The hedge fund industry got started in Greenwich when the location offered access to the best talent, tax and business incentives, and proximity to key executives’ homes. These important factors and the trend towards a private investment model have been shifting and accelerating the location of hedge funds and private equity firms to Palm Beach County. Location might be everything, but without the right talent it doesn’t mean anything. A well-planned talent strategy can mitigate the risk of disruption to both productivity and company culture.
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The cloud is one of the largest drivers of emerging technology solutions, and for many organizations, it has become one of their most valuable information technology (IT) tools. It enhances data storage capabilities, security and agility to both scale up as well as scale down, while also reducing costs, in part due to its inherent flexibility and the number of potential options. Forward-thinking organizations should be analyzing and making decisions about using the cloud by prioritizing capability, performance, total cost and availability against other solutions.
In May 2014, FASB issued Accounting Standards Update (ASU) 2014-09, Revenue from Contracts with Customers (Topic 606), changing the way revenue is recognized. As of January 25, 2017, the FASB has issued ASUs to revise and clarify the guidance on the original Topic 606. In accordance with the core principle of Topic 606, there are five key steps to consider. Virtually all entities will be affected to some extent by the new guidance.
Since the issuance of the original ASU 2014-09, Revenue from Contracts with Customers, there has been several changes to that guidance, and additional limited changes are in process. The degree to which a particular entity’s revenue will be affected depends on its own facts and circumstances.
Owner-managed and family-owned businesses are often faced with the quandary of how to effectively motivate their teams to build and maintain value for the enterprise. Incentivizing employees for the long haul can be confusing territory, and owners should know that options are available in the gray area between cash bonuses and equity ownership. Offering creative packages that link employees to the growth of the company can have an immediate, positive impact on a company's cultural and financial future.
The acceleration of technological innovations and the challenges associated with adapting to them seem to point toward a tumultuous future. That future appears to be approaching faster than ever. Companies are finding it harder to maintain their positions in industries that are increasingly subject to disruption. And while investors may not be able to pinpoint precisely which companies or industries will lead the disruption—or fall victim to it—they should do what they can to plan to take advantage of these opportunities when they arise.
The 5th edition of the Social Divide index reveals that FTSE 100 companies are sharing more and better financial results-related posts on social media, assembling the right mix of social ingredients to achieve significantly higher levels of engagement than ever before. Indeed, in a clear indication of increasing stakeholder appetite for receiving results-related communication via social media channels, there was a 105% increase in interactions with results content in comparison to 2015.
Legal developments in digital currencies, including bitcoin, emerge almost on a daily basis across the global landscape. While in Argentina virtual currencies are not legal tender under the country’s National Constitution, in Croatia there are informal statements by the Croatian National Bank that look favorably on the legality of bitcoin. In Estonia, bitcoin income is treated as capital gains, and in Australia, virtual currency transactions are subject to goods and services taxes.
Seventy-seven percent of employees want voluntary benefits. But with so many options available in today's market, it's crucial to choose the right benefits, based on your employees' demographics, claims history, and expressed wants and needs. A good place to start is to know the trending voluntary benefits and when top employers are offering them.
The enterprise-wide accounting and finance platforms that other industries employ have not historically satisfied the unique information and reporting requirements of private wealth management firms and family offices. Fortunately, material advances in investment accounting technology, as well as fresh ideas around accounting best practices have emerged in recent years to help address these issues.