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Under prior law, the Internal Revenue Code provided that employers would be allowed deductions for operating privately owned aircraft attributable to business flights. Under the new law, though, expenses attributable to entertainment activities will now be 100 percent non-deductible, whereas in the past they were 50 percent deductible. Other changes were made and employers must alter how they categorize flights for the new rules.

While cyber liability losses and privacy claims continue to rise, a new exposure has arisen. Hackers have determined that due to the increased sophistication in computer security, it may be easier to manipulate an individual rather than a machine. With enough policies and procedures in place, Social Engineering Fraud (SEF) is preventable. However, what these professional criminals are counting on is being able to manipulate an employee to violate the company’s policies.

While it may seem like the last box to check, planning for the next generation of owners and managers well in advance usually leads to better operational, financial, and tax outcomes. That remains true whether the transition involves a sale to an outside buyer, passing to the next generation of family, or selling to employees. Busting the four myths of business transition planning, you can see how planning ahead is a component of protecting and strengthening the legacies you’ve built.

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act will dramatically change how income is taxed for business owners of pass-through entities, such as certain partnerships, limited liability companies, and S corporations. As of January 1, 2018, owners of pass-through entities may deduct up to 20 percent of their “qualified business income” from their taxable income each year. This creates huge incentives for business owners to organize their business as “pass-through” entities. This article breaks down how the pass-through deduction works and what types of businesses may benefit.

Research has shown that demographic trends have important relationships with many economic variables. As a nation’s population ages, the balance of capital tends to shift from debtors to creditors. The supporting data behind the phenomenon and other initial baseline assumptions outlines our capital market return forecasts for approximately 50 asset classes around the world for the next 10 years, and are intended to guide investors in developing their long-term strategic asset allocations.

There are currently more than 1,000 cryptocurrencies with a combined market capitalization of over $400 billion dollars.

While 2018 will have a difficult time living up to 2017’s stellar returns, we believe the markets should still have a more-than-decent showing. Central to this generally optimistic view of the markets is our expectation that the global economy is fairly healthy. Broad-based synchronized growth, which began in 2017, should continue into 2018 and deliver real gross domestic product growth of 2.7% in the U.S. and 3.8% globally. With that growth, financial markets should be positioned to deliver a solid year of returns.

The supply-and-demand dynamics are setting up for a very good year for municipal bonds relative to Treasuries. New-issue supply will most likely drop materially from above $400 billion the last two years to below $300 billion, which would be a low supply not seen in over 20 years. Demand will be particularly strong from high net worth individuals that reside in states that have high in-state income tax regimes.

Despite historically low interest rates and increasingly favorable economic conditions, inflation has remained persistently below the Fed’s 2% target for nearly six years. While stubbornly low inflation would have been cause for alarm in the past, few seem to be worried. With other economic indicators headed in a positive direction, the Fed has indicated its intention to continue to raise rates in order to achieve equilibrium between the federal funds and inflation rates and wind down its quantitative easing program.

The real estate private equity market has been an attractive asset class with record fundraising market performance and increasing investor allocations. Within real estate investments, the single family rentals (SFR) market has a strong outlook. The highly fragmented SFR market presents an opportunity for real estate funds to leverage its industry expertise and capitalize through institutionalization. Through effective buying, managing, and selling, SFR funds are able to create value and deliver satisfactory returns.