In the USSR, prior to 1918, the country was headed and run by the family of the Romanovs with the male head called a Czar. The Czar owned much of Russia and to attend to their homes around Russia more than 30,000 servants, attendants, and gardeners worked in the households. The Russian Czars were the richest people in the world and it came to a crashing end in 1918 or did it? Prior to their end, the Czars had the biggest and most expensive collection of jewels in the world. The famed Faberge eggs are one small part of the collection. If you have seen the ballet the Nutcracker, it is set in the time of Czars for after the French Revolution the ballet world moved to Russia.

The official story from Russia is the Czar and his family were shot and buried but is that what really happened? A book called The Hunt for The Czar by Guy Richards, Doubleday & Co, NY, 1970 suggests the Czar were not shot. Besides their wealth, the other aspect of Europe at the beginning of the century was the intermarriage between the Royals of Europe. The Czar was linked to all the Royal Families and they would have been very nervous with the official report. Who would be next? Is the social scene which they all knew and loved gone forever? and what happen to the money and wealth that was not in Russia? The Czar had diversified his holdings and moved some of Russia’s gold to the US and UK. Was the gold his? or Russia’s? Courts and time meant the banks kept the property in safekeeping.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, in some companies figuring out the truth of the company and its financials are a detective story. There are possibilities and some you will want to believe. With dividend paying stocks, either the company pays a dividend or it does not. If it pays and has paid over the years, your concerns are how sustainable it is. If you believe it is sustainable the mystery is over and the stock can be on your list to buy and hold for a period of time, sometimes as long as it took to discover if the Czar was killed or escape to a simpler life elsewhere.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions