In a competitive global marketplace, employers across the United States spend countless resources attempting to set themselves apart and claim their share of available business opportunities. Against that backdrop, it is easy to understand why employers will do everything possible to protect the confidential information they have created and the goodwill they have built with their customers. Employees are a critical element in building that success, but they can also be well-positioned to undermine such efforts when a relationship turns sour or where they are courted by a competitor.
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In May 2017, the House of Representatives passed the American Health Care Act (AHCA). Although at this point it is just a bill and not the law, the House bill provides insights into what the future may hold for employer plans. If the bill is passed, there are ten key points that impact employer-sponsored benefit plans, including modified continuous coverage requirement for pre-existing conditions, cafeteria plan changes, and elimination of additional medicare tax.
Due diligence often focuses heavily on financial and operational issues. Often the new or combined organization’s cybersecurity does not receive the attention it deserves. As a result it places the company at risk from a cyber incident, which can detrimentally impact the organization’s reputation and financial security. The risk is higher if you are collecting, storing, or transmitting personal, financial or health information.
It's a pivotal time for Single Family Offices, with more and more reviewing their structure and operations to minimize risks. In this roundtable discussion, experts share how Single Family Offices are evolving and addressing new risks and risk mitigation strategies.
Succession planning for a family business inevitably requires planning for the transition of the management team. This transition presents several challenges, including dealing with non-family managers and with a family member who is not suited for a leadership role in the business. These difficulties are not insurmountable, and, with clear communication, careful planning and assistance from advisors, the family will end the planning process with a stronger and more successful management team and family business.
Are you maximizing protection when it comes to your online activity?
It is often thought that financial success comes with a certain level of financial freedom: the freedom to pursue passions, to take risks, to give back, and to make an even bigger impact. In the 2018 U.S. Trust Insights on Wealth and Worth® survey, the results revealed that only half of high-net-worth individuals have a plan to optimize the opportunities their wealth provides.
Recognize that a cyber attack will occur at some point during a business lifecycle. Whether it is through web attacks, email phishing, exploit kits, point of sale, keystroke logging, or ransomware, the bad actors have figured out how to defeat your latest defense against a cyber attack. They know what will make you click on the link that will give them the beachhead into your computer system.
The federal government proposed sweeping new tax rules earlier this month that would dramatically affect family businesses, investment partnerships and other entities. These rules, which could become final and binding as early as the end of 2016, would artificially inflate the value of interests in family entities for gift and estate tax purposes. Families should now consider whether to accelerate their plans to transfer family business and investment assets ahead of these rules.
Cloud-based applications, also known as Software as a Service (SaaS), offer significant benefits. They are highly affordable, require minimal IT involvement, have no hardware requirements, and offer great flexibility. Yet there can be significant risks to a firm if it does not review vendors carefully. Unfortunately, security controls vary significantly from one SaaS provider to the next. Knowing what to look for when selecting SaaS vendors and implementing sound security measures will help protect your firm against a data breach and the significant repercussions that come with it.