Succession planning for a family business inevitably requires planning for the transition of the management team. This transition presents several challenges, including dealing with non-family managers and with a family member who is not suited for a leadership role in the business. These difficulties are not insurmountable, and, with clear communication, careful planning and assistance from advisors, the family will end the planning process with a stronger and more successful management team and family business.
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Are you maximizing protection when it comes to your online activity?
The 2018 U.S. Trust Insights on Wealth and Worth® study asked nearly one thousand high-net-worth individuals about their approach to building wealth and the extent to which they are using it to achieve their goals and support the causes they care about most. The study found that while wealth provides the freedom to do more, it also brings increased obligations, expectations and demands.
It is often thought that financial success comes with a certain level of financial freedom: the freedom to pursue passions, to take risks, to give back, and to make an even bigger impact. In the 2018 U.S. Trust Insights on Wealth and Worth® survey, the results revealed that only half of high-net-worth individuals have a plan to optimize the opportunities their wealth provides.
Hiring domestic staff such as nannies, personal assistants, and housekeepers can expose you to liability issues and danger from unscrupulous employees. It is important to understand your areas of vulnerability and take steps to protect your family and your finances. Whether you hire your own employees or the family office hires them, three often overlooked areas which can create liability for high-net-worth families are insurance coverage, background checks, and employment documentation.
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.
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 their in-house server. Two factors were particularly important: heightened security concerns for protecting client information and the need to enable advisors and staff to serve clients while on the road.
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 to cybersecurity is the uninformed employee. As cybercrime becomes commonplace, it’s essential to learn about the current cybersecurity landscape, the tools a financial firm needs, and best practices for keeping your firm protected.
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 them the beachhead into your computer system.
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. Families should now consider whether to accelerate their plans to transfer family business and investment assets ahead of these rules.