09.13.19

Roles of the Finance Committee
Kevin Omahen

The finance committee is charged with overseeing and keeping the board of directors informed of an organization’s overall financial health. Ideally, this entails more than simply scanning financial reports. The most valuable finance committees take a strategic role when it comes to oversight and planning. Active involvement not only pays off with robust financial governance, […]

09.12.19

The Call’s Coming From Inside: Fighting Fraud in Your Firm

Law firms usually are known to be staffed with highly educated and intelligent people, but they are not immune to fraud. In fact, law firms generally share characteristics with other businesses that can make them particularly vulnerable. That is why your law firm needs to know what to look for and how to protect itself […]

09.09.19

Spousal Lifetime Access Trust: A Tool for Creditor Protection and Estate Planning
Frank L. Washelesky

Many wealthy professionals are looking for ways to protect assets from potential lawsuits or other unknown creditors without giving up substantial control. Estate tax considerations are also still important as the current large estate tax exemption ($11.4 million for individuals, or $22.8 million for married couples) is set to drop at the end of 2025, […]

08.30.19

Effective Governance — How Important is It Really?
Kelly H. Buchheit

Board Operations The value of an involved board of directors (governance) cannot be emphasized enough.  Any well-run organization, whether for-profit or not-for-profit, has a layer of controls beyond management to ensure that there are appropriate checks and balances over management’s responsibilities.  This also means that governance should be completely independent from management.  In other words, […]

08.27.19

Time for Class: Widening the Scope of Training for Retirement Plan Committee Members

Learning the ropes of overseeing a retirement plan isn’t a “one and done” exercise. Periodic training updates for retirement plan committee members acting in a fiduciary capacity is a prudent approach ensuring that they maintain the current knowledge essential to carry out their duties. More fundamental is ensuring that new committee members get a strong […]

08.20.19

How to Make Market Volatility Your Friend

Recent market gyrations have made even strong-stomached investors a little queasy. In general, maintaining your positions in a well-diversified portfolio is the best response to such volatility. But there may be something else you can do: Use falling prices as an investment opportunity. Think long term Although overall stock prices have historically risen over time, […]

08.19.19

Three Keys to Providing Terrific Patient Service

One of the cornerstones of a successful medical practice is terrific patient service. In a non-medical context, you would call it customer service, but patient service needs to go beyond simply fulfilling a patient’s demands. Here are three keys to getting it right: Service Design For any service business, when designing how you are going […]

08.15.19

Effective Altruism Gains Momentum: Donors Are Looking for the Most Bang for Their Buck
Harry Fox

Proponents of so-called “effective altruism,” also known as strategic giving, have gained footing in recent years. That’s evidenced by the growing role of organizations like GiveWell and The Life You Can Save, which help so-called effective altruists select organizations to support. That help is based on objective data about the organizations’ effectiveness at helping others. […]

08.13.19

Revenue Recognition Is Here: Are You Ready?

Non-public manufacturers and distributors are affected by the 2019 GAAP change in how revenue is recognized.  Have you made changes already?  Do you understand how your financial statements will be modified for 2019?  Have you discussed this with your bank? Industry information collected indicates that most companies and firms are still struggling with understanding and […]

08.12.19

Captive Insurance Strategies Can Pay Off for Real Estate Operators

Federal tax law has permitted U.S. businesses to form so-called “captive” insurance companies for many years, and numerous large companies have done so. It is only relatively recently that the arrangement has gained traction with smaller public and privately owned companies. Could your real estate business benefit from pursuing captive insurance strategies? To find the […]