Methodology · People
How we handle information about people.
Palanor publishes information about people who hold public roles or appear in public records: company leaders, members of Congress, political donors, philanthropists. Everything starts from a public source we can link to. Where we add our own analysis, we say so, show the parts, and give a range rather than a single number.
What we publish, and where it comes from
| Surface | Sources | What it does not say |
|---|---|---|
| Person pages | Proxy statements and prospectuses filed with the SEC; Wikidata for education where filings are silent. | Roles, education and the companies whose filings name the person. Every degree and role cites its filing. |
| Disclosed holdings | SEC Forms 3, 4 and 5, Schedules 13D and 13G, and proxy statements, valued at licensed closing prices. | What the filings report, not everything a person owns. Shares a filing does not cover are missing, not zero. |
| Palanor estimate | The filings above, licensed prices, quoted terms from filings, and cited news reporting. | A range built in layers (below). It is our analysis, not a statement of fact. |
| Political donors | Reports filed with the Federal Election Commission. | A record of a contribution, not a statement about a person’s views. Federal law forbids using contributor information to solicit contributions or for any commercial purpose. |
| Congress disclosures | Financial disclosure and periodic transaction reports filed with the Clerk of the House and the Secretary of the Senate. | Amounts are filed as ranges and shown as filed. Federal law limits how these reports may be used (see below). |
| Philanthropy | IRS Form 990 returns, and the organizations’ own published lists where their terms allow. | Returns arrive a year or more after the year they cover. Grants show what a foundation paid, not a person’s total giving. |
| Illustrated portraits | Photographs on Wikimedia Commons whose licences allow reuse, credited under each illustration. | An artistic rendering drawn from a real photograph, never from memory, and never a photograph itself. |
How a Palanor estimate is built
A Palanor estimate shows its parts: every component is listed with its layer, its method, its date and its sources, and the estimate is the sum of the components’ ranges. Four layers, from most to least certain:
- Filed
- Shares a person reports owning in an SEC filing, multiplied by a licensed closing price. The most reliable layer, and still only what the filings cover.
- Derived
- Shares in a class that does not trade but converts into one that does (for example, a founder’s class), valued at the traded class’s price under the conversion terms we quote from the filing. Pledged shares lower the low end of the range.
- Reported
- Stakes in private companies and their valuations, counted only when independent news outlets report them and the figure appears word for word on the cited page. Each component lists its sources and dates.
- Assumed
- Low-confidence components with wide ranges, labelled as assumptions: for example, cash from share sales reported on Form 4, less a band for tax. Anything we cannot support this way is left out, not guessed.
Where another publication’s estimate exists, we may show it on one line with its source and date. We never use it as an input to the layers, and we never rank people by it. Once a quarter we also ask AI models with web search for each person’s net worth and show their ranges as “AI model reads”, not checked against filings. A recent published figure and those reads can be data points for an estimated total shown above the estimate; how, and the test it had to pass, is on the estimate’s methodology page.
What a range means
The low end assumes the least each component could reasonably be worth on the date shown; the high end, the most. The midpoint is printed to make lists readable. It is not our point estimate, and a person’s actual wealth can fall outside the range: most of what anyone owns outside public filings (private holdings, property, debts, trusts, gifts) is unknown to us. Each estimate carries an “as of” date, and prices move every day after it.
A Palanor estimate is an opinion: our analysis of public information, reached by a method we publish. It is not a statement of fact about any person, and it is not an appraisal.
What we never do
- Publish home addresses, phone numbers, personal email addresses or the city someone lives in. Residence, where shown, is a state or country.
- Track travel or flights.
- Publish information about family members or children, unless a public filing names a family member as a co-owner of an asset.
- Describe anything as “hidden” or “secret”. What we cannot see, we call assets outside public filings.
- Draw a person’s likeness from an AI model’s memory. Every illustration starts from a licensed photograph, credited under it.
- Comment on members of Congress or donors individually, rank them, or use party colours.
- Sell lists of people or their details.
How you may use it
Information about people on Palanor is for research, journalism and understanding markets and institutions. Organizations may use it for lawful prospect research, except where the law forbids it for a source (FEC contributor data and congressional disclosure reports may not be used to solicit money). It must not be used to decide anyone’s eligibility for credit, insurance, employment or housing, or for any purpose covered by the Fair Credit Reporting Act; Palanor is not a consumer reporting agency. It must not be used to harass, stalk, locate or contact anyone at home, or to build a database of people. The binding text is Section 11.2 of the Terms.
Congressional disclosure reports carry a statutory restriction (5 U.S.C. §13107(c)): they may not be used for any unlawful purpose, for any commercial purpose other than by news and communications media for dissemination to the general public, to determine anyone’s credit rating, or to solicit money for any political, charitable or other purpose.
Errors, suggestions and removal
We correct errors, and we welcome suggestions: missing information, or a revision that would make a page or an estimate more accurate. We stop publishing people who are not public officials when they ask. Public officials, for this purpose, include elected and appointed officials and the executive officers and directors of public companies; we keep accurate public-record facts and Palanor estimates about them, and correct anything about them that is wrong. We aim to decide within 10 business days and write back either way. Report an error or suggest data. How we handle the personal information in these pages, and how long we keep requests, is in Section 12 of the Privacy Policy.