Episode 133 - Watchdog of the People’s Money with Treasurer Allison Ball
Subscribe to the Podcast:
All opinions expressed on this podcast, including the team and guests, are solely their opinions. Host and guests may maintain positions in the companies and securities discussed. This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as specific investment advice for any individual or organization.
Episode Transcript
Transcription is done by an AI software. While technology is an incredible tool to automate this process, there will be misspellings and typos that might accompany it. Please keep that in mind as you work through it.
John Coleman: Welcome back to the Faith Driven Investor podcast. This is John Coleman and I am very privileged today to be joined by the State Treasurer of Kentucky, Allison Ball. Treasurer Ball has had a remarkable career dating back to when she was a kid and had a startup and has long lived in financial markets and she has held a number of posts over time, including as the youngest statewide officer in her state for a period of time, the first statewide officer to give birth while in office, I think at one point, which we can dig into and a number of other things. So we're very privileged to have Allison joining us today. Allison, thanks so much for being on the podcast.
Allison Ball: John Thank you. But I'll even make this sound even a little bit cooler. I was the youngest woman in the country to serve in a statewide elected office, and I was that for about three years. It's one of those positions, you know, you're not going to hold forever. Someone else at some point will be younger than you. But for about three years, I was the youngest woman in the country to hold a statewide elected office.
John Coleman: That is unreal. And when was that? When did you come to statewide elected office?
Allison Ball: So I got elected. I ran in 15, sworn in in 16. So a few years back, but not real long ago. And like I said, for three years I was the youngest one. There are a few younger now, not very many. There was a woman in Missouri who came in a little bit younger than me. And then there was a woman in Michigan who was like three months younger than I am. So I'm still in the young stage when it comes to statewide elected officials.
John Coleman: That's amazing, Allison. And what a cool witness to other people, too, just to encourage other women in their offices, other people, I mean, to be able to take up big responsibilities early.
Allison Ball: Thank you. I hope so.
John Coleman: Well, where I want to start today, you know, Allison, a lot of folks just won't be familiar with what a state treasurer does. And obviously, you've done the role for some time now. Talk us through what a state treasurer does. How do you spend your day and what are you focused on?
Allison Ball: Sure. Well, I'll talk to you about my office, because there's a saying among state treasurers, and it's kind of funny to think that we have a saying, but we do. And the saying is, if you've seen one State Treasurer's office, you've seen one State Treasurer's office, it's because there's a lot of variety. They all have similarities, obviously they all touch on money, most of them do something with investments. So there's just a variety of ways that those skills are used in Kentucky. I always describe myself as the watchdog of taxpayer dollars, and I'm actually an attorney by background. So I like to emphasize that part because I say that whatever comes out of my office is in line with the Constitution, in line with the law that it's correct. So it's not just a bookkeeping role. It actually has an aggressive oversight role as well. So in the background of everything I do, I'm that watchdog of taxpayer dollars. Everything I do deals with money in some way. I deal with our banking relationship. I deal with the IRS on the point person for those entities. And I also do deal with our investments. I sit on our teachers retirement system. It is a board. Most of these are actually run by boards. I chair the State Investment Commission, which does our cash management or debt management, a variety of other things like that. And I've been a big proponent of financial literacy, so I brought that to this office that did not exist prior to me being Treasurer. And then one of my favorite things to talk about, I'm going to mention this because this is true in a lot of treasurers offices. If you know this, you want to check this in your own state. I'm in charge of what's called unclaimed property in Kentucky, and it's basically a statewide lost and found. Most states have these most states have them run by the treasurer's office. This is worth you checking on whoever is listening to this. You may have some money that you don't know about and it is a great thing to talk about it. Thanksgiving her parties is a neat way to be able to make yourself memorable to people because you may find somebody some money. So we actually are part of a national database called Missing Money.com. You can go to our website and see if you got Kentucky money, but if you check missing money.com, that's a bunch of states put together and you can see if you've lost money in Florida or your home state or wherever. And my job is to get people their property back. It's a privilege to do it. I love doing it. I'm a big believer in property rights. Some states are more interested in keeping that money because they can utilize it while it's in the state coffers. But it's been my guidance. My motivation is that I've always tried to get the money back, so I've returned more money than any other treasurer in Kentucky history, returned about $146 million. So that's a fun piece of trivia that a lot of people don't know about, about Treasurer's offices. But it's true for most of them, it's true for mine. So that's kind of a gambit, a quick gambit of what I do. There's a few other things of interest. I run a program called Stable Kentucky, and they're able accounts, their savings and investment accounts for people with disabilities. And that's something that I brought on while I was treasurer and and a few other things here and there we can talk about. I'm also a big believer in transparency and I watch the transparency website so people could see where their money is going. Coming from the financial sector, I actually was a bankruptcy attorney before being treasurer. I realized how important it is. You can't make good financial decisions unless you know where your money's going. And that's true at the state level, not just in the individual level or business level. So that was one of the things I pushed for when I came into office. So that's a quick overview of things that are happening in the Kentucky State Treasury. There's some similarities in other states, but, you know, that's what's happening here.
John Coleman: That's amazing. I didn't realize the diversity of things that are going on and I kind of want to talk about all of them. I wish we had four or 5 hours today just to start digging in, you gave us some sense of this with the lost property at $146 million. States are managing a lot more in terms of the banking relationships, financial transactions, pools of assets like the cash. You mentioned retirement plans than people think. I think people just don't think about the pools of assets that are in their states. Would you mind just giving us a little more detail on that? What are those pools and how big are they and what difference does that make to the residents of your states?
Allison Ball: Sure. Well, there are different pools, and of course, they're in the billions of dollars. And that's the case all over the country in different states. There are some states, North Carolina is one where their state treasurer is the sole fiduciary of all of their pension systems. So he makes all of the decisions. That's one end of the spectrum. Everything goes through him. I think even our insurance, if I recall correctly, actually goes for him too. So he has a heavy weight of responsibility on his shoulders. He does a good job, but he's the one person who's making those decisions for most of us. We have a team of people. The responsibility is shared. And I'll tell you, I've heard I think it was the 1980s. Once upon a time, a lot of decisions were left to the Treasurer once upon a time, and there was a Treasurer who had figured out how to. This was for the State Investment Commission, so for cash management purposes was actually dividing up among different Kentucky banks and there were some kickbacks involved. So once upon a time they realized that that was probably not a great idea to have one person unless, you're very confident in that one person. So in Kentucky, that was shifted to a board. So most of my responsibilities, I sit on a board, among others. But most of the time I am the one elected official, so I'm the one who is representing the people as a whole, which I think gives me a pretty powerful voice to represent what we want and just good long term thinking.
John Coleman: And how big? Like the teacher pension plan. What does that look like in Kentucky and how many teachers is that taking care of?
Allison Ball: Sure. So I'll tell you, one of our great challenges for our teacher retirement system has been we've had a very high unfunded liability for a long time. So when I came in office, I knew this was going to be an issue that I was going to have to think a lot about. Right now, it's about 57% funded, which doesn't sound great, but actually it's better than most of the other funds in Kentucky. So that's our good one. But that's meant that it's required some real long term thinking about that particular program. There's a variety of reasons of why it ended up where it was at. Some of it was political. You had governors and you had members of our state legislature who, instead of wanting to put money into the program, they wanted to use it for things that just had more immediate returns. And that's always kind of a risk when you've got political people involved in things so that they can get more favor and more votes if they're doing something quickly with money rather than long term. And for the whole time that I've been in office, there's been a much more serious commitment to making sure that the money is that is needed in that program is in there. So that has stem the tide. We're not bleeding out. Money like that has been going on for decades. It actually was just very unsound for a long time. There really weren't a lot of actuarial studies done on it, and it was just a quick way to get favor. So they were taking money and just not thinking long term with it. Our state government workers pension, which I actually don't sit on and I'm running for state auditor right now and the auditor actually has an oversight role for all of our pension systems. So I'm eager to be involved in that. But our state workers is about 15, 17% funded. So that tells you kind of the gamut of where we are. That one has become pretty much a pay as you go. It's on a much better footing than it was when I got here, because there's a long term plan and there's a commitment to make sure the money is there. But that has been in crisis mode for a while, and Kentucky is just going to be a long term commitment to make sure that we're just careful with it.
John Coleman: That's amazing. I mean, it is incredible. As you look around the country, there are billions of dollars in these plans. You're taking care of tens of thousands, often state employees, teachers, folks that people want to support. You know, your normal person out there really wants teachers to have a good retirement. That's what they signed up for and they want to make sure they're funded. And yet these pension plans, as you noted, have often been historically at least mismanaged or used for the wrong purposes and therefore been underfunded. One way that people have sought to correct for that is their investment strategies and those. How do you think about investments broadly? I guess in those types of pools of assets? And I know the pools are quite different because you mentioned there's cash management, which is obviously one thing. These pensions will often have very diversified investment profiles. How do you think about that and what, if any, role as the Treasurer do you play in thinking about those asset allocation strategies to help make sure that the funding increases for those programs?
Allison Ball: Well, one thing that actually is good about the teachers retirement system is that the strategies weren't bad, so that wasn't the problem. We've actually always gotten pretty good returns. We're getting good returns now. They're definitely long term investments. They're cautious investments. The one for the state employees has had different people at the helm a different time. So strategies have changed quickly from one administration. To another, and that causes problems. Obviously, if you're talking about long term investments, if you're changing your strategies, quite often, that takes a toll. And that has there were some efforts on that one to be involved in hedge funds that became very politically unpopular. And the teachers retirement system has actually never invested in hedge funds. And that's one of those you get what you pay for kind of a thing. But there's a lot of political disfavor towards that type of an investment. You know, whether rightly or wrongly, people just have an impression of it in the public. And that's not something the teachers have done. So the teachers, one actually has been pretty good. We get pretty good returns. Definitely think about long term. You know, it is pretty diversified. You know, we do invest in some private equity. So there's a variety of investments of that program. But I think that what you always have to be careful with is you can't take great risks with this type of a program. You really have to be in it for the long term. And that's something that we remind ourselves right now as we're watching the market behave the way that it's behaving. You know, we're in it for the long term. And how are we doing? I'll tell you one thing that's interesting about teachers in Kentucky. They live a very long time and we have
John Coleman: Which is good. That's a good thing.
Allison Ball: Great is great. You know, it's a fulfilling profession and they make a difference in people's lives. We have a lot of small towns in Kentucky where teachers have known generations of children and they're very involved in their communities. So it's a great way of life. So we have teachers that live a very long time and in Kentucky, you actually only have to be a teacher for 27 years. So if you've hit your 27th year while you're in your forties and you live to be 180, which we actually have, we have teachers that are 108. We actually have quite a few that are over the age of 100. It's not unusual at all for teachers to live to their eighties and nineties in Kentucky, which is wonderful. But, you know, that makes you realize that you have to take care of their money for a long time and make sure it's there. So I think we actually send birthday cards to everybody that's over the age of 100. It's a way for us to honor them and also keep track of how they're doing.
John Coleman: That's it's amazing. Allison, you know, I want to dig in to one topic that's been really relevant for states recently and just get your perspective on it. The topic of ESG has come up a lot recently with states. There have been certain states like Texas or West Virginia that have been very vocal because through ESG policies, certain financial institutions have taken negative steps towards industries in states like the oil and gas industry in Texas or coal in West Virginia, etc.. And some of those states have looked unfavorably on that, obviously, and have begun to question whether ESG in their asset management portfolios is good for the residents of their states, at least the way it manifests today and whether it actually helps to achieve investment returns. Talk to me a little bit about that topic as you see it from your perch in Kentucky.
Allison Ball: Sure. Yeah. So from the Kentucky state treasuries perspective, I first began to hear about ESG. I know I'm talking to an audience that's well familiar to you all know what this is and you encounter it all the time. I usually have to give kind of a rundown of what it means, but I remember when I first got in office and I started going to meetings for state treasurers, and we have a lot of public finance people that come in and talk to us. And I remember it kind of seemed academic, it seemed novel, it seemed like something people were trying to sell and they were pushing it as great stewardship. You know, it's not just about investments anymore. We're stewarding. We're thinking about stakeholders. All these things are telling us. And I kind of just brushed it aside, didn't take it very seriously. And I also thought and I sort of followed the Milton Friedman approach of, you know, we're about returns and profits. And that's what my focus is. I've always felt like that's my responsibility. I'm not supposed to do other things. I have this core responsibility of making sure that I'm getting good returns for people that I'm responsible for. So when I first started here about it, I brushed it aside. I remember other treasurers were similar too. I remember having a conversation not that long ago. This may have been in 19 actually, that I was at a meeting and there was another state treasurer was actually pretty respected and dealt a lot with investments and he was saying, Yeah, we're having another discussion about that. What is it again? I can't remember the acronym. There's the letters E something or other. So that was sort of the attitude among state treasurers for a while is that it was just it was a novelty. It was something that was trying to be sold to us. And some people gravitated to it and others didn't. And treasurers, for the most part, are a pretty conservative bunch. They're pretty fiscally responsible bunch you know, whether you're Republican or Democrat, we kind of tend to be that way. So that was sort of the attitude. Well, in the last year or so, I really seen a big push to make it the only game in town. And this has been a warning to me as a Kentuckian. I told you about where our pensions are at 57% funded at about 17% funded. They're not in the place where we need to play around. You know, you've got these older teachers who are 100 plus years old. My job is to make sure that they have the money when they retire for as long as they're retired. That money is there for them. It's not my job to play around with those funds. And Kentucky is different from some other places. You mentioned West Virginia. You mentioned Texas. Kentucky is like them that we are a fossil fuel state. I'm from the mountains of eastern Kentucky and from a small town in that Hatfield McCoy area. I've got generations of family members who have been coal miners, so coal is near and dear to my heart. I know the value of it. I know the value of it to America. I know the importance of. That kind of cheap energy and oil and gas. You may not realize this is actually big in Kentucky as well, and it's big in eastern Kentucky, where I'm from. So for me, you know, I hear about this ESG and I start to worry about am I actually thinking about investments in terms of returns? And I actually taking care of this the way I'm supposed to do it. And there's a double whammy in Kentucky because it affects our economy, because there's been a big push on the E side, on the environmental side to truly target and eliminate the fossil fuel industry. And a lot of people have been pretty straight up about it. I talk to coal operators often and they tell me that they're told they won't be able to get financing because the particular bank that they're trying to work with, Will maybe they've worked with for a long time, doesn't like coal anymore. And it's very much an ideology, I think, rather than an investment strategy. I know that people will argue with you and tell you otherwise, but it feels very much like an ideology to me, rather than just the traditional type of investing that we've looked at in the past. And I think there's strong argument. So that's the way that's the case. So in Kentucky, it's something that I've been very involved in. We actually got a bill passed last year about the fossil fuel industry that said that if you are you know, if you're a bank, if you're any kind of a company, if you're an asset manager, if you are trying to boycott the fossil fuel industry for trying to eliminate the fossil fuel industry, harm it specifically because of the work that they do, then we're not going to do business with you as a state. So we got that passed and it's not going to work with us. We're not going to work with you. And as far as my fiduciary obligations, this is true of many places. We have a sole interest obligation, meaning, you know, we are investing for the sole interest of returns for those beneficiaries. And then we have another one. We say, Kentucky, that we're supposed to invest to support our economy and our industry in Kentucky, and that includes fossil fuels. So I actually asked our attorney general recently, given that obligation, if it would even be legal to play around in the ESG world. And I got a resounding answer from the AG's office that said it would be illegal given that obligation. And I think that's actually probably pretty true. A lot of other states do. So I would caution if you are in the public finance world, I would caution you before you jump into a lot of ESG stuff because you actually may be breaching your fiduciary duties.
John Coleman: That's so interesting, Allison. One of the things we say around our firm, the firm I work at, is that all investing is impact investing. It's just a question what impact you're having. And this idea, you know, ESG is just one manifestation of particular manifestation of a set of values that you can invest along this idea, for example, that you all can invest in a way that is beneficial to the residents of Kentucky that serves the interests of Kentuckians. That's an expression of values that may stand in contradistinction to some of the ESG values that is very much aligned with how the resources of your state can support the people of your state. I think people miss that. I think ESG is now become known as the way you express values. And what's lost in that is it's just one particular set of values you can express. There are other ways in which you can express your values through your financial capital. And I think that's one of the encouraging things that's happened, is people are waking up to that and thinking about the ways in which they can leverage the assets that they have and the influence that they have in a way that really serves the people that they're intended to serve.
Allison Ball: Yeah, that's a great point. And, you know, you're coming from a different world than I am because I'm stewarding the people's dollars. So I have to be careful in a way, you know. But from a Christian perspective, you were in a wonderful place where you can invest in the people that you're investing for, in ways that are expressing those values and are consistent with that. And of course, as a state elected official, I have to be mindful of the state as a whole how I do that. But, you know, you're in a great place where if you want to be supporting things that are consistent with your Christian faith, you have the great ability to do that and more power to you. And for me, I have to be so careful to be doing things the way that the citizens of Kentucky have put me here to do.
John Coleman: And that clarity is a great thing for you because it makes your mandate very clear and it makes the parameters with which you operate very clear. I want to back up I want to circle back to some of the great programs that you just mentioned, because it sounds like you're very passionate about them. But before we do that, I want to get more of your story. So I read that you are a ninth generation Kentuckian, which seems like a very long time ago, and you just mentioned growing up in eastern Kentucky. Tell me more about your family history there and what that means to you as a public servant in Kentucky.
Allison Ball: Yes. Yes. So like you just said, I'm ninth generation from eastern Kentucky, from the same small county. It's Floyd County in the mountains, in the coalfields. I actually just lost both of my grandparents. They've been with me for my whole life. My papa have just passed away in 95 and my nanny just passed away at 92 and the passed away in the last month. And they've just been a tremendous influence to me. I've always told people I'm related to about half the counties as my family's been there so long. We've been there since the 1790s, and it's a wonderful way to feel rooted. You know, I really know where I'm from. There are not many people in the country now, I think, that have that kind of history with the place. You know, I know my family, I know my ancestry. I love Eastern Kentucky. It is a rugged and independent area. It's not an easy area to live in. You know, there's hollers where the sun doesn't shine. There are mountains. It's I. Isolated. But if you're from there, you're probably Scotch Irish. Your family came over at some point in the early 1800s or late 1700s. And if you've decided to live that far away, that off the grid back then, you probably have some independent streak to you. And that has been passed on for a long time. So I'm very, very proud of the region that I'm from. I love it. It's beautiful. It's a place where it's in the Bible Belt. So, you know, everybody's got their own family churches and their own family graveyards. And it's a beautiful, incredible area. And I'm just so thankful that's where I'm from. It's been a wonderful place to be from, so it really makes me just have a deep heart, not just for my region, but also for my state.
John Coleman: That's great, Allison. You know, it's interesting to me because I want to get to your path in public service. You actually started very entrepreneurial as well. And I, I read an interesting story that I want to let you tell. But tell me a little bit about your entrepreneurial streak as a young person and how you came to really appreciate the financial world that led you to the path you're on today.
Allison Ball: Sure. Yeah, I know exactly what you're referring to. So when I was a kid, my mom and dad really wanted to teach me money management principles and nobody had taught them. I referenced my papa a little while ago. My nanny, both of them grew up in the Great Depression. My papa knew how to stretch a dollar, you know, a thousand ways. He was always wheeling and dealing and selling things that he'd had other people just great at money management. But he never pass that on to my dad. And then my mom, she grew up somewhere else, and she just didn't really get that from her parents either. So both of my parents, smart people, my dad was working on his Ph.D. when I was born. My mom was a schoolteacher, and they had never learned these money management principles. Obviously smart. My dad has told me that when I was born he had to sell the hubcaps off his car in order to buy diapers for me just because no one had really taught them. So at some point in time, there was this blue collar millionaire that took pity on my dad and took him under his wing and just started teaching my dad money management principles. And his name was Dexter Yager. He was incredible, man. He passed away a few years ago. A huge influence on my whole family. We loved him dearly. My brother is actually named after him. My brothers, Johnathan Dexter. Huge influence. So he started teaching my parents these principles. My mom and dad thought, Well, we got to do this to Allison and we've got to pass this on to the next generation. It wasn't passed on to us. We've got to do a better job. So they started giving me an allowance and they gave me $5 a week, $20 a month. And I remember feeling like I was set for life. You know, I had this steady income that just came in and they wanted me to learn to think long term. You know, the goal set to save my money was I was buying my own things that I would be really responsible with. And I wasn't at all. I would spend it as soon as it came, and as soon as they gave it to me, it was gone. And my parents were watching this for a while and they came to me and they said, Allison, we've decided to stop giving you an allowance because this isn't working. And that the words they used is, Allison, you're becoming a socialist. So I had a early poli sci lesson as a nine year old when this happened. So they cut off my allowance. They said that, you know, you're going have to figure out some way to earn some money and we're not going to give it to you anymore. You're going to figure this out. So I was very angry about this and I was pouty and I probably had become kind of entitled spoiled at this point because I really felt like that I just just deserved this money. And so after a few months of being pretty pouty, I realized that they were not going to change their mind. And I would have to come up with some way to get some money on my own. So I launched a business. I started Positive Pencils International, so I was thinking a worldwide company, and they were positive pencils. Like I said, they had positive sayings on them. They said, I'm a winner, believe in yourself. You can do it different, like peppy little things. And I sold them for $0.25 each or four for $1. So it was a great deal. And I remember the first week that I sold my pencils, This is pre-social media. So like I had to have face to face conversations with people to get them to buy my pencils. So, you know, I developed a lot of skills through that, you know, some courage to be able to have those kinds of conversations. And I remember after my first week of selling my pencils, I went to everyone I could and I calculated how much I made profit and I made $200 profit by the end of the first week. And that was a huge moment in my life for a lot of reasons. I remember thinking, Oh my goodness, my parents were right. I have so much more money now than I had before, but all of a sudden money had a lot more value to me because I had worked for it. And anything that I want to buy after that point, I would calculate, okay, how many pencils does it take to buy this video game or whatever it was that I wanted? So I actually became very, very careful with my money all through my teenage years. I was pretty stingy. But I also learned to goal set. And, you know, anything that I really wanted to buy, I knew I had the ability to buy it because I could earn it myself. So I became a big believer in entrepreneurialism of the free market of hard work. I actually think that's one reason why I ran for office early was because I had a business as a kid and I didn't think to myself, I've got to wait till I'm an adult [....] school to be able to do something. I knew I could start doing things now. So a huge lesson for me. It's foundation of my life. I actually kept my business until I went to college and then I sold it to my younger brother. So it continued for a while and he kept it going and it doesn't exist anymore. But it was a thriving business for a long time. Huge lesson for me and also a reason why I believe in financial literacy. I know how important that was for me as a kid to learn that lesson, so I want to pass that on.
John Coleman: That's amazing. Did your brother get a pretty good deal on the business or did you negotiate hard?
Allison Ball: So, you know, my brother is 13 years younger than I am. There's a big age difference for the two of us. So I actually had him apprentice for about two years before I sold it to him. So I want to make sure he was ready for this responsibility. And we worked out a deal where I got what I felt like I needed out of it. And I, you know, I didn't make it too hard for him either. I also had an interest in the business continuing on. So it was okay.
John Coleman: It's okay to incorporate other things in the sale price, right?
Allison Ball: That's right.
John Coleman: You touched on a couple of themes there I want to pick up. The first is just how it prepared you to take office at an early age. And you mentioned in the country you were the youngest statewide officer for three years and took on this enormous responsibility that we've discussed. How did you handle that enormous responsibility and what advice would you have to others who might seek out that kind of responsibility?
Allison Ball: Sure. Well, I really do believe that God has a purpose and a plan for everybody. My dad's good friend is Charles Stanley, and my dad was an associate pastor in Atlanta for a little while under him. And Charles Stanley always says, you know, God's got a will and a purpose and a plan for you. My dad always said that to me. I really believe that's true. So I do believe that, you know, there's a calling on your life. And sometimes it's not always easy to figure out what it is you're supposed to be doing. But I felt like I was supposed to go to law school after I graduated undergrad. And then I moved back home to Prestonburg, where I'm from. And I practiced law for a while. I was a prosecutor for a number of years, and then I gravitated towards bankruptcy law, and I really just had an interest in that. I've always had an interest in economics and policy in public service. I'll tell you the area I'm from, the county I'm from. When I ran for office, it's 90% registered the party that I am not. So.
John Coleman: Oh, wow.
Allison Ball: Like, I would love to run for office, but I don't know that I could ever do this from where I'm from. And somebody planted a seed in my head and said, You know what? You should run for a statewide office. I think you've got the background where you could do something like that. At that point in time the Treasurer's office had been underutilized and I don't think people understood it very well. They didn't know it and I thought, you know, with a background like mine, I really feel like I could take this office and I could run with it. And I'd always felt like God opened doors at different times. So I really had God just leading me. I didn't necessarily have it in a sense from the Lord that God was saying, I want you to run for this office now. But I kept seeing doors open and as I would pray through it, I really felt like that was kind of taking me step by step by step. So I ran for office after never having run for anything before. Outside of law school student government. I was a class rep in our Student Bar Association, but except for that, I had never run for office before. So I put my hat in the ring. I had a three way primary and of course I won the three way primary. The person who came in second was 13 points less than me, and then I won that general by 22 points. I was the highest vote getter that year. The way Kentucky does it is we have a gubernatorial year who everybody has a statewide office runs that year. So attorney general, governor, secretary of state, treasurer, we all run the seven that run that year. So I was the top vote getter of everybody who ran that year. When I ran for reelection, I was also the top vote getter. So that was a fun thing. But I really felt like God just gave a great favor. He was with me through all of that. I just had a sense of his direction. So I really do believe that there has to be a calling. I'll tell you, politics is not easy. I think the world of finance is not easy. But I really believe that we need Christians in public office. I believe we need Christians in the financial sector. As I see things develop in the ESG world, one of the things that has come to me over and over and over again as though we need Christians at high levels in these organizations, because one of the reasons why we see shifts that we as believers aren't comfortable with is because there aren't Christians who are at the helm of these particular industries. So I'm a big believer in follow God's calling, follow God's guidance in that.
John Coleman: That's amazing, Allison, and touch on that a little bit more. So you are a person of sincere faith and longstanding faith. How does that really influence your approach to public service, your approach to finances, your interactions with the people you represent?
Allison Ball: Sure. Well, it influences everything I do. So when I was beginning to see doors open as I was considering running for office, I remember having a moment where I was at a worship service at the University of Pikeville. Those were college students. I was not a college student, but I just happened to be there at that time with some friends. And I remember sitting in during the time of worship and just really had this sense that God was going to give me opportunities and then I was going to do very well at certain things, but that God was telling me I had to be authentically a follower of Jesus at the same time. And, you know, these opportunities are great, but these opportunities are not for me that I was supposed to be authentically a believer, authentically a follower of Jesus. So I have a mandate. I know that God blesses me when I'm authentically a follower of him. I guess the point really anyway, isn't it? Like this is why we're always on mission in our lives. So that's always guided me in everything I do. You know, we have a direction as believers, we people of integrity. And that's so important if you're dealing with finances, you know, honesty, accountability, stewardship, all of those things are core Christian principles. They're being Christlike. So all of those things influence me in a great way. We live in a time where politics is very volatile and I am very open about being a follower of Jesus. I would describe myself as a person of faith whenever I talk. And so I'm mindful that I'm a witness. For some people, I may be the only Christian they interact with. So I have to make sure that the image they get when they're with me is an image that reflects well of Jesus.
John Coleman: That is such a good reminder. I know now I work in an explicitly faith driven firm and and it is a good check on any behavior I might exhibit that doesn't line up with that. You feel an additional sense of obligation, and I'm certainly not in a public office in the way that you are, but I think we are. It's a good reminder that we're called to something even greater than our profession in or witnesses to something even greater than our profession. And so we have a higher standard that we are encouraged to abide by than even the standards we would put on ourselves from a professional point of view. You know, one of the interesting parts of your story, Allison, in addition to your faith in your youth, is that in two industries that are very heavily male, both financial services of various times, which traditionally have been heavily male and public service, which has traditionally been heavily male. You've been a woman really pioneering that. I mean, the first I love that statistic, that first statewide officer to give birth while in office, which is just amazing. What does it meant to you to be a woman in office? And as you're talking to other women who are listening to this podcast, how would you encourage them about the path that they want to pursue, either in finance and investments or in public service?
Allison Ball: That's a great question. And I'll tell you, I actually was the first one to give birth twice. So not just one. So, so, but I also had a second child. So I may hold the record for a little bit. Maybe we'll have a third and then we'll really solidify this record.
John Coleman: You'll be like Tom Brady setting records and just setting them again and again, outpacing everybody. Yeah.
Allison Ball: That's right. That's right. But something I actually did not have an awareness of until I actually got in office, I didn't know that I was the youngest woman to be elected at a statewide level, so I'd gotten elected. So it wasn't part of my talking point. It wasn't something I was really aware of practicing law. I often was the only woman in the courtroom. And so this is somebody I've experienced for most of my life, at least from a professional perspective. But one thing I did not realize is how encouraging it is to other women to see a woman do something like this. I remember when I was at UK law school one time and one woman told me this young woman, and she said that you cannot be what you don't see. And so she was thanking me because she said now she's see someone who's doing this. So I did not realize this was going to be part of God's story for me. But I hope that it is encouraging, and I think that it is encouraging, I have women to be all the time that say they felt like God has called them into something. And seeing another woman doing this, you know, in the financial sector as an elected official, in a place where there are typically men, that just gives them the courage, they can do it, too. It's actually been really important, I think, to be a mom and a wife and do this. You know, people have different seasons, different responsibilities and different callings. I'm not saying that that every mom out there needs to hold a demanding job like this. That's not the case. You know, you have to do what you feel called to do, what God's leading you in your life to do. But there's a lot of women who said that they wanted to do something like this and this encourages them that this actually is a possibility. So, you know, my husband and I, we actually got married after I got sworn in. We got engaged about a month after I was sworn in. We got married my first year in office, a year, nine months and two days later we had Levi and then we had Marigold last year. So a lot of people have been able to see my story as it's progressed. And it's neat because I realize like it's God's timing or we got married a little bit later than a lot of other people do, but that was God's timing and I really like that also is an encouragement to people is that if you're just seeking God in your trust, in God, you're doing what He's led you to do. God can put all these pieces together. You know who you're supposed to be married to. The children that he wants you to have, how you want you to do it. So I've always felt like if God is calling me into elected officials role and I feel like he has and he called me to get married, which he did, and he's called me to be a mom of two children. He's called me to do each of those things well, and there's a way to do each of those things well. So I hope that is a great encouragement to women who watch this. Women often. And there's books after books after books on this. And I do think it's true that women a lot of times self disqualify. So I always try to take a moment to just really encourage women that they have a lot more gifts, skills, capabilities, and they realize and we need their voice. We have so many wonderful men doing great things, but we need perspective of women too. We don't want to lose great talent just because you know, your self disqualifying. And I think many times we as Christians kind of fall in many traditional roles, so we probably even more of that with tendency to do that. So I'm always trying to encourage women that don't self disqualify. I'll say real quick, one quote that I love that I often refer to when I talk to women. Leslie Rutledge is the first female attorney general of Arkansas. She's running for lieutenant governor right now. She was the first to have a baby while serving in office at a constitutional level. So it's a small sorority. We know each other. And I remember Leslie told me that when she was running for office the first time, people told her, Are you ready for the rough and tumble of politics? It's mean. Can you handle this? Are you ready? And she told them, any woman who survived junior high can handle anything that politics can throw at you. And I love that because that's not true just for politics. It's true for any profession. That is a hard profession. You know, if you're a woman who survives junior high, you probably got what it takes to do whatever it is God is calling you to do. So I'm always trying to encourage women that we need their voice, we need their involvement, we need a greater level of leadership from women in the country.
John Coleman: And I think it's neat that you're able to demonstrate there is often this false choice, I think, in our society that you either need to pursue a professional path or need to have a family. Right. And I know it's quite difficult. So that's not underestimating that. I'm married to a wonderful woman who's pursued various professional things, but you can't have both of those things actually. And that a woman can achieve a family life, as well as a very successful professional career, I think is such an important message. The other that you touched on, there was a great study or maybe a disappointing study in that they looked at how women and men approach job applications. And, you know, job applications are written to be the ideal candidate, often way overinflated for what the role requires. And maybe unsurprisingly, men would apply for anything regardless of whether they were actually qualified for it. Even if they were dramatically underqualified, men would kind of throw their hat in the ring and move forward, and women would read it very carefully. And if they were disqualified on any front would, as you termed it, self disqualify. And it is important, I think, that message that you're delivering, that you shouldn't underestimate yourself. Right. You're actually capable of doing these jobs, taking on big roles. And don't be the person who disqualifies yourself, right? Force others to disqualify you if you're legitimately not qualified. But don't be afraid to take risk and put your hat in the ring, even for something as big as a statewide public office. I want to touch you know, you're responsible for great public stewardship in your private life. You're also stewarding something related to this last topic of women. I know that you and Asa have been big supporters of crisis pregnancy centers, something that's in the news quite a lot now with the Dobbs ruling. Why does that matter to you and what role does that play in your life?
Allison Ball: Sure. Well, both Asa and I are huge advocates for life, and that's something we both deeply care about. I remember when we were on our very first date, Asa started talking to me about some things that were important to him, just making sure we were on the same page and we started talking about what we felt about life. And Asa had told me the story is an amazing story about how his mom was, I think, on some steroids at the time that he was conceived. And so the doctor came and said he is at great risk to have all kinds of health problems. He's going to have a lot of mental disabilities and that you are young. So my advice to you, the doctor said, is just a board game. Try again. Another point. You know, this is not worth the risk. And Asa told me his parents were kind of shocked and I thought, well, a doctor knows what he's talking about. And they were kind of inclined to do that. And they were actually at a Christian college at the time. So they ended up talking to another doctor who was the doctor on campus. And that doctor, I'm told, reached across the table and said, Do not abort this child. God has a plan for this child. And she started talking to Asa's mom about what that meant and everything. So they ended up going ahead of having Asa. And what I love about that story is that Asa was born perfectly healthy and he talks about how his dad, when Asa was born. Is that you ever said, does he look normal? Does he have his fingers? Does he have it? Those were serious questions they were asking about Asa. And of course, he's a genius and he's wonderful and exemplifies everything that's wonderful about manhood. You know, I just think he's perfect. But they were going to abort him. And, you know, he's the person who's my husband and a father, my children and a tremendous leader. So he has always just been a great advocate abouut that he cares about it personally. It's important to him. So we talked about that and it was one of the first causes that I began to care about as a kid when my parents would start to talk to me about issues that were important. So we have always cared about this and we cared about it even more. We had our own little babies. I remember that we went to hear the ultrasound and the heartbeat and see Levi moving around at I think it was a day before 20 weeks. And in Kentucky, 20 weeks is the cutoff after you can't have an abortion after that point. And we just were just so deeply moved, hearing him, his heartbeat, watching him move around there, the only protection that little fellow had or a precious little boy was our decisions, which is just kind of a moving moment for us. So we also being working parents, little ones. We know how hard it is to raise little ones. And we want to support moms who have just made this incredibly heroic and sacrificial decision to keep these babies, whether it's through adoption or keep them themselves. So we know how difficult it is. It's costly. You lose a lot of sleep. So we want to rally behind all these incredibly heroic moms who are doing this, whether they're married or they've got a dad who's in the picture or they're doing it on their own, however they're doing it, we want to rally around them and rally around these precious little lives that God has tremendous plans for. So we've always given, we've always cared, but that's been on our top list and we give special offerings. And Levi was born and we did it again when Marigold was born, just thanking God for our healthy little children. So that's something we care about deeply.
John Coleman: It's a great testimony, Allison. I know we're running a bit short now, but I want to end with the question we ask everyone, which is this is the Faith Driven Investor podcast, and we like to ask folks, you know, is there anything that you're learning from God through scripture right now that you'd want to share with others that's making an impact on you?
Allison Ball: Sure. Boy, I tell you, this is actually a heavy time in my life because like I told you a few moments ago, I just lost my my grandfather, my grandmother. So my papa my nanny, who I was hugely close to we actually lived with them for a year. So when my parents were trying to figure out their finances, they ended up they sold their house in Atlanta and their plan was just to conserve money. So we lived for a year in the back bedroom of my grandparents house and losing them has been it was a shock. Both of them were surprised they were not having ill health or anything. And this has just been a you know, if you believe the things that Jesus says about eternal life and his faithfulness, then you would believe it in the hard times. And this has been a hard time for me personally because of losing them. So have just really been just pouring into what Jesus says about his faithfulness and what He says about how He goes to prepare a place for you in heaven and kind of what that is like. So in a deep way, that's been something that God's been helping me through. I know I'm not the first one to go through loss. You know, everyone goes there's at some point in time. But this has been the most impactful loss that I've gone through. And just it's been important seeing God's faithfulness in this time.
John Coleman: Well, Allison, our prayers will be with you as you process that loss. I know that is that is really hard to lose such a valued family member. And man, I just think so many people will be encouraged by this. I think many people will wish they were a Kentuckian now getting to hear what great representation they would have. And I think it's such an encouragement to others who might, at a young age or as a woman or just as a person, generally decide to take up the mantle of public service and to do so in a relatively complex office like Treasury, where you do have such diverse responsibilities. So we are very grateful to you for coming on the Faith Driven Investor podcast, and I hope we can get you back again sometime soon.
Allison Ball: Thank you very much. It was a joy.