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Entrepreneurs are risk takers by nature, leveraging their insight, hard work, and capital to create successful companies. Unfortunately, many entrepreneurs who become business owners don’t think about specific kinds of risk until they’ve experienced a threat first hand. Yet planning ahead is critical to mitigate many different kinds of risk and protect your business from losses. Your own risk exposure will depend on many unique factors—the nature of the business, your own personal tax and financial situation, and estate and business succession planning considerations.

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 are all around and the wealthy are especially targeted. What should the SFOs consider to secure their communications while providing a platform that will entice and engage the next generation?

Investors were recently challenged after the U.K. referendum on membership in the European Union (the Brexit vote). Although the polls predicted a tight race, the markets were signaling that a vote to remain would prevail. As the facts of the market changed, it was critical that opinions adapted to evaluate whether an investor was on track to reach his or her investment goals or if a change in route was in order. Without denying the longer-term ramifications of Brexit, there are strong supporting indicators that give confidence in the overall health of the global economy.

The metaphorical glass slipper represents the combined interpersonal dynamics of your family and loved ones, your individual passions, goals, hopes and dreams, along with the complexity of your family’s estate plan. When combining the characteristics of your family with the complexity of your estate plan, the result is a unique dynamic with special needs—requiring a trustee with a complementary skillset. What skillset and qualifications should your trustee have?

Equities ended the first half of the year wildly positive and remarkably resilient, with the S&P 500 having endured an approximate 10 percent decline in January and February to end the first half up 2.7 percent. The S&P 500 Index then reached a new all-time high on July 11. To a large degree, equities have begun the second half of the year priced to perfection. While the near-term risk profile of equities is elevated, the fundamental and macro backdrops appear supportive of equity prices.

Real estate has long been recognized as a diversification vehicle within investment portfolios and often is held in one of two ways: physical real estate and Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs). Although REITs were first created in the early 1960s and have played a notable role for investors since the 1990s, they have not always been a requirement within portfolios for traditional equity investment managers.

Any investors who were too preoccupied to track the markets in the first three months of 2016 might conclude from their quarterly statement that not much of consequence happened. They may have missed the mad dash to safe harbors followed by a speedy return to risk. The extreme moves in opposite directions nearly offset each other. The primary cause was a reversal every bit as abrupt—the Federal Reserve backtracking on its plan to raise a key interest rate by 1 percent this year, in four installments

Heading down the backstretch of 2016, the status quo brings to mind the title of the old comedy routine “Everything You Know is Wrong.” It seems that the capital markets have adopted their own version of augmented reality in a topsy-turvy year. Bouts of volatility are likely in the second half, and risks appear elevated in a world of slowing growth, structural cracks and political fissures. Five topics of note contain further views on Brexit, the election, and surprising market trends.

Just as every successful company has a well-conceived business plan, it should have an equally well-conceived information technology strategy. And the two should link directly with each other. At its most fundamental level, an IT strategy allows a company to support and improve its key business capabilities by better enabling the functions that underlie those capabilities. These functions range from growth-focused ones to operational efficiencies and include human capital, finance, regulatory compliance, and the digital delivery of services, to name just a handful of functional areas.

For the fourth consecutive quarter, financial markets suffered a bout of sudden and dramatic volatility. This time it was the Brexit vote which triggered negative market reaction. After the UK's surprising election results were announced on June 24, global equity markets sold off, the British Pound fell to a 30-year low, and worries re-emerged over the health of various European banks and the EU itself. Financial markets quickly absorbed the surprise outcome of the U.K.