Month: October 2020

Racism has cost the US economy $16 trillion in the last 20 years

hafiz cakep

  • Centuries of discrimination have created a cavernous wealth gap between Black and white Americans. 
  • Today, Black Americans own an estimated one-tenth the wealth of white Americans — $17,150 for Black families compared to $171,000 for white families.
  • This gap is not only bad for Black people, it’s bad for the US economy, too.
  • Researchers estimate that the racial wealth gap has cost the US economy $16 trillion since 2000. If the gap closed today, the GDP would see a $5 trillion boost in the next five years.
  • Read more stories from Business Insider’s “Inside the racial wealth gap” series »

Since the start of slavery, racism has cost Black Americans an estimated $70 trillion. Today, thanks to centuries of discrimination, the racial wealth gap between Black and white Americans is cavernous.

In 2016, the Brookings Institution estimated that Black Americans own about one-tenth the wealth of white Americans — $17,150

… Read More

In A Year Combining 1918, 1929, 1968, Financial Services Leaders Talk Strategy

hafiz cakep

This year to me has been like 1918, 1929 and 1968 all wrapped into one. As financial services is central to our economy — and society — I held a September 10, 2020 conversation with four industry leaders to discuss their strategy; the Zoom audience was about 500. Here are some key lessons from these leaders on topics like the customer experience, diversity & inclusion, technology and the opportunity for transformation.

Chetan Kandhari, SVP, Chief Innovation Officer and Digital Officer, Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company talked about the concept of true dialogue, “We have to stop viewing things as a transaction but really as a constant engagement dialogue. Go away from episodic behavior to make sure we know the journeys we all want to be on, and the transaction is only part of that. This requires advanced analytics, it requires an emotional connection, and it requires the contextual information to make

… Read More

15 Tips To Keep A Growing Business Lean And Save Money

hafiz cakep

As your business grows, you’ll likely have more capital in rotation. As you bring in more money, you will also need to spend more to continue growing. 

However, it’s important to ensure that you’re not spending in excess and are still saving money where you can. Otherwise, you may find yourself in the red and facing some exceptionally difficult financial decisions.

Below, 15 members of Forbes Coaches Council share their best advice for business owners looking to keep their operations lean and save money.

1. Observe, Plan And Earn Before You Spend

Understand, observe and become fully aware of your industry and the needs of your business. Learning to optimize your costs takes time, errors, small tests and planning based on the data you collect every day. Ask yourself what you

… Read More

Three Ways Insurance Companies Need To Rethink The Role Of Agents

hafiz cakep

Founder and CEO of SmartFinancial.com: on a mission to make the insurance buying process more efficient.

It used to be that if you asked someone who they’re insured with, they’d give you their insurance agent’s name. Billions of dollars in advertising later, people now name their carrier and barely remember the agent that signed them on. Meanwhile, the brick and mortar agencies are waning in importance, and companies like Nationwide are moving to a virtual workforce model. In my role as a CEO overseeing an insurance-technology platform, I’ve observed one thing that remains the same despite all the confusing shifts over the past few decades: Insurance agents are still the primary sales channel for insurers.

Even though carriers can communicate directly with consumers at a lower cost, insurance agents who bring profitable business to carriers are a valued and integral part of the insurance distribution chain. Here’s how future

… Read More

Millennial Money: Use a crisis to build helpful money habits

hafiz cakep

As millennials, we’ve learned about money the hard way. From the Great Recession to stratospheric student loan debt to a pandemic, there’s been no shortage of life giving us lemons.

While the long-term economic effects of the pandemic are yet to be fully realized, you may have noticed one positive trend in the short term: For once, your debt may have dropped.

Credit card balances fell by $76 billion April through June, the steepest decline on record, according to an analysis by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Research by NerdWallet backed that up, finding that credit card balances carried from one month to the next dropped 9.15%, or more than $600 per household with this type of debt. Overall household debt shrank by nearly $1,000 among households carrying any type of debt in the same period.

If stimulus checks, paused student loan payments and sticking close to home

… Read More

Analysts Estimate Enterprise Financial Services (EFSC) to Report a Decline in Earnings: What to Look Out for

hafiz cakep

Wall Street expects a year-over-year decline in earnings on higher revenues when Enterprise Financial Services (EFSC) reports results for the quarter ended September 2020. While this widely-known consensus outlook is important in gauging the company’s earnings picture, a powerful factor that could impact its near-term stock price is how the actual results compare to these estimates.

The earnings report might help the stock move higher if these key numbers are better than expectations. On the other hand, if they miss, the stock may move lower.

While the sustainability of the immediate price change and future earnings expectations will mostly depend on management’s discussion of business conditions on the earnings call, it’s worth handicapping the probability of a positive EPS surprise.

Zacks Consensus Estimate

This financial holding company is expected to post quarterly earnings of $0.91 per share in its upcoming report, which represents a year-over-year change of -16.5%.

Revenues are

… Read More

3 promising industries for starting a business during the pandemic

hafiz cakep

Entrepreneurs have seized the opportunity to start new companies in a wide variety of industries during the COVID-19 pandemic. While not all of these ventures will be successful, businesses that help alleviate some of the new challenges created by the pandemic are poised for long-term growth. Here are three industries that hold promising opportunities for entrepreneurs looking to start new businesses. 

1. Contactless tech

One of the most significant business opportunities is directly related to one of the most widespread problems of the COVID-19 era: the risk of virus transmission in shared spaces such as retail stores. Many grocery stores and other businesses had already upgraded their point-of-sale systems to allow customers to pay using a smartphone or contactless card before the pandemic. And there’s been more interest this year in “cashierless” systems like those used at Amazon Go stores, says Laura Kennedy, senior lead retail analyst at research firm

… Read More

Tomlinson: Government insurance for hurricanes and floods going broke

hafiz cakep

Real estate is the most valuable asset most people will ever possess, and insuring against natural disasters like floods and storms is common sense.

Or so you might think. Two government-mandated programs are in financial straits, with critics asking if they should exist at all.

The Texas Windstorm Insurance Association is still kicking the financial can down the road to avoid raising rates because coastal property owners do not want to pay their fair share. Meanwhile, San Antonio-area homeowners are allowing their federal flood insurance to lapse as memories of past floods fade.

When disaster strikes—and we know it will—taxpayers will be left picking up the tab for others’ foolish decisions.

TOMLINSON’S TAKE: Unscrupulous developers will strike back against flood measures

The windstorm association, a quasi-government entity known as TWIA (TWEE-ah), provides coverage to more than 190,000 properties in 15 coastal counties that no private company will insure. That includes

… Read More

Your health insurance might be on the chopping block

hafiz cakep

Too bad there is not another presidential debate this week. The moderator would be able to ask the most important question of our time: When it comes to a comprehensive health insurance program, which is better: ObamaCare or what the Trump administration has proposed to replace it with? 

It’s a trick question, because to date, after four years of promising a better health insurance plan, there is no Trump administration plan.

The Affordable Care Act (ACA), better known as ObamaCare, which passed in 2010, extended coverage to millions of uninsured Americans by expanding Medicaid. Thirty-nine states have since elected to expand eligibility. For others not covered by their employer’s plan, new health insurance exchanges were created to allow individuals to buy health insurance.

Additionally, the ACA set federal standards for health insurers that offer plans to individuals, small groups as well as employer-sponsored health benefit plans.  For the first time,

… Read More

Premiums Cost 10 Times More)

hafiz cakep

Six months into the coronavirus pandemic, many Hollywood companies still can’t head back into production on film and TV projects because of one major roadblock: Insurers have made no moves to incorporate pandemic coverage into policies, leaving big studios to self-insure and smaller production companies to seek pricey alternatives — or gamble on shooting without any coverage at all. Productions that bought policies before March are largely safe, as multiple insiders tell TheWrap that most policies procured before the pandemic shutdown did not have COVID-19 or infectious disease exclusions, and cast insurance and civil authority policies cover expenses incurred due to the coronavirus. However, any policy written since March now has a “platter of exclusions” as insurers seek to mitigate potential losses, according to Brian Kingman, managing director at Gallagher Entertainment, who helps find coverage for Hollywood’s stars. Plus, no major insurance carriers will offer COVID-related coverage moving forward. “In

… Read More