Why the hell would NM spend $166 million when employee benefits have been reduced? We are in an economic crisis and the company has found a way to yet again waste resources when it should be used to invest in their employees.
https://therealdeal.com/la/2020/11/12/northwestern-mutual-picks-up-santa-monica-office-campus-for-116m/
How about acquaint yourself with the Genera l Fund and how it always invests heavily in real estate. It’s policyholder money being invested to pay dividends and claims in the future. This isn’t operating expense money. If you don’t even know the basic operating model of the company you work for then you need to pipe down and try not to look stupid. Jeez
This property is an investment made for the real estate portfolio within the NM general account. The general account is where they invest policyowner money. NM is one of the largest corporate real estate investors in the country. The real estate portfolio is a big part of how NM generates growth of policyowner money to pay dividends back to them.
So, this is not an unnecessary expense. In fact, it is a critical expense for NM to remain competitive and pay dividends to policyowners. Other “safe” investments are not generating strong returns right now. The company needs its real estate holdings to carry more weight. NM did the same thing in 2009 when it bought the WaMu building in Seattle then sold it a few years later for a big profit.
NM likes to spend unnecessary money because its fun to do. No reason to be upset, I think its also fun to see companies spend unnecessary money when they don't have to. They spend money because they can and why not. I hope NM keeps spending money unnecessarily and you shouldn't mind as long as your getting paid. Now stay quiet or NM will get mad at you.