Analysis Of The IRS's Big Win Against Risk-Pooled Small Captives In Reserve Mechanical https://ift.tt/2KmgrCG I previously wrote about the decision of the U.S. Tax Court in Reserve Mechanical v. Comm'r in my article Capstone's PoolRe Fails To Provide Risk Distribution In Reserve Mechanical Captive Insurance Case. That article simply summarized the opinion of Judge Kerrigan; this article analyzes the issues in that case and the lessons to be learned therefrom. Judge Kerrigan ruled that Reserve Mechanical lost on two grounds. First, Reserve Mechanical was attempting to satisfy the tax law requirement of risk distribution by participating in a risk pool (PoolRe as operated by the captive manager Capstone Associated), but PoolRe was not itself an insurance company for tax purposes and therefore provided no (or de minimis) risk distribution for Reserve Mechanical. Second, Reserve Mechanical was operated in a way such that it was not engaged in the business of insurance "in the commonly accepted sense". Each of these grounds will be explored at length below, as well as the issue of Reserve Mechanical's 953(d) election being invalidated and the consequences as to tax liability. So, what did we learn from Reserve Mechanical? I'll get to that in a moment, but first I want to point out that an argument can be made that we didn't actually learn anything new from the Reserve Mechanical opinion, but rather that opinion simply confirmed what we knew from other captive cases, not the least being Avrahami, i.e., Reserve Mechanical was simply the Avrahami train wreck, redux. But in a way, that tells us something also, which is that Avrahami was not a one-off or an outlier, but indeed does state the law as viewed by the U.S. Tax Court. Readers should also note two very important words, being "arm's length", which permeate both the Avrahami and the Reserve Mechanical opinion, as well as other recent captive insurance opinions involving large corporate captives. In general, captives for large corporations win their cases because they are able to prove that the operating business/captive relationship was an arm's length transaction, but smallish 501(c)(15) and 831(b) lose their cases for the very reason that they cannot establish an arm's length transaction. So look carefully for the two words arm's length in the discussion that follows. THE RISK POOL A risk pool is essentially just an insurance company that is owned and/or controlled by the captive manager. To obtain risk distribution, captive managers will first have the operating business of the client purchase some number of policies from and pay premiums directly to their captive (a/k/a "direct write" insurance), and then second the operating business will purchase other policies from and pay premiums to the risk pool. These latter premiums then make their way to the captive by way of reinsurance contracts between the risk pool and the captive. The net effect is that all of the premiums for a give year end up in the captive. Business via Forbes - Entrepreneurs https://ift.tt/dTEDZf June 25, 2018 at 10:17AM
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7 Reasons Why Your Business Needs A Podcast (It's Easier Than You Think!) https://ift.tt/2IqlVuF Always on the hunt for ways to grow his financial and insurance advisory firm, Ken Greene recently turned to a less conventional form of marketing: He started a podcast. With just under 20 episodes released, the audience for the Engineer of Finance is growing and attracting inquiries from prospective clients across the country. “It might be one of the best things I’ve done marketing wise,” he says. Greene’s success isn’t an accident. Podcasts are becoming a valuable part of a small business marketing strategy. Here are seven reasons your business may want to consider launching a podcast: 1. Your prospects are listeningMore than one-third (39%) of owners of SMBs listen to podcasts, and 65% listen at least weekly, according to a survey by small business research firm Bredin. Listenership increases with company size, as Bredin’s survey found that 70-72% of owners of businesses with 100 to 500 employees are tuning in. “If you’re a business in an industry that has a high customer value, then a podcast may be one of your most effective education and marketing tools,” says Spencer Shaw, founder of the podcast production firm PodKick Media. “I find podcasts work great in the legal, financial, and business services industries. It can work in other industries, like real estate, where the show is representing a geographic area or high-end services or products.” 2. Reach more qualified prospectsGreene says one of his strengths is being “very good one-on-one with clients, and very good with education.” But he can’t do hundreds of one-on-one consultations with prospective clients every week. Instead, the podcast allows him to reach that many listeners—and more. Those who are interested in his approach to building wealth can then reach out to him “on their time frame,” he says. “You can’t demonstrate your credibility without sharing your expertise, and by sharing your expertise you become helpful. You become valuable for your listeners,” explains Stephen Woessner on his podcast Onward Nation, a daily podcast for business owners. “It’s much more likely you can then develop a business relationship from someone in your audience when you’ve established your credibility.” 3. Attract high-quality customers and clientsMarketers frequently wrestle with “churn”—clients who fail to stick around. “A podcast is especially valuable in industries where churn is expensive, and where the customer lifetime value is high,” says Shaw. “Many of our clients say that the podcast isn’t the largest driver of leads; however, it is the best education platform (beating video).” Greene recently spoke to a listener who had listened to all his episodes before contacting him—a marketer’s dream. Prospects may not listen to your podcast every week, but if you build a following, many will come back again and again, deepening the relationship. According to Shaw, “Prospects and clients come prepared and require less hand-holding, making the onboarding process faster.” 4. Fits into a busy scheduleAnyone who starts a podcast will tell you it can be a lot of work. But, in reality, as the host, the only thing you have to do is show up and talk. Depending on your time and interests, you can outsource everything from booking guests, editing, publishing, transcription, show notes, and promotion. Greene outsources his production to Shaw’s company, PodKick, for example. “All I have to do is speak,” he says. Woessner, who has also written Profitable Podcasting: Grow Your Business, Expand Your Platform, and Build a Nation of True Fans, launched his first episode just 30 days after he came up with the idea—and went on to launch podcasts for clients shortly after. Other Articles From AllBusiness.com: 5. No need to break your marketing budgetYou can start a podcast with just a mic and hosting. Shaw’s favorite mic is the ATR 2100, which currently costs less than $70 on Amazon. “Podcast hosting is about $20 a month, and that’s the total cost if you are doing all the editing and production yourself,” he says. Shaw adds that professional services that can take tasks off your to-do list can start at just $500 a month, depending on how often you publish and how much assistance you require. 6. Podcasting can be lucrativeOnward Nation is listened to worldwide and has generated $2 million in revenues. In his book Profitable Podcasting, Woessner attributes his success in large part to his “Trojan horse” method of selling, where he is able to get in front of industry leaders and key decision makers by interviewing them on his show, a strategy any podcaster can emulate. Business via Forbes - Entrepreneurs https://ift.tt/dTEDZf June 25, 2018 at 10:17AM The Social Impact Revolution Is Here https://ift.tt/2MUcyGK
It’s been said that revolutions come from bad harvests. What some are calling the “Impact Revolution,” or the pursuit of social impact alongside financial goals, may be no different. Sir Ronald Cohen, a venture capitalist and leader in the social impact space, believes the “bad harvest” that precipitated the Impact Revolution was the crash of the financial markets in 2008. “We began to be aware that the system was actually creating social problems, instead of solving them. And the excesses of what many called greed — and others might call just financial ambition — was something that we had to cope with,” Cohen said. “And impact investment, and impact creation more generally, is the answer to the 2008 crash, in part.” Said differently, the Great Recession of 2008 brought a myriad of social and economic injustices to the forefront and motivated professionals from multiple sectors to reflect more deeply on not only how their organizations impact society, but how they could actually create positive impact in the world. Still, what’s at the heart of today’s social impact revolution is not a new idea. Ben Franklin has been attributed with saying, “Do well by doing good,” while Henry Ford claimed, “The highest use of capital is not to make more money, but to make money do more for the betterment of life.” More recently, Larry Fink, Chairman and CEO of Blackrock, the world’s largest asset manager, echoed the sentiment in a 2018 letter to CEOs: “To prosper over time, every company must not only deliver financial performance, but also show how it makes a positive contribution to society.” And Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan, wrote last year, “The same attributes that drive business success — innovation, ingenuity, and the ability to efficiently marshal human and financial capital — also offer tremendous promise to help solve pressing societal challenges. The private sector has not only a moral obligation but also a deeply vested interest in delivering on this potential for public good.” In fact, a Deloitte study released last month on human capital trends found that 77% of more than 11,000 business leaders rated “citizenship and social impact” as critical or important. But this more recent shift in thinking extends beyond corporate leadership. Investors are evolving their strategies, and as Cohen points out, they are moving from simply considering the risk and financial return of investments, to considering the risk, return, and social impact. Reflecting the building movement, Gallup found that although only 10% of investors said they had money invested in social impact funds, one-third of investors were interested in investing in such funds. And the engine that keeps the social impact revolution running, namely social enterprises manned by entrepreneurs solving common social problems, is firing on all cylinders. One survey of social entrepreneurship experts by the Thomson Reuters Foundation ranked the U.S. as the best country for social entrepreneurs, with more than 90% of survey respondents reporting that social enterprise in the U.S. is gaining momentum. Supportive state and federal government policies are integral to this growing movement; in the same survey, more than 70% of respondents agreed that in the U.S., entrepreneurs are supported by government policy. And governments are doing more than supporting social enterprise. Governments themselves are rethinking how to shift resources to more impactful programs by forming cross-sector partnerships to access capital, and they’re using data science to track and scale programs that are supported by evidence of impact. One illustrative example of ultra-collaboration across sectors for the purpose of social impact is Social Impact Bonds (SIBs), widely called Pay for Success (PFS) in the U.S. The PFS financial tool can be complex, but its overarching goal — to work together to create social impact — is intuitive. Consider the first PFS project for creating impact in early education, the Utah High Quality Preschool Program, launched in 2013 and still ongoing. Numerous sectors are working together: a bank and foundation put up the working capital to launch and scale the intervention; service providers are trained in research-based practices to improve educational outcomes for kids at significant risk of falling behind their peers; data are used to track outcomes and program performance; and local government, a nonprofit, and state government turn resulting cost savings into modest returns to risk-bearing investors and government alike. Ultimately, this project (and others like it) is bringing together experts and practitioners from diverse backgrounds to measurably improve the lives of vulnerable populations. Multiple sectors are finding more and more reason to work together in the wake of the social impact revolution, each looking to play a role in the broader arena of improving people’s lives. With a profusion of expertise and energy rallying around social impact, we may be amidst a more abundant harvest — one that finally nurtures solutions to our urgent social challenges. Business via Forbes - Entrepreneurs https://ift.tt/dTEDZf June 25, 2018 at 10:17AM
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'It's heartbreaking': A Texas landowner who sees immigrants cross through her property regularly says she's horrified by Trump's border policies https://ift.tt/2lzFdok Business Insider/Dan Brown
MCALLEN, TEXAS — Ana's family has owned a small plot of land along the US-Mexico border in Texas for generations. For years, they've watched as immigrants crossed the Rio Grande River and passed through their property just a quarter of a mile away. But lately, the immigrants have been traveling a little differently. Ana, who asked to be identified by only her first name, said they now arrive in the US as family units rather than as individual adults, sometimes with very young children in tow. The immigrants are never dangerous, she says. Often they'll beg her for water or ask for directions. Sometimes it appears that the so-called coyotes who smuggled them across the border have lied, telling them they'd be in Houston after crossing the Rio Grande River. Ana has to tell them they're in McAllen, some 300 miles away. The challenges the immigrants face along their journey makes it all the more difficult for Ana to wrap her mind around the Trump administration's recent "zero tolerance" policy, which prosecutes every person who crosses the border illegally, and until recently, separated parents from their children. The separations caused a public uproar as stories surfaced of frightened young children flown across the US to stay in shelters or with foster families, while their frantic parents remained in detention facilities or were deported back to their home countries. Ana says it's frightening to see how President Donald Trump and his supporters seem incapable of putting themselves in these immigrants' shoes to understand their situations. "I think it's heartbreaking. Seeing all those children separated, I think about my grandson," Ana said, her voice breaking. "I recently lost my mom last month. I'm 48 years old, and I miss her. Can you imagine being a three-, four- or five-year-old?" 'A little bit of heart'Associated Press/David J. PhillipsThough Trump signed an executive order last week halting the family separations and seeking instead to detain entire families together, Ana says she's still concerned about his policies. She also said Trump's recent rhetoric about a "crisis" at the border and unauthorized immigrants who "infest our Country" is flat-out wrong. She knows there may be a few "rotten apples" amid the scores of immigrants she sees. But she doesn't think that a small minority of criminals should mean that the innocent asylum-seekers should be shut out of the country. "I understand that there are some people who do come in here and do bad things, but eventually they're going to pay for it," Ana said. "Trump, what he needs to do is he needs to come down here himself and look at the people and talk to the people and meet the people. Everything he says is not true." Ana says she knows there are political arguments against illegal immigration, and she's concerned how asylum-seekers might affect taxpayers, but people have to have "a little bit of heart" when it comes to immigrants in desperate circumstances — especially when kids are involved. "The thing is, they need to understand that these people are fleeing their countries. They're being murdered," Ana said. "We're human first. We can't use kids as pawns to get a point across. It's not fair." Michelle Mark contributed reporting from New York. NOW WATCH: Why the North Korea summit mattered even if it was 'mostly a photo op' See Also:
Business via Business Insider https://ift.tt/eKERsB June 25, 2018 at 10:09AM
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Goldman Sachs has updated its winning strategy for raking in huge returns when markets are going haywire https://ift.tt/2yCDhVn Caetano Barreira/Reuters
As the trade fight between the US and its major trading partners keeps ratcheting up, Goldman Sachs' equity strategists want clients to be prepared. In the latest blow, China announced tariffs on $50 billion worth of American imports in response to similar US taxes. These trade tensions are rocking the stock market more vigorously than in 2017, as measured by the CBOE Volatility Index. On Monday, the Dow Jones industrial average fell by more than 300 points, or 1.2%, and approached a correction for the second time this year. "Escalating trade tensions and further monetary policy normalization could result in realized volatility remaining meaningfully above last year’s 6.7 through the end of 2018,"David Kostin, Goldman's chief US equity strategist, said in a note on Friday. He added: "This raises a key question for investors: which sectors and stocks are likely to produce the highest risk-adjusted returns in a market with below-average returns and elevated volatility?" The answer to this question lies in stocks with a high Sharpe ratio, Kostin said. The ratio, developed by the economist William Sharpe in the 1960s, helps investors identify stocks with the best risk-adjusted returns. Goldman's High Sharpe Ratio basket includes stocks that have the highest ratios in every S&P 500 sector, which should deliver the best risk-adjusted returns even with higher volatility. It factors in consensus forecasts and the volatility implied by options prices. Kostin said the basket of stocks has underperformed the S&P 500 year-to-date by 2 percentage points, but has generated an average six-month excess return of 334 basis points since 1999. "The basket performs best alongside above-average volatility, generating an average excess return of 559 bp in periods with realized volatility greater than 15 vs. 120 bp when realized volatility measures less than 15," Kostin said. A recent iteration of the basket included stocks that outperformed the market when absolute and relative volatility were low, like in 2017. But with volatility rising, Goldman has added nearly 40 new stocks to the basket, which are concentrated in the biotech, semiconductors, tech hardware, capital goods, food beverage, and tobacco industries. Some of the new stocks are:
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Business via Business Insider https://ift.tt/eKERsB June 25, 2018 at 10:09AM What people get wrong about superfoods https://ift.tt/2lvLQI9 There's a lot of buzz around superfoods but are they really all that super? Dr. Nina Shapiro, author of "Hype: A Doctor's Guide to Medical Myths, Exaggerated Claims, and Bad Advice" weighs in on the superfoods debate. Shapiro reveals the superfoods of years past, the superfoods of today, and how to get the most out of your food. Following is a transcript of the video. Nina Shapiro: There is no such thing as a superfood. There are a lot of foods that are super good for you, and that's fine, but this title of superfood is completely made up. The notion of a superfood is that is so good for you, it will prevent cancer and even treat cancer or stave off evil illnesses, but food alone cannot do that. When we talk about superfoods, primarily we think of berries, foods with high antioxidants. And it's really a misnomer. There is no such thing. There are foods that are good for you and foods that are not so good for you, but the idea of a superfood treating or preventing an illness is false. Superfoods have evolved, and they may not have been called superfoods, but even back in the 1970s there were the quote-unquote health foods which were really the superfoods of their day, which included pasta. New Catelli pasta. It's made with a nutritious blend of unbleached flour. Catelli adds vitamins too. Which is now considered this horrible gluten-filled, carb-filled evil with sugar in it. Bran muffins, which are really just like small cakes, were considered superfoods. Other things, such as frozen yogurt, was considered a superfood in the '80s and '90s because it was healthier than ice cream. Delicious TCBY nonfat frozen yogurt. What a great tasting way to help you lose weight. Although it does have pretty much as many calories, as much fat, and as much sugar. So superfoods of one day are gonna be different from superfoods down the line, but they're not necessarily much healthier. I think a lot of the superfoods of today are the things that are hard to pronounce. So the harder it is to pronounce, the better it is. so something like turmeric or quinoa, a lot of the berries, goji berries are a new one. We talked about blueberries and raspberries a few years ago being superfoods. Now we have acai as another superfood. Again, these are harder to pronounce. Those are sorta the newer superfoods. I think as far as should we be eating a certain superfood, are we missing out? Not necessarily. I think, again, if you wanna eat healthy, eat berries, eat healthy grains, eat a balanced diet, and that will give you enough nutrition, antioxidants, vitamins as any superfood would give you. People have the false notion that if they're eating a lot of superfoods in high quantities that that will keep them healthy and they don't need to do other things to take care of their health. So if you're eating a lot of superfoods but you don't get a flu vaccine, that doesn't mean you're not going to get the flu. If you're eating a lot of superfoods and you don't get basic cancer screening based on your age, that will not prevent cancer. So I think there's some danger in eating superfoods in that you think that that's going to be the be-all, end-all of your healthcare. See Also:
Business via Business Insider https://ift.tt/eKERsB June 25, 2018 at 10:09AM
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Chinese tech stocks are sinking after report says the Treasury Department is looking to block Chinese companies from investing in US companies involved with 'industrially significant technology' https://ift.tt/2K9f9Py REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon
Chinese tech stocks are falling Monday after a Wall Street Journal report said the US Treasury Department is drawing up rules that would prevent firms with 25% or Chinese ownership from investing in US companies involved with "industrially significant technology." The development comes as the two countries have already been engaged in an escalating tit-fot-tat trade spat. Back in March, President Donald Trump announced new tariffs on imported steel and aluminum. He has since escalated that to threats of tariffs on billions more dollars of goods imported into the US, causing threats of retaliation from China. Some of the biggest names in Chinese tech are under pressure. Here's the scoreboard: iQiyi: -9.07% Baidu: -3.55% JD.com: -4.16% CTrip: -4.51% Tencent: -4.50% Invesco China Technology ETF: -3.58% Markets Insider
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SEE ALSO: Trump officials are getting personally punished for their wildly unpopular policies Business via Business Insider https://ift.tt/eKERsB June 25, 2018 at 10:09AM Supreme Court refuses to hear appeal case from Netflix's 'Making a Murderer' subject Brendan Dassey6/25/2018
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Supreme Court refuses to hear appeal case from Netflix's 'Making a Murderer' subject Brendan Dassey https://ift.tt/2tyFhYZ AP Images
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear a Wisconsin man's challenge to his conviction in a 2005 murder in which he contends police coerced him into a confession in a case featured in a Netflix documentary series called "Making a Murderer." The justices turned away Brendan Dassey's appeal of a lower court ruling upholding his conviction for murder, sexual assault and mutilation of a corpse in connection with the 2005 death of a freelance photographer named Teresa Halbach. Dassey, 16 years old at the time of the murder and now 28, told police officers who interrogated him four times in 48 hours that he had helped his uncle, Steven Avery, rape and kill Halbach. Dassey's lawyers have said he has "significant intellectual and social limitations" and was coerced into confessing in violation of his constitutional rights. (Reporting by Lawrence Hurley; Editing by Will Dunham) See Also:
SEE ALSO: Judges uphold ruling that 'Making a Murderer' subject Brendan Dassey should be freed Business via Business Insider https://ift.tt/eKERsB June 25, 2018 at 10:09AM
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Michael Avenatti says prosecutors canceled a meeting with Stormy Daniels because of leaks https://ift.tt/2lA0azq Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, was scheduled to meet Monday with prosecutors from the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York in relation to the criminal probe into President Donald Trump's longtime lawyer, Michael Cohen. But after multiple reports on the meeting Sunday, Avenatti said prosecutors canceled. "So I was just informed by the US Attys office that they are canceling the mtg tmrw scheduled with me and my client (for weeks) because the press found out about the mtg and they can’t handle a few cameras outside their offices," Avenatti tweeted. He added: "If they consider this a big deal, how will they ever bring any serious criminal charges against Cohen et al., let alone handle a trial, in such a high profile matter? We have bent over backwards to accommodate them. This is unheard of. We remain willing to cooperate but something isn’t right..." Avenatti also published an email he sent to federal prosecutors criticizing them for the cancellation. "In sum, we see no reason to cancel the meeting, which we understood was important to your investigation," Avenatti wrote. A representative for the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York declined to comment when reached by Business Insider. Cohen is the focus of an investigation into whether he violated campaign-finance laws or committed bank fraud, wire fraud, illegal lobbying, or other crimes. In April, the FBI raided Cohen's home, office, and hotel room. At the center of Cohen's troubles is a $130,000 hush-money payment he facilitated weeks before the 2016 presidential election to Daniels to keep her quiet about her allegation of a 2006 affair with Trump. The FBI sought documents related to that payment and other similar agreements with women in the April raids. Cohen, Trump, and the White House have denied the affair. Initially, Cohen denied that Trump reimbursed him for the payment, but last month, Trump admitted to repaying his attorney for the expense. Meanwhile, Daniels is suing Cohen and Trump in California seeking to void the nondisclosure agreement. She also sued her previous lawyer, Keith Davidson, who represented her in the hush-money settlement. Davidson, who is cooperating in the Cohen probe, countersued her. NOW WATCH: Why the North Korea summit mattered even if it was 'mostly a photo op' See Also:
Business via Business Insider https://ift.tt/eKERsB June 25, 2018 at 10:09AM
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Skyrim PSVR patch improves PS4 Pro graphics and Move controls https://ift.tt/2Mkqjh6 The PlayStation VR version of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim has been an unqualified hit since its release last year — one of the top games for the most popular VR headset — but its graphics and controls left some players wanting more. Today, Bethesda is releasing a free patch that promises to improve its performance in a variety of ways, with PlayStation 4 Pro and PlayStation Move users seeing the biggest benefits. While both PS4 and PS4 Pro users are promised “globally improved visual fidelity,” the enhancements are said to be especially evident on the PS4 Pro. Bethesda has also changed the main menu experience, which could have been an early and frustrating sticking point for VR users looking to start or continue their games, and enabled taller users to increase the player’s maximum height for a better perspective on the action. There are a lot of improvements for users of the PlayStation Move controllers, as well, some of which mirror earlier enhancements to Skyrim VR for PCs. Players can now use both PS Move controllers to aim bows, and enjoy a more comfortable angle for spell targeting. Sheathing and unsheathing has been made easier, and there’s now a choice between realistic swimming or direct movement controls. During direct movement, the secondary X button can now move your character backwards, and you can now choose HMD-relative direct movement instead of controller-relative direct movement. Additionally, in local map mode, you can now point at map markers and get information on them. The patch brings Skyrim PSVR to version 1.4.40.0.8 and is available from Sony’s PlayStation Store today for free. Beyond the visual and control improvements, it also promises “various bugfixes.” Business via VentureBeat https://venturebeat.com June 25, 2018 at 10:00AM |
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