resources. Koniag, Incorporated: To achieve financial growth, honor our culture, protect our lands, advocate for our communities, and 7. These were obtained from ANC’s websites in April 2021. We use the same name the regional corporation refers to for itself on its webpage as of 2021. This may be different than the corporate legal name. OE - SNIGAROFFRICHARDS (DO NOT DELETE) 5/10/2021 6:42 PM 4 ALASKA LAW REVIEW Vol. 38:1 make a meaningful impact on our Koniag family. NANA Regional Corporation: To improve the quality of life for our people by maximizing economic growth, protecting and enhancing our lands, and promoting healthy communities with decisions, actions, and behaviors inspired by our Iñupiat Ilitqusiat values consistent with our core principles. Sealaska Corporation: Sealaska’s purpose is to strengthen people, culture and homelands. We have strengthened business with culture since 1972. We are a Native institution owned by more than 22,000 shareholders whose core Native values guide all that Sealaska does and represent the rich heritage of the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian people. We are guided by values to build excellence in our Native enterprise and take action toward our purpose. These regional ANCs aim to achieve business, operational, and financial success in order to pay dividends, etc., but also emphasize the importance of the related goals of protection of lands and continuation of culture. These community focused goals are not typical in the usual for- profit company mission statement. ANCs are unique in this regard. One commentator observes: A question like ‘I’m Doyon, what is your Native corporation?’ is now part of the Alaska Native terminology. These shareholders have a personal and emotional attachment to their corporation. They look to their ANC for job training and employment, scholarships, and burial assistance on top of their dividends. Shareholders within the same region, in many cases, have similar ethnicities, and cultural values. They may also speak their Indigenous language. Some may even characterize their collective body of shareholders as a nation state; a strange concept for those on the outside looking in on an ANC. Today’s Alaska Native shareholder may look to their ANC as part of their self-identity. The ANC, in some respects, has become a key identifier for the modern Alaska Native person.8 One can think of the above discussion as dealing with
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