The ability to attract, retain, and reward a superior workforce is fundamental to every organization’s long-term growth. One way to achieve it is to offer stock options to employees, giving them a stake in the company’s value as part of their compensation package. In general, there are two forms of stock options: nonqualified stock opti...
Hiring a domestic worker touches on multiple areas of law. Thinking through all the potential problems that might arise, and taking any precautionary actions possible, will only help you and your family. Entering into these relationships thoughtfully, and managing them with care may support the best outcome.
It’s tempting to imagine the computer systems as airtight vaults, impenetrable and immune to cyberattacks. But this would be a risky move. In reality, IT infrastructure is more like a porous sponge with gaping holes where data can leak when things don’t go according to plan: a staff member might lose a laptop, a system might experience ...
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 Bea...
Strong cybersecurity for protecting sensitive client data is a critical capability for any Registered Investment Advisor firm. In 2013, Hardy Reed—one of the first firms to earn the Center for Fiduciary Excellence certification—considered cloud services as an option for its IT needs. They wanted to look at alternate options to replacing...
Cybercriminals targets the financial industry 300 times more frequently than any other industry, resulting in mega breaches and millions of records stolen through hacktivism, malware, social engineering, phishing, and other applications. The harsh consequences of remaining vulnerable to cybersecurity breaches are costly, and the number one threat t...
A common question that a family often asks prior to building a family office is “What is a family office anyway and does my family actually need one?” The answer depends on the family’s goals, as well as understanding the four different types of family offices that are commonly used: (1) single family office, (2) family business office, (3) family ...
Based on a FOX Research, the average family office spends about 32 percent of its time on financial administration and reporting. That’s almost 17 weeks a year spent on collecting, verifying, analyzing, and consolidating financial information. For some family offices, these jobs took up as much as 75 percent of their time, which left them with litt...
Families are often overwhelmed by the complexity and sense of burden that comes with managing all the component parts of wealth across generations. More concerning, though, is the lost opportunities and the loss of capital that results from not getting it right. But owning and managing significant wealth does not have to be difficult, and learning ...
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 ...
With the advent and growth of Internet-based communications, it has become normal to instantaneously pass on information. If the Single Family Offices (SFOs) and ultra-wealthy do not secure this traffic of critical and private information, they can expose themselves to significant financial—and potentially physical—risks. The threats ar...
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. ...
Data breaches have become an accepted fact of modern business. According to the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, twenty-nine businesses reported data breaches in August of 2016 alone. No industry was safe. For many organizations, the question now is not “if,” but “when.” This year appears to be on pace to surpass the number of ...
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 signific...
With the dramatic expansion of family wealth in the United States and around the world, family offices are a growing part of the global financial landscape. Depending on the family’s mission, service needs, professional skill set of individual family members, and their existing advisor network, a family office may be appropriate. While every family...