Financials
Financials Guides
Valuation frameworks, capital metrics and screening tools for banks, insurers and alternative asset managers.
25 free guides · 18 company profiles · 3 primers, each with an Excel model
Banks
P/TBV through sustainable returns, with the CET1 capital walk
8 guides · 6 profiles
Guides 8
P/TBV vs ROTCE: How Banks Are Actually Valued
Steady-state identity P/TBV = ROTCE/COE; the house bands from sub-8% returns to franchise-quality 20%.
Net Interest Margin Explained
Definition plus label traps (JPM net yield, BAC FTE yield, TE NIM); FY2025 ladder 2.01–2.83% vs FDIC 3.30%.
CET1 and Bank Capital Ratios
4.5% + SCB + G-SIB stack; filed headroom JPM +2.6 pp / BAC +1.4 pp; comfortable at +2.0 pp or better.
CET1 vs Tier 1 vs Total Capital: Which Binds
The nested tiers and what sits in each; the SLR as the unweighted parallel test; finding the binding cushion.
Bank Efficiency Ratio: Reading Cost Discipline
Definition; <60% good; ladder JPM 52% to WFC 66%; the overhead-ratio label on JPM.
Net Charge-Offs and the Credit Cycle
NCO definition; FDIC 0.62%; ladder PNC 0.23% to C ~1.27% (derived); provisions lead under CECL.
CET1 Requirements 2026: SCB and G-SIB Surcharges
How the 4.5% minimum, the stress capital buffer and the G-SIB surcharge stack into one binding number, and why headroom beats the headline ratio.
CET1 for European Banks: MDA Buffers vs the US
Pillar 1, P2R and the combined buffer resolving into the MDA trigger, and why the same ratio means something different either side of the Atlantic.
Company research 6
Insurance
Combined ratios, float economics and P/BV through ROE
9 guides · 6 profiles
Guides 9
Combined Ratio: the P&C Scoreboard
Loss + expense; <100% profit / <95% strong; ladder CB 85.7% to AIG GI 90.1% vs industry 92.2%/92.9%; investment income sits outside.
P/BV vs ROE for Insurers
Ex-AOCI base; identity vs 10% COE; the house bands from sub-8% returns to 35%, and why the ROE variant matters.
Float and the Investment-Income Engine
Float is borrowed money and the combined ratio is its price; six insurers report investment yield on six different bases, so never rank the raw numbers.
Reserve Development: Favourable vs Adverse
What a reserve release is and which way the sign runs; seventeen favourable years ended in 2023, then $7.8B adverse in 2024; a release never proves this year's reserves are enough.
The Life Insurance Spread Business
Life insurers earn a spread, not an underwriting margin: MetLife files 115bps, Prudential files none, and their assumption reviews are not P&C reserve development.
Combined Ratio Benchmarks 2026: Progressive to AIG
The four-band ladder and the structural drivers that put an insurer on each rung: line mix, catastrophe load, expense discipline, reserving posture.
Loss Ratio, Expense Ratio, Combined Ratio: Which Matters
The same total split two ways is two different businesses; plus the earned-versus-written denominator mismatch that breaks cross-company comparison.
Insurer Expense Ratio Benchmarks: FY2025 Ranked
Ten US P&C insurers ranked by expense ratio, from Kinsale at 20.8% to Markel at 36.1%, with each filer's basis beside the figure.
Accident Year vs Calendar Year Combined Ratio
One insurer, one period, two correct answers. The gap between the bases is the reserve development, and ex-cat is the third variant.
Company research 6
Alternative Asset Managers
Fee-related earnings, carry and perpetual capital
8 guides · 6 profiles
Guides 8
Fee-Related vs Distributable Earnings
Blackstone FRE $5.7B against DE $7.1B; everyone else files a differently named bottom line that does not line up with it.
AUM, Fee-Paying AUM and Perpetual Capital
Headline AUM is not the fee base; four fee-base labels; perpetual share runs Ares 32% to Brookfield 87%; Brookfield charges fees on $603B, not the ~$1.2T platform.
How Alternative Asset Managers Are Valued
P/FRE primary lens; the convention bands and what drives them; and why P/DE only restates the earnings mix.
Carried Interest and Hurdle Rates Explained
Waterfall (capital → 8% pref → catch-up → 80/20); BX filed 5–8%; BXPE evergreen 5%/12.5%; gross vs net carry bases.
The Insurance Engine: Athene and Global Atlantic
The same $100M of assets is worth more than six times as much to the manager that owns the balance sheet it lands on; insurance adds duration and imports credit risk.
FRE Margin Benchmarks 2026: Blackstone to Carlyle
Placing any manager on the fee-related margin ladder, with a revenue-and-cost yield decomposition that survives the figures moving.
Distributable Earnings by Firm: ANI, TOE and the Labels
Every manager names its bottom line differently. Find the label, the reconciliation, the tax basis and the share base before you rank anything.
Net Accrued Carry: Valuing the Carry Receivable
Carry earned on paper but not collected, marked to fund NAV and reversible. What it is, why it swings, and how much of it to credit.
Company research 6
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