On March 10, 2026, the Distinguished Speaker Advisory Group welcomed Fritz Kaegi, CFA, Cook County Assessor to a fireside discussion moderated by Jim Mohan, CFA at the University Club in Chicago.
Following a brief introduction, Jim explored some of Fritz’s personal interests, including his hobbies, favorite streets and preferred news sources. The conversation then turned to Fritz’s career and what ultimately led him to a career in investments that transitioned to public service. In thinking of the classic comparison of “quants” and “poets” Fritz confessed his place in the most “poet” part of finance – international finance.
His interest in international finance led Fritz to work in the former Soviet Union in the early 1990s during its transition to a market economy while working for Morningstar. Fritz noted that having a liberal arts background adds considerable depth and expertise to the “table stakes” of finance. Eventually he became part of the Wanger team, where analysts drove stock selection. In focusing on small cap stocks, which can be challenging to know deeply, elevating the analyst position made a real difference in the firm’s success. Fritz worked as part of the 10-analyst international team where he focused on global basic materials.
Working in investments, Fritz was drawn to the competitive nature of the business with measurable performance, but he wanted to have an impact on problems that needed to be fixed. He saw some of the biggest harms to people he knew following the financial crisis in 2008, where many people were losing homes and significantly harmed by the disconnect between property tax assessments and actual property values that had fallen significantly. In 2016, he decided to make a change in his career to try to address these issues, eventually running for Cook County Assessor in 2018.
Fritz views the role of the Assessor’s Office as one of valuation and stewardship, leveraging the CFA Code of Ethics to help guide decisions. He wanted to bring reality and values to the office that had a history based on the “old political machine” where favors were granted at the expense of the average person.
The conversation then turned to how Fritz approached the new role as Cook County Assessor. In his first term, he sought to fix what was broken in the system, leveraging his experience in emerging markets making transitions to free markets. He saw a common theme in trying to transition the Assessor’s Office to a more market-based, data-driven approach while some elements of the system sought to protect the status quo.
The first priority for Fritz was to follow the law and do it uniformly, which is the Assessor’s constitutional duty, but he also considered how performing these duties would affect the average homeowner. For residential real estate, assessors have used averaging and regression analysis which may create significant disparities as market conditions change. Now the office uses data and machine learning to more realistically assess properties. As a result, the office has improved results by 7%, saving homeowners approximately $2 billion. The commercial real estate market presented additional challenges given the historical reliance on sales data, even though properties may not be comparable based on size and location. So the office has expanded the use of data to provide insights into valuation based on how an investor might view each property.
The role of Assessor still presented several challenges, and in his second term beginning in 2022, Fritz expanded his focus toward influencing key players in the process, including the State Assembly, the Board of Review and the population in general. This has been particularly challenging in relation to the Board of Review, which has been dominated by the old way of thinking, resulting in changes to approximately 20% of assessments.
The discussion next turned to the role of AI at the Assessor’s Office. Fritz noted that machine learning was a strong tool for residential assessments, but they need to continually test and refine the processes. Still, he noted that it was a significant improvement over the old regression methods. To test the system, they have the program evaluate the results based on 40-50 variables covering approximately 90% of the population. The results from the program are then compared to an analysis of the 10% of the population that the program did not evaluate. The people within the Assessor’s Office typically takes over from the algorithm ones it gets to the proverbial 20- or 30-yard line.
Next, Fritz offered his thoughts on the Chicago commercial real estate market and how they approach assessments. He notes that real estate appraisers typically look at comps to make a judgement, but CFA Charterholders look at net operating income, cap rates, REITs, CMBS and markets to make valuation judgements. In terms of the current market, he noted challenges in the office market, but that it only accounts for about 15% of the Chicago real estate market. Data centers, industrial and logistics market are thriving. Residential markets have very low vacancy rates so we need to make it easier to build. He noted that there are approximately 50 million square feet of vacant office space, mostly in B and C rated buildings, while A spaces have low vacancy and high rents. He referred to office-to-apartment conversions happening in New York City and thought that there might be a generation of young people who would rent apartments on LaSalle Street.
Following this robust discussion, Fritz addressed questions from the audience. The first was how the Assessor’s Office works with the Treasurer’s Office to get tax bills out on time. Fritz notes that some people don’t care about policy or people and suggested that sometimes it’s necessary to motivate performance through influence, public shaming or ultimately the ballot box. The next question dealt with their efforts on machine learning and how they balance between a more accurate model that might be difficult to explain versus an less accurate model that might be easier to explain. Fritz noted that the Office releases the underlying code and data to show transparency and discuss their choices in plain language. They also disclose how the models are performing as people may not understand the technical aspects of the models, but they can understand the ethics involved. The final question was how Fritz manages his job as Assessor. He credited his team and noted the need to consistently communicate with those around you, so they understand what you are trying to accomplish and build a sense of mission.
Fritz concluded with comments about his approach to the role and always think about what motivates people, which is a constant learning process. Ultimately the public is the key to how you approach service roles like his.