Chapter 5: Terms

Neal read the term sheet twice, and the color left his face a line at a time.

"A personal guarantee," he said. "On every client loss since 2021."

"Your own signature, and your own house," I said. "If the fund goes down, you go down with it."

"That's insane. No investor asks for that."

"No investor has watched you lose nine million and call it timing."

He looked at the paper again, and I let him.

Lindy leaned over his shoulder to see her line.

"What's this about me?" she said. "A disclosure?"

"A key-person conflict statement," I said.

"It says you're in a personal relationship with the founder of this firm, and that it will be sent to every investor."

The room went very still.

Lindy's lip color suddenly looked too bright for her face.

"That's none of anyone's business," she said.

"It's the business of anyone who gives you money," I said.

"Mr. Weldon is a widower of eighteen months, and you are his late wife's sister.

If your investors learn about it from a newspaper, they'll leave.

If they learn it from you, they'll call it honesty."

Neal rubbed his forehead.

"We were going to tell people," he said. "In time."

"I'm sure."

My mother had not moved.

She sat at the far end with her portfolio on her knees, and her eyes were on me and not on the paper.

"And mine?" she said. "I'm only on the advisory committee."

"Yours is the deed to the lake house," I said.

"As collateral for the guarantee. If Neal defaults, the fund takes the house."

"That's my home."

"It's also the one thing in this room you can't replace," I said.

"So you have more to lose than the rest of them."

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