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Lawmakers are well aware of the significant contributions to economic and job growth made by small businesses. As a direct incentive for starting and investing in small businesses, Congress has provided varying levels of beneficial treatment in the tax code for Qualified Small Business Stock (QSBS) since 1993. With the recent tax laws, including the reduction of the C Corporation tax rate to a flat 21%, it has made C Corporation status and QSBS treatment more attractive.

Ransomware has become prevalent and can cause significant downtime and leaving businesses with no choice but to pay the ransom. The bad actors aren’t just trying to steal personal, identifiable information but are frequently monitoring email correspondence to manipulate invoices and redirect payroll to accounts they control. Employee training and multi-factor authentication are vital to your cyber defense.

Employers of all sizes inadvertently put themselves at risk by not having a policy establishing how long to continue benefits during a leave of absence (LOA). So, before the important questions arise, employers should establish an LOA Policy that considers employee needs, carrier contractual provisions, federal and state benefit regulations, and the employer’s company culture. Having a policy in place and regularly updated will minimize costly risks, as well as create an easier path to communication when employees will need it most.

With the implementation of California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) set to go into effect January 1, 2020, anyone doing businesses with California residents should not only be preparing their digital strategies to comply with the new law, they should also be assessing their risk and reviewing their cyber insurance and adequacy of limits. Why? Now, at $100 minimum per individual incident, a small data breach of 5,000 people equates to $500,000 in damages. Given the minimum statutory damage provision, expect a significant uptick in class action lawsuits following data breaches.

Over the past 40 years, creating and maintaining financial security has become more of a personal endeavor. Despite record aggregate levels of U.S. wealth, large portions of the population appear quite vulnerable. Avoiding late-cycle overconfidence as it relates to both spending and investment decisions is key.

While far-reaching cyberattacks targeting the Internet of Things (IoT) devices hasn’t happened yet, it will in the not-too-distant future. Given the rapid pace of change and possibility, cyber risk insurance policies written a few years ago may not have adequate language to cover potential losses and damages that today’s IoT vulnerabilities expose. Now is the time to start reassessing cyber risk profiles in an IoT world.

The Fine Art insurance market is beginning to harden. Personal insurance companies are offering less coverage in catastrophic areas and Lloyd is closing some of their business units, including some who write insurance for Fine Art.

Posting fabulous vacation moments on Facebook—from a boat in Belize, to the top of a mountain in Chamonix—might be a fun way to share experiences with your friends, but it’s also a great way to let bad actors know your home is empty and ripe for a break-in. Similarly, broadcasting details of a college semester abroad on Instagram increases the risk of a kidnapping for ransom. With some commonsense ways, families can strengthen their digital security and help their children get smart about their social media usage.

Jeff Raikes, co-founder of the Raikes Foundation, and Fred Kaynor, Vice President of Marketing and Business Development for Schwab Charitable, discuss a strategy that can help donors increase their charitable impact. Jeff outlines three important tenets: