Prudent business leaders seek to minimize the impact of risk from all sorts of macroeconomic events: oil price fluctuations, the Canadian dollar’s rapid decline in value, the Euro’s volatility and Russian geopolitical concerns. But most business leaders seek help minimizing risks like these after the fact —even though they know they should address risk at exactly the opposite time.

This follows a pattern that saw 2014 M&A deals at their highest level in six years. Rob Schipper is head of investment banking at Fifth Third Bank, and he and his team regularly advise companies and owners on strategic alternatives including M&A. Here, he shares his essential M&A tips to drive value and mitigate risk in transactions.

This is an exciting time for companies that weathered the recent economic downturn and are now seeking to grow. For many of these businesses looking to expand, financing tools to support business growth will be a cornerstone of success.

While completely eliminating incidences of payment fraud may be impossible, there are definitely steps you can all take to minimize the risk of exposure. By taking daily precautions, you can make it that much harder for fraudsters to perpetrate their schemes.

Sharing information in today's highly connected world is second nature for most of us. From social networks to personal communications, we exchange data on a daily basis with little more than a second thought. This tendency is the very thing that fraudsters exploit when using social engineering to steal vital information in the act of perpetrating fraud.

Staying one step ahead of fraudsters is the goal of the payments industry, but this is no easy task. As fast as new payment methods are introduced, new criminal schemes are quick to follow. Understanding your vulnerabilities and fraud risks is crucial in order to develop effective strategies to address this pervasive and persistent problem.

The IRS recently released Revenue Procedure 2015-28, which presents three new methods for correcting automated enrollment and elective deferral failures in 401(k) and 403(b) plans. This is an update to its Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System (EPCRS).

Federal law sets eligibility requirements for when employees can begin participating in an employer’s plan. In general, a plan may require that employees be at least 21 years old and complete a year of service before they are eligible.

On March 19, 2015, the Department of Labor (DOL) issued a rule amending the annual timing requirements for the delivery of the participant-level fee disclosures required under the DOL’s 404(a)(5) regulations. This new rule allows annual participant fee disclosures to be distributed within 14 months of the prior annual disclosure, instead of within 12 months.

Catch up on the latest developments in the retirement plan industry.

The volatile Chinese market swings experienced in the first half of the year demonstrates the real problem of investing in China. Western investors are not accustomed to the lack of market transparency, and yet Chinese growth potential as a component of world GDP demands attention. Investors face the difficult task of investing with confidence in a highly volatile market they are not sure is trustworthy, while reconciling these risks with the importance of the massive Chinese economy.

A sharp turn in market prices, as experienced in the Chinese market in recent months, is usually caused by the use of borrowing and frothy expectations. When momentum investing is prominent, it is usually accompanied by leverage to derive a larger return when cash is not available.

Ignited in 2013 through 2014 by a globally-coordinated recovery and extremely accommodative monetary policy, Europe’s economy was poised to gain traction after the global financial crisis and eurozone sovereign debt crisis.