for the Modern New Business Rule A recent Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals decision has thrown additional light on the reasonable certainty standard used to assess lost profits for claims made by new or unestablished businesses. The decision helps put into perspective what information can and, more importantly, cannot be used to calculate lost profits for a new or unestablished business. While sometimes a dau ...

Fresenius is the First (General) MAC in Delaware History (Part I of II) What did Big Foot, the Loch Ness Monster, aliens at Area 51, and Material Adverse Changes (MACs) in Delaware used to have in common? They all allegedly existed but their existence was never proven. That recently changed with a Delaware Chancery Court judge’s 246-page decision in October 2018 that was affirmed by the Delaware Supreme Cou ...

Asset managers and banks are under pressure as volatility roils global markets and investors pile into passive, low-fee funds. The $3 trillion hedge fund market has been hit hard as performance sank and funds closed last year. One recruiter thinks more shakeout lays ahead. To read the full article in Financial Planning, click: Top Financial Firms Cut Jobs Amid 2019 Market Turmoil. ...

Over my 30-plus year career consulting on technology, I've encountered many mistakes my clients have made regarding hardware, software, and technology in general. As technology has become more integral and complicated, I've seen an increasing number of companies struggle with it. These problems aren't just minor issues; in many cases they could threaten a company's survival. To read the full article in Jour ...

Spotify Technology SA acquired podcasting companies Gimlet Media Inc. and Anchor FM Inc., a declaration that their specialty is the next big area of growth for the world’s largest paid music service. To read the full article in Bloomberg, click: Spotify Bets Big on Podcasting to Power Battle Against Apple. ...

(OSB) The OSB technique is indispensable to establish veracity when hearing or reading questions and answers, such as deposition transcripts, expert report content and even daily conversation. You can (and should) use the OSB mnemonic in most of your public and private communications, including if you provide expert witness testimony. And, once you begin applying the technique you will find it indispensable ...

Liability Claims May Follow In this article, the Expert Witness Exchange (EWE) discusses expert witness liability exposure. [su_pullquote align="right"]Resources: Expert Witness Bootcamp Experts Sabotaging Themselves in Court—The Judges Tell All Testimony at Trial: What the Trier of Fact Expects From the Expert Who Wants to be an Expert? Expert Preparation for the Expert Deposition [/su_pullquote]Expert wit ...

Cerulli Associates estimates that there are just over 300,000 advisors in the U.S. This number has caused some hand-wringing in our industry—and, I’d argue, for the wrong reasons. Despite forecasts suggesting the advisory industry will shrink in the coming years, there’s plenty cause for optimism. To read the full article in Financial Planning, click: Why the Market for Advisors has Never Been Better. ...

The surprise split of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and his wife MacKenzie puts advisors on alert: Are you prepared with appropriate retirement and tax advice if your clients divorce? It’s unlikely that Bezos will have to crack open his Amazon 401(k) or IRA to get through this event. But for your average client, that’s exactly where most of their wealth may be. To read the full article in Financial Planning, click: ...

Facebook has been in the news quite a bit for its ad targeting over the past year, most notably with reports that the now-defunct Cambridge Analytica used improperly obtained data to develop “personality” profiles on U.S. voters and target ads toward them during the 2016 U.S. presidential election. But many users are still unaware what information Facebook actually collects for ad targeting purposes. To rea ...

Introduction: The Fundamentals of Private Equity (Part I of III) Why is private equity becoming increasingly involved in the business of healthcare? How will their involvement affect the delivery of services? This first installment of a three-part series will describe the fundamentals of the private equity industry, in general, and set forth a common terminology that will be utilized throughout the series. ...

List from Scratch Last month, I wrote about the hazards of being a digital sharecropper and the benefits of reaching your leads, prospects, clients, and referral sources with your platform—like a newsletter or blog. But first you must have a list of people to send it to, and several of you asked how I got started. Let’s talk about that this month. [su_pullquote align="right"]Resources: Using Social Media to ...

The IRS issued proposed regulations that Sec. 956, which requires an income inclusion by U.S. shareholders of controlled foreign corporations (CFCs) that invest in U.S. property, should not apply to corporate shareholders. To read the full article in Journal of Accountancy, click: Proposed Rules Would Exempt Corporate U.S. Shareholders from Sec. 956. ...

Macroeconomic trends and matters of convenience will move advisors, assets, and markets this year in the ever-changing wealth management space. To read the full article in Financial Planning, click: 19 Trends to Watch in 2019. ...

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act has provided certain advantages for clients, including a 20% deduction for qualified business income and a higher standard deduction. But a cap on deductions for state and local taxes and a different method for determining inflation adjustments could create challenges. "The TCJA has given wealthy taxpayers some interesting changes to their return," noted Scott Kadrlik, CPA, PFS. To ...

About the Business of Healthcare Araliya Valuation Consulting (AVC), based in Tampa, FL, surveyed over 1,000 physician business owners to find out their perspective on the current healthcare environment, in a business context. AVC team surveyed several medical specialists, including: dentists, ophthalmologists, psychiatrists and psychologists, family medicine practitioners, chiropractors, podiatrists, physi ...

Step-by-Step With increasing competition in the accounting field, you want to ensure that clients and prospects can easily find your content through search engines like Google. You can do so by optimizing the copy (i.e., marketing text) on certain pages of your website. This article describes the process of web text optimization. With increasing competition in the accounting field, you want to ensure that c ...

Despite the changes that came with the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, clients can still claim the child and dependent care tax credit on their 2018 returns. Working parents who paid for day care, summer camp or a babysitter should take advantage of this tax break, which can help them save as much as $1,050 per child below age 13. Those who intend to claim are advised to pay their babysitter legally and remit the ne ...

Millennials are using TDFs more than others. Digital firms are paying attention. Some of the leading RIAs, asset managers and TAMPs updated their retirement packages with new tools to track target-date funds and savings statistics, ultimately giving clients more sophisticated information about their retirement options. To read the full article in Financial Planning, click: Why Digital Retirement Tools are T ...

If stock market volatility has drained value from your traditional IRA, this might be a good time to convert the account into a Roth IRA to take advantage of tax-free asset growth. The move may be especially appealing for retirees who have delayed their Social Security benefits and are younger than 70½. To read the full article in CNBC, click: This Failing Market Offers an Opportunity to Cut Your Taxes in R ...