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For leaders of founder-owned businesses, raising significant capital without relinquishing control can seem challenging. But investors focused on non-control transactions are becoming more common. Non-control-oriented funds have boomed, fueling demand for minority recapitalizations and enabling business owners to maximize the valuation of their company without selling control. As owners begin to approach this market as part of their business strategy, they should think about what makes an optimal partner for their businesses as there are many to choose from.

Unless your entity qualifies for 1 of the 23 exemptions, all entities—including limited liability companies and limited partnerships—created prior to January 1, 2024 are required to file reports under the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) by January 1, 2025. Willful violations can result in civil and criminal penalties for failure to comply with the CTA requirements. Set forth here is a summary of the CTA beneficial ownership regulations, the types of entities that are exempt, and the filing requirements that include disclosure of information about the entities’ beneficial owners.

If you’re a business owner of a registered entity such as a corporation, partnership, or LLC, or the trustee or beneficiary of a trust that owns such an entity, you may be subject to a reporting obligation under the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) that was enacted on January 1, 2021. By mandating the disclosure of beneficial ownership information, the CTA seeks to enhance transparency and accountability while curbing illicit activities such as money laundering, terrorist financing, and tax fraud.

Escalating geopolitical turmoil in the world and a strengthening U.S. dollar are heightening currency volatility, leading to a renewed focus on foreign exchange risk in investments. To understand the implications of currency hedging within investment portfolios and the investors who will benefit from the strategy, we turn to NEPC CIO Timothy F. McCusker for his insights.

If you’re considering a sale of a business, listen in on this 10-minute interview for some valuable potential tax-savings strategies. Attorneys Jason Kohout and Stephanie Derks also discuss income and estate tax planning opportunities, especially for business owners who are in a high income tax state.

Artificial Intelligence (AI), including generative AI, has the power to transform your enterprise—to the extent you can integrate its capabilities and drive adoption. In other words, the limit is not within the technology itself, but within your ability to imagine and implement practical applications. Getting started with AI is about more than how you’ll use it. It’s about preparing your data, systems, processes, and most of all, your people. You need a data-driven, people-centric, and governance-focused AI strategy.

In this special report, Northern Trust experts provide policy analysis for each potential United States election result—as well as steps that can be taken to prepare for all outcomes. Read the report for insights into planning for Divided Government, Unified Democratic, Unified Republican, and Delayed or Contested results. Along with having a goals-based framework approach for wealth planning, it allows investors and wealth advisors to evaluate tradeoffs and uncover new opportunities to take action with confidence in any environment.

For many business owners, their tax accountant has been with them for years, and therefore understands the business, along with some aspects of the industry, key employee roles, and family dynamics at play. In addition, a tax accountant who is viewed as a trusted advisor is in a key position to help a family-owned enterprise think through some of the most pertinent questions when it comes to succession planning.

Cyber threats are seen as the third most impactful risk to businesses over the next three years, after the cost of capital and economic downturns, respectively. Threat actors are not only deploying new tactics using generative artificial intelligence (AI) to conduct more targeted and sophisticated attacks, but they are also advancing familiar threats like ransomware with increased severity. The evolving regulatory landscape and the increasing adoption of cloud software also pose new challenges for cyber leaders.

Although private equity (PE) has been grappling with high interest rates, PE funds and their portfolio companies are marching forward. With inflation moderating and expectations for a rate cut, there is growing cautious optimism for improved PE M&A activity. This Private Equity Survey by BDO polled 484 U.S. PE fund managers and operating partners and 208 CFOs of U.S. portfolio companies to uncover their strategies, concerns, and overall pulse.