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After three false starts, the hibernating bear has come out roaring with the sharpest peak-to-trough decline in global equities on record. Governments, business leaders, and individuals are putting commerce on hold and accepting the cost of a likely recession to curtail the spread of COVID-19. The recession period is expected to be brief, provided measures to contain the spread and policies to address economic disruption are effective. Rebalancing portfolios is always difficult, especially during bear markets.

The IRS recently released the April 2020 interest rates used for estate planning purposes. As expected based on recent market conditions, these rates are at or near all-time lows. These low rates, combined with potentially-depressed asset prices and temporarily-high estate and gift tax exemptions (currently over $23 million for a married couple, but scheduled to sunset after 2025), make the economics of current estate planning transactions very attractive.

As COVID-19 continues to disrupt the world, it’s vital to follow the World Health Organization's and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's guidelines to prevent the spread of the disease. Know the facts on COVID-19, including what it is, what is the incubation period, how it is transmitted, and what is the reproduction number and what does it mean. Equally important is knowing the best practices on maintaining a healthy workplace, planning for continuity of operations, and the legal implications around COVID-19 in the workplace.

What are the top workplace wellness trends affecting the health and productivity of your workforce—and what can you do to help? In today’s increasingly competitive job market, companies are shifting their focus away from traditional benefit plans to a more holistic approach to total wellbeing. With an emphasis on influencing culture and offering initiatives, you can improve the employee experience. Learn more about creating a positive shift toward total wellbeing.

Much is being said about the demise of globalization, but its death notice is premature. It also significantly underestimates the durability of the international institutions constructed post-WWII and how the digital economy will effectively blunt this latest round of temporary global protectionism. In this issue of The Real Economy, we explore the evolution of the digital economy and its impact on policies, populism, globalization, and growth.

The evolution of the Coronavirus has led to more complex questions than answers and every day brings new developments on how to handle related losses. As the insurance world reacts to the pandemic crisis, here are the latest takeaways on workers’ compensation, business interruption/property claims, liability, cyber, and event cancellations.

As the number of reported cases of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) continues to rise, employers are increasingly confronted with the possibility of an outbreak in the workplace. Learn how COVID-19 continues to affect employers' disease prevention efforts and potential compliance issues and legal obligations.

To adapt to the unprecedented pace of change across the tax landscape, companies must focus on embracing a total tax liability mindset—a holistic understanding of the sum of all taxes across the entirety of the organization. Once viewed as a compliance-driven, back-office function, effective tax planning is now crucial to business performance and strategic decision-making. The tax professional of the next decade must take on the role of strategic leader.

Businesses around the world are dealing with the spread of the coronavirus as ripple effects from the disease outbreak are expected to further choke global supply chains and hinder workforce mobility. Even if businesses currently lack an emergency plan to respond to the situation, they can still take steps to mitigate risk and minimize negative effects of the coronavirus spreading.

The equity markets took a painful hit at the end of February this year as fears about the coronavirus drove investors out of stocks and into correction territory. As one would expect, the impact and outlook for each asset class varies based upon the underlying exposures, market drivers, and pricing dynamics. We summarize the developments surrounding the market stress resulting from the coronavirus and provide specific commentary on what to watch for across the major asset classes that constitute investor portfolios.