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We have all been the new person at some point or another—the new person on the block, the freshman at the big university, a manager in a new office. In such hard-to-navigate situations, training and communications are integral parts of the on-boarding process. When both employee and employer are informed about one another’s needs, personalities, and expectations, everyone gets one step closer to success.

Whether your collection of paintings are decorative pieces or appreciative investments (or both), they can hold a tremendous amount of meaning and value. As to the decision regarding how and where to display your fine works of art, it’s important to identify and consider the many factors that could lead to a loss. All paintings—including oils, acrylics, pastels and other mediums atop canvas, wood, board or paper—require special care and consideration.

A chimney fire can be a significant event, in both monetary damages and trauma. The risk is heightened by the fact that chimney fires often begin out of sight, meaning they may not be noticed in time to prevent the flames from spreading to the home or causing serious structural damage. Luckily, a few simple measures can help reduce the damage from chimney fires—or prevent one altogether.

Cyber threat is as old as the internet itself. While some attacks are politically motivated, the majority are carried out for financial gain. The potential profit to be made with someone’s personal information, particularly if the individual is of high net worth, is great—in fact, it’s a more lucrative industry than the illegal drug trade and the criminal has a lower risk of getting caught.

Statistics show that teenagers are more likely than any other age group to be in an automobile accident. In several tragic incidents, the use of a cell phone was involved.

Extreme winter weather has been a major issue throughout much of the U.S. in recent years and can result in high insurance claims accounting for millions in losses—the majority of which were due to ice dams and frozen pipes. An analysis of the winter-weather loss claims yielded four common factors and valuable insights that can help you be more proactive about preventing these risks.

The economy is relatively healthy, but history has taught us that growth cycles don’t last forever. It’s not if there will be an economic downturn—it’s when. Knowing that there’s a cyclical pattern to many markets, savvy owners and executives figure out how to take advantage of business cycles to create a continuing growth trajectory and boost profitability. From that strategic planning point, five action items are critical to middle-market companies for maximizing growth, profitability, and value—in any economy.

Strategy is a crucial area of focus, but one area that’s often overlooked is planning for an unforeseen event. For example, what would happen to your business—and your family—in the event of your premature death or disability? How can you ensure a successful ownership transition and protect your family in the event of such an occurrence? One way is to have a buy-sell agreement in place.

Rising interest rates late in 2016 took a toll on bond prices, and were the catalyst for one of the worst quarters for bonds in recent decades. Current expectations are for interest rates to move gradually higher in 2017. While rising rates can be a headwind to bond performance in the near term, they don’t impact the coupon rate or cash flow associated with most bonds over time. Over the long-term, higher yields are actually a positive for investors.

Runaway data growth is probably one of the greatest risk factors facing organizations today. With many organizations struggling to deal with the rapid explosion of data, coupled with increasingly aggressive regulatory enforcement, how should they drive change in information governance to achieve operational efficiencies and guard against data breaches? The key is to address the source of the problem and focus on three important areas to stem or flatten the information growth curve and proactively mitigate risk.