Category: Business

The most comprehensive changes to private retirement plans in more than a decade are gaining momentum in Congress. A key House committee on Tuesday unanimously passed a bill intended to increase the flexibility of 401(k) plans and improve access to the accounts, particularly for small businesses and their employees.

The proposal, known as the Secure Act, was backed by the top Democrat and Republican on the tax-writing Ways and Means committee.

The bill includes:

A host of provisions aimed at encouraging small businesses to provide private retirement benefits to their workers.

It allows them to band together to offer 401(k)s and creates a new tax credit of up to $500 for companies that set up plans with automatic enrollment.

Businesses with long-term, part-time workers must also allow them to become eligible for retirement benefits.

Several measures that would affect other types of savings are included in the bill.

It repeals the maximum age for IRA contributions and raises the age for required mandatory distributions from 70½ to 72.

It also expands the use of 529 plans, from only college-related expenses to include home schools and student loans. “Americans currently face a retirement income crisis, with too many people in danger of not having enough in retirement to maintain their standard of living and avoid sliding into poverty,” committee Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass., said Tuesday.

The bill is one of the few proposals with a significant chance of becoming law amid a bitterly divided Congress. Elements of the bill have been debated among members for years and enjoy wide support among both industry groups and advocacy organizations. On Tuesday, Neal called the legislation “a major bipartisan accomplishment.”

“The Ways and Means committee is where we find solutions and get things done for the American people,” he said.

The last time Congress passed major retirement legislation was in 2006. The Pension Protection Act focused on underfunded accounts and reforms to that system. Since then, lawmakers have debated proposals to address the popularity of 401(k)s and individual savings accounts.

But those efforts have stalled on their own, said Paul Richman, chief government officer at the Insured Retirement Institute, a trade group. He said the Secure Act aims to “modernize” the system.

“It’s packaging them all into a comprehensive piece of legislation that would address many of these little issues that have cropped up over the years,” he said. “We think that it’s a good chance for Congress to take some positive, bipartisan action and advance this bill.”

The Senate Finance committee introduced a companion bill late Monday. It is expected to pass with backing from both sides of the aisle.

“There’s a lot of pent-up momentum for this, and that’s why it’s so bipartisan in nature,” said Shai Akabas, director of economic policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center, a think tank. “They’re now getting to the point where there’s momentum to get it across the finish line in both the House and the Senate.”

In the House, Neal said he is also working on a second retirement bill with ranking Republican Rep. Kevin Brady of Texas. He said he hopes the committee will consider that legislation before Congress goes on recess in August.

Global software major Infosys on Thursday said its consulting arm would buy 75 per cent equity stake in Starter N.V., a subsidiary of the Dutch-based ABN AMRO Bank for Rs 999 crore ($144 million) in cash for strategic partnership in The Netherlands.

“Our subsidiary Infosys Consulting Pte Ltd will acquire 75 per cent of the shareholding in Stater N.V., a subsidiary of ABN AMRO Bank N.V., for Euro 127.5 million (Rs 999 crore or $144 million),” said the city-based IT firm in a statement here.

The Amsterdam headquartered third largest Dutch bank ABN will hold the remaining 25 per cent of the shareholding in Stater. As a market leader in the Benelux region, Stater operates in the mortgage and consumer value chain with capabilities in digital origination, servicing and collection.

“Infosys will drive Stater’s digital transformation roadmap with accelerators such as dynamic workflow, Application Programming Interface (API) layers, Robotics Process Automation (RPI) and analytics under its management team,” said the outsourcing firm in the statement.

The partnership also strengthens Infosys’ position as a leading technology and business process management provider in the mortgage services value chain, improves experience and operational efficiencies and enhances its strategy to help clients navigate their digital transformation journeys.

Stater is a market leader in the Benelux region, operating across the mortgage and consumer lending value chain with deep capabilities in digital origination, servicing and collection. It also has European mortgage expertise and a robust digital platform to drive superior customer experience.

Mortgage services is a focus area for large corporations in the financial sector, given the importance of the asset on a bank’s balance sheet. “The transaction helps our approach to offer clients digital platforms and industry focused solutions. It also brings our capabilities to enhance the value we offer to our financial services clients,” said Infosys President Mohali Joshi on the occasion.

The 22-year-old Stater’s knowledge and experience in the mortgage services market, combined with global reach, AI, digital transformation and automation capabilities of Infosys, can create differentiated solutions for the market.

“While mortgages are a key product for us, providing administrative mortgage services is not a core activity for us,” said ABN executive board member Christian Bornfeld in the joint statement.

As the Benulux (Belgium, Netherlands and Luxumbourgh) largest mortgage service provider, Stater services a whopping 17 lakh mortgage and insurance loans for 50 clients in the Netherlands and Belgium. (IANS)

The MIT Sloan School of Management recently announced that S.P. Kothari, the Gordon Y. Billard Professor of Management and former deputy dean, was appointed chief economist and director of the Division of Economic and Risk Analysis (DERA) at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

“S.P.’s contributions to our community are too numerous to count. I am grateful for his partnership during his tenure as deputy dean and as a leader amongst our faculty. We will miss him during his leave of absence, but we congratulate him and wish him well on this new endeavor,” says MIT Sloan Dean David Schmittlein.

SEC Chairman Jay Clayton notes, “S.P. brings with him wide-reaching insight from his decades spent as a leader in applying sophisticated research to the operation of our financial markets, including first-hand experience from his time in the private sector. His leadership will guide DERA well in the research and analysis it provides in support of the Commission’s work on behalf of Main Street investors.”

Kothari says, “I am honored to join the SEC’s team of dedicated economists, whose work is well-known and respected throughout the discipline. I look forward to working with the staff and the Commission to explore the important economic issues affecting investors and our markets.”

Related article:

On Chai With Manju, World Hindu Congress Chair and MIT Professor S.P. Kothari Talks…

During his two decades at MIT Sloan, Kothari has been both a professor and administrator. Most recently, he served for six years as deputy dean. Previously, he was head of the Department of Economics, Finance, and Accounting.

He also has been co-chair of the Board of Governors of Asia School of Business, Kuala Lumpur, faculty director of the MIT-India Program, and editor of the academic publication Journal of Accounting & Economics.

From 2008-2009, Kothari served as global head of equity research for Barclays Global Investors, where he was responsible for research supporting the firm’s active equity strategies. In addition, he managed a team of approximately 50 PhDs based around the world.

Kothari earned his B.S in Engineering from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science and his MBA from the India Institute of Management. He completed his PhD from the University of Iowa.

Jay Chaudhry, the founder of Zscaler Inc. is now part of a growing wave of billionaires who have built cybersecurity businesses. Chaudhry, 60, and his family benefit from stakes in the San Jose-based firm worth almost $3 billion. He along with six other cybersecurity software tycoons to emerge with 10-figure fortunes in the past year are worth about $9.5 billion combined, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, and together represent the latest wealth surge among the founders of internet-focused firms.

“I do look sometimes back and say, ‘Whoa,’” Chaudhry said in a telephone interview last month. “My success so far has mainly been because I have very little attachment for money. My obsession is really to make sure that the internet and cloud are a safe place for everyone to do business.”

Decades before he joined the ranks of Silicon Valley’s super rich, Jay Chaudhry lived with his parents in a Himalayan village without running water.

Fueled by the rapid rise of cloud-based computing, companies are increasingly tethering more and more of their business to online networks. While this allows them to gather unprecedented levels of operational information, it also exposes their firms to more cyber threats.

Data protection laws and high-profile cyberattacks — such as the world’s biggest airline data hack last year — are equally forcing companies to reconsider their internet defenses. At the same time, Western governments have expressed concern that China’s intelligence services are snooping on foreign citizens through products sold by telecom giant Huawei Technologies Co.

“The world runs on large-scale networks and data systems that are inherently complex and highly connected,” said Awais Rashid, professor of cybersecurity at the University of Bristol in England. “If we can’t protect them or be confident in their integrity, it leads to serious problems for society at large.”

The growth of cloud-focused cyber firms including Zscaler, Fortinet and Palo Alto Networks poses a threat to the market share of more established network software providers such as Cisco Systems and Juniper Networks. Fortinet’s two main individual shareholders — China-born brothers Ken and Michael Xie — have emerged as billionaires this year in the wake of the Silicon Valley firm’s shares surging more than 20 percent since January.

Yet even with this increased competition, some of the oldest cybersecurity firms have kept growing. Closely held ESET counts three billionaires — Miroslav Trnka, Peter Pasko and Rudolf Hruby — among the six co-founders that own all of the 27-year-old, Slovakia-based company. ESET has seen about 20 percent a year growth in revenue since 2014, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, and has become one of central Europe’s fastest-growing tech firms.

Trnka, 57, and Pasko, 63, started programming during the Cold War and helped resolve one of the world’s first computer viruses, which affected a Slovak nuclear power plant, according to a case study from Vienna University of Economics and Business. Hruby, 64, Chairman Pasko and former Chief Executive Officer Trnka each own about 22 percent of ESET, according to Orbis, a database of company data published by Bureau van Dijk. Their stakes are worth about $1 billion each, according to the Bloomberg index, putting ESET’s wealth creation in a similar league to U.S. tech titans Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc.

“We’ve traveled quite a road from then until now,” Trnka said in a emailed statement, referring to his early days in the cybersecurity business. “I definitely do not feel like a billionaire.”

Pasko said he agreed with Trnka’s statement, but declined further comment. Hruby declined to comment. While ESET has extolled the benefits of remaining a closely held company, Chaudhry’s Zscaler made a splash on New York’s Nasdaq exchange in March when its shares popped 106 percent on the first day of trading. The stock has since climbed more than 50 percent, putting its market value at about $6 billion — more than Bloomberg’s calculated enterprise value for ESET.

Zscaler shares climbed 18 percent to $58.60 at 10:01 a.m. in New York after the firm reported second-quarter revenue of $74.3 million. That was a 65 percent increase from a year earlier and beat analysts’ estimates.

Chaudhry, who has masters degrees in business administration, industrial engineering and computer science from the University of Cincinnati and also studied at Harvard Business School, founded Zscaler more than a decade ago after setting up and selling four other cyber start ups.

Even with a billion-dollar fortune, Chaudhry says his life hasn’t changed significantly. He still visits the Himalayan village where he grew up every few years, and said rather than passing on wealth, his priority is to pass along the work ethic his farming parents instilled in him. “For me, happiness is a state of mind,” he said. “And money has very little do with it.”

The financial system had nearly collapsed. The deepest recession in decades was devouring over 700,000 jobs a month. Roughly $13 trillion in stock market wealth, slowly rebuilt since the dot-com bust, had again been incinerated.  It was March 2009. And it was one of the best times in a generation to buy stocks.

On March 9, 2009, the day the bull market was born, the stock market, like the economy, was in deep, seemingly existential distress. The S&P 500 was down 57 percent from its 2007 peak.  Compounding the pain was the nationwide collapse in home prices, which landed a direct hit on most households’ greatest source of wealth.

The one-two punch destroyed the finances of millions of families. Between 2007 and 2010, the median wealth of a household in the United States dropped 44 percent, knocked below 1969 levels.

Every crash has a bottom, though, and in March 2009, the Federal Reserve announced that it would spend $1 trillion in newly created dollars on government and mortgage bonds to push interest rates lower. It was the dawn of “quantitative easing” — and, it would turn out, a new bull market. The S&P 500 rose 8.5 percent that month, its best monthly performance in more than six years.

A decade later, the bull market that began back then ranks among the great rallies in stock-market history. The 305 percent surge in the S&P 500 is the index’s second-best run ever.

According to The New York Times, the rise has generated more than $30 trillion in wealth. Adjusted for inflation, that is the most created during any bull run on record, edging out the $25 trillion in gains during the epic streak from December 1987 to March 2000, which ended with the bursting of the dot-com bubble, according to Federal Reserve data.

But compared with Americans’ attitudes during that earlier climb, reactions to the latest rally are downright subdued. There has been no frenzy for stock trading. Nobody is quitting an accounting, advertising, or waitressing job to concentrate on day trading.

The psychological and financial damage inflicted by the 2008 financial crisis and the ensuing Great Recession continue to weigh heavily. Fewer people are invested in stocks than before that meltdown, and many of them are wary of taking their gains for granted. That caution could last for decades.

“This was probably the most disliked or most suspected rally that we’ve ever had in the stock market,” said Charles Geisst, a professor at Manhattan College who has studied the history of financial markets.

In 2007, the wealthiest 10 percent of American families owned 81 percent of the nation’s household stock market wealth, according Ed Wolff, a professor of economics at New York University who studies the distribution of wealth in the United States. By 2016, they owned 84 percent, he said.

The recovery in the stock market made those families even richer, increasing their net worth by double-digit percentages. Median American family wealth, meanwhile, dropped 34 percent.

In the past, such episodes of wealth destruction cast long shadows. For much of the 20th century, the financial habits of the American public were heavily influenced by memories of the Great Depression.

Gallup survey data shows that in the last decade, an average of 38 percent of Americans under the age of 35 have money invested in the stock market. That compares with 52 percent before the crisis.

In 2017, 43 percent of all the money in American stock market funds was in index funds. Back in 2007, only 19 percent of stock market assets were in these passive strategies, a style of investing that acknowledges that, for most people, trying to beat the market through savvy trading is a mug’s game.

Americans also appear to be less willing than in previous booms to let the rise in stock market wealth on paper lead to a surge in spending. Family savings rates have stayed stubbornly high by historical standards.

Publics see mobile phones and social media bringing certain benefits to them and their societies. But these views are paired with widespread concerns about their impact on children

By Laura Silver, Aaron Smith, Courtney Johnson, Kyle Taylor, Jingjing Jiang, Monica Anderson and Lee Rainie

After more than a decade of studying the spread and impact of digital life in the United States, Pew Research Center has intensified its exploration of the impact of online connectivity among populations in emerging economies – where the prospect of swift and encompassing cultural change propelled by digital devices might be even more dramatic than the effects felt in developed societies.

Surveys conducted in 11 emerging and developing countries across four global regions find that the vast majority of adults in these countries own – or have access to – a mobile phone of some kind.1 And these mobile phones are not simply basic devices with little more than voice and texting capacity: A median of 53% across these nations now have access to a smartphone capable of accessing the internet and running apps.

In concert with this development, social media platforms and messaging apps – most notably, Facebook and WhatsApp – are widely used. Across the surveyed countries, a median of 64% use at least one of seven different social media sites or messaging apps.2 Indeed, smartphones and social media have melded so thoroughly that for many they go hand-in-hand. A median of 91% of smartphone users in these countries also use social media, while a median of 81% of social media users say they own or share a smartphone.

What is a median?

People in these nations say mobile phones have helped them personally in various ways. Among mobile phone users, an 11-country median of 93% say these devices have helped them stay in touch with people who live far away, and a somewhat smaller share (a median of 79%) say they have helped them obtain news and information about important issues. More broadly, majorities of adults in all 11 countries say the internet has had a good impact on education – and majorities in 10 of 11 countries say the same of mobile phones.

Facebook has brought a lot of advantages for our society. However, it has also affected society in a negative way. Just like anything which can be used for both good and bad, social media have brought negatives and positives for people.MAN, 22, PHILIPPINES

At the same time, smaller shares of adults in these nations say mobile phones and social media have been good for society than say these technologies have been good for them personally. And the challenges that digital life can pose for children are a particularly notable source of concern. Some 79% of adults in these countries say people should be very concerned about children being exposed to harmful or immoral content when using mobile phones, and a median of 63% say mobile phones have had a bad influence on children in their country. They also express mixed opinions about the impact of increased connectivity on physical health and morality.

Some of these tensions between the upsides and downsides of digital life span all 11 countries surveyed. At other times, there are nation-specific elements to people’s views about what these technologies have brought to their lives. For instance, more than half of mobile phone users in five of these countries describe their phone as something they couldn’t live without – but users in six countries are more likely to describe it as something they don’t always need.

These are among the major findings from a new Pew Research Center survey conducted among 28,122 adults in 11 countries from Sept. 7 to Dec. 7, 2018. In addition to the survey, the Center conducted focus groups with diverse groups of participants in Kenya, Mexico, the Philippines and Tunisia in March 2018, and their comments are included throughout the report.

How the focus groups were conducted

Majorities say mobile phones and social media have mostly been good for them personally, somewhat less so for society

Asked for their overall assessment of the impact of mobile devices and social media platforms on society and their own lives, people in these nations generally are more affirming than not. But within this broadly positive consensus, there are important nuances.

First, at both a personal and societal level publics are generally more likely to say mobile phones have had a mostly good impact than to say the same of social media. A median of 70% of adults across these 11 countries say mobile phones have been a mostly good thing for society, but that share falls to 57% on the question of the impact of social media. Indeed, a median of 27% think social media have been a mostly bad thing for society.

Second, these publics are more likely to say that both mobile phones and social media have been mostly good for them personally than they are to say they have been mostly good for society. As noted above, an 11-country median of 70% say that mobile phones have been mostly good for society. But an even larger share of 82% say mobile phones have been mostly good for them personally. When it comes to social media, users of these sites are generally more likely to proclaim their benefits than non-users. Even among users, people’s views of their personal impact tend to be more positive than their views of their societal impact.

These broad themes tend to occur across the full scope of the countries surveyed. But Kenyans and Vietnamese stand out somewhat for their more positive views of the societal impact of both mobile phones and social media. Conversely, relatively large shares of Venezuelans view the societal impact of these technologies as a negative one.

Many worry that mobile phones are a problem for children; it is common for parents to attempt to curtail and surveil their child’s screen time

While on balance people in these nations express largely positive judgments about the personal and societal impact of technologies, they also express significant concerns over the effects mobile phones and online connectivity might have on young people. Worries that mobile phones might expose children to immoral or harmful content are a key flashpoint in these fears. A median of 79% of adults in these 11 countries – and majorities in all countries surveyed – say people should be very concerned about this. More broadly, a median of 54% say the increasing use of the internet has had a bad influence on children in their country, and a median of 63% say the same about mobile phones.

Coupled with these concerns, many parents say they try to be vigilant about what their children are doing and seeing on their phones.3 Among parents whose children have mobile phones, a median of 50% say they monitor what their children do on their mobile devices. Parents who are themselves smartphone or social media users are more likely than non-users to monitor their child’s phone in this way. Along with monitoring their children’s activities on their mobile devices, a median of 52% of parents whose children have mobile phones have tried to limit the time their children spend with their phones.

Beyond these concerns about the influence of connectivity on children, people’s views of the broader impact of digital technologies on family life are more positive. For instance, the vast majority of mobile phone users (a median of 93% across the 11 countries) say their phone has helped them stay in touch with people who live far away. And although majorities of Lebanese (70%) and Jordanians (62%) feel that mobile phones have had a bad influence on family cohesion, in most other countries surveyed, more say mobile phones have had a good influence in this regard than a bad one.

Publics are divided over the role mobile phones play in their lives

Overall, mobile phone users tend to associate their mobile phones with feelings of freedom. In every country surveyed, a larger share of mobile phone users describe their phone as something that frees them as opposed to something that ties them down.

When it comes to whether their phones help them save time or make them waste time, the largest share of mobile phone users in seven countries describe their phone as something that helps them save time. Still, larger shares of Jordanians and Filipinos describe their phone as something that makes them waste time. And in Lebanon and Mexico, roughly equal shares see their phone as a time saver and time waster.

Across the 11 countries surveyed, mobile phone users fall into two camps about whether their phone is something they don’t always need or something they couldn’t live without. Kenyans, South Africans, Jordanians, Tunisians and Lebanese who use a mobile phone are more likely to say their phone is something they couldn’t live without. But in the six other countries, larger shares say they don’t always need their phone.

Both phone type and demographic differences are at the core of these assessments about the value of mobile phones in users’ lives. For instance, adults ages 50 and older are more likely than those under 30 to view their phone as a time saver, while younger adults are more likely to view it as a time waster – a relationship that persists in most countries even when accounting for age-related differences in smartphone use. And although mobile phone users tend to see their phone as something that frees them, the prevalence of these attitudes varies by device type. For instance, in most countries, smartphone users are more likely than basic or feature phone users to say their phone is something that ties them down rather than something that frees them.

Have you ever gone one day without a phone? You feel like you’re not in this world. MAN, 32, KENYA

Publics in these countries say mobile phones have a beneficial impact on certain aspects of society, but a more negative influence on others

People’s assessments of the specific societal impacts of mobile phones vary depending on the aspect of society in question. Broadly, people in most countries think mobile phones and the internet have had similar impacts on society – possibly because for many their online access comes through a mobile phone.

In most countries, education stands out as the issue where the largest share of adults say the increasing use of the internet and mobile phones has had a good impact. A median of 67% say this about the impact of mobile phones, and a median of 71% about the internet. Public attitudes regarding the influence of the internet on education have grown more positive since 2014 in six of the countries studied here (Jordan, South Africa, Kenya, Vietnam, Lebanon and Mexico), while falling in Tunisia.

Adults in the 11 nations surveyed also view these technologies as having a largely good influence on the economy: A median of 58% say this of mobile phones and 56% say same about the internet. And in seven of the 10 countries for which trends are available, more people today say the increasing use of the internet has had a good influence on their country’s economy than said the same in 2014.4

But digital connectivity is seen in a less positive light when it comes to other issues. In addition to their widespread worries about the impact on children, publics in these countries also express mixed views about increased connectivity’s impact on health. An 11-country median of 40% say mobile phones have had a bad influence on physical health, and 37% say the same of the internet. Majorities of the public in Jordan, Lebanon and Tunisia view these technologies as having a negative influence on health.

Children usually play with gadgets the most and are exposed to radiation and experiencing seizures – that’s what I heard.MAN, 43, PHILIPPINES
Also, instead of playing outside, they are busy with gadgets. […] They are no longer able to socialize with other kids.WOMAN, 21, PHILIPPINES

In addition, a median of 35% say that both mobile phones and the internet have had a bad influence on morality. In four countries for which trend data are available (Kenya, Venezuela, Mexico and Colombia), larger shares of the public say the internet has had a good influence on morality than was true four years ago. But in Jordan and Lebanon, the shares saying this have declined since 2014.

When people consider issues such as the impact of digital tools on local culture, civility, family cohesion and politics, the overall balance of public sentiment leans positive. But notable minorities – ranging from a median of 20% in the case of family cohesion to a median of 29% in the case of politics – say mobile phones have had a negative impact on these facets of society.

Moreover, public opinion across these 11 countries has diverged in recent years when it comes to the internet’s impact on politics. Compared with surveys conducted in 2014, larger shares of Mexicans, South Africans, Venezuelans, Kenyans and Colombians now say increasing use of the internet has had a positive impact on politics. But Tunisians, Lebanese and Jordanians are now less likely to say this compared with 2014.

Despite wide-ranging worries about the problems mobile phones invite, personal benefits are still widely recognized

In addition to their concerns about the impact of mobile phones on children, majorities across the 11 countries surveyed also say people should also be very worried about issues such as identity theft (an 11-country median of 66% say people should be very concerned about this), exposure to false information (64%), mobile phone addiction (62%) and harassment or bullying (59%) when using their mobile phones. Fewer are very concerned about the risk that people might lose the ability to communicate face-to-face due to mobile phone use (48%).

Yet these broader concerns often coexist with perceived benefits to users. For instance, despite widespread concerns that mobile phones might expose people to false or inaccurate information, a sizable majority of mobile phone users (79%) say their own phone has helped their ability to get news and information about important issues. Similarly, a median of 58% of mobile phone users say their devices have helped their ability to communicate face-to-face – even as a median of 48% of adults in these countries say people should be very worried about mobile phones’ effects on face-to-face communication.

AAHOA appointed Chief Operating Officer Rachel Humphrey to serve as the Interim President and CEO of the largest hotel owners association in the world. Humphrey will continue to execute her duties as COO during the interim period. The move follows an announcement made in December by current President and CEO Chip Rogers that he would step down in late January.

AAHOA Chairman Hitesh (HP) Patel said, “The Board of Directors is pleased to announce that Rachel Humphrey accepted the position of Interim President and CEO. Rachel is well known and respected, both in AAHOA and in the hospitality industry. She joined AAHOA in 2015 as the Vice President of Franchise Relations and quickly rose to become our Chief Operating Officer. Her work with our association dates back to 1999 when she began speaking at our conferences about franchise law and representing AAHOA members for their legal needs. Rachel’s knowledge of AAHOA, our members, and the hospitality industry will serve the association well during this time of transition.”

Following the announcement of Rogers’ planned departure, AAHOA retained management consulting firm Korn Ferry to conduct a comprehensive national search for a new President and CEO, and the process is moving swiftly.

“As AAHOA continues to build on the exceptional growth in membership and revenue, we are optimistic that Rachel will provide the stability and management needed as we choose our next President and CEO,” AAHOA Vice Chairwoman Jagruti Panwala said. “Since joining AAHOA, Rachel strengthened our relationships with franchise and industry partners and helped expand our industry-leading educational offerings. She possesses an excellent understanding of the hotel industry and will provide a steady hand as AAHOA enters a new era.”

Chip Rogers said, “The Board made an excellent choice in asking Rachel to serve as Interim President and CEO. Having worked closely with her for several years, I know AAHOA is in good hands. Rachel knows the association well and understands the issues affecting our industry and our members. She will keep AAHOA moving forward without interruption.”

“I am pleased to work with the officers, the Board, and our exceptional teams in both Atlanta and Washington D.C., to ensure AAHOA remains the most effective advocate for hoteliers in the nation,” Humphrey said. “As we look forward to our 30th anniversary, we strive to promote the association’s continued growth, and I look to maintain the excellent leadership standard that Chip established as we conduct our executive search.”

AAHOA is the largest hotel owners association in the world. The over 18,500 AAHOA members own almost one in every two hotels in the United States. With billions of dollars in property assets and hundreds of thousands of employees, AAHOA members are core economic contributors in virtually every community. AAHOA is a proud defender of free enterprise and the foremost current-day example of realizing the American dream.

Petition maintains that tax agreement with Airbnb should have been subject to a public rulemaking process as required under the state’s Administrative Procedures Act.

Petition asserts that the state’s tax agreement prohibits the state and dozens of local governments from obtaining detailed information that is necessary to verify accurate tax collection.

These taxes collected are designed to fund state, county, and city services such as mass-transit facilities, health care services to indigent populations, and land purchases for conservation and recreation. Hotels must pay these taxes and are subject to robust audits.

The Asian American Hotel Owners Association (AAHOA) has filed a petition challenging the Florida Department of Revenue’s voluntary tax collection agreement (VCA) with Airbnb.  The challenge alleges the VCA was adopted without following the proper rule-making process, and the Department lacked the legislative authority to enter into the agreement.

The petition, filed February 26 with the Division of Administrative Hearings, maintains that the VCA with Airbnb (adopted in 2015) should have been subject to a public rulemaking process as required under the state’s Administrative Procedures Act.

 “Airbnb negotiated its secretive agreement with the state of Florida behind closed doors with no opportunity for public input and zero transparency,” said Rachel Humphrey, interim president and CEO of AAHOA, which counts approximately 1,100 hoteliers in Florida among its members. “While traditional lodging providers adhere to strict tax collection and remittance laws, the VCA essentially allows Airbnb to operate under their own honor system with no way to verify whether they are collecting and remitting all applicable taxes. Airbnb and other short-term rentals should be held to the same standard as law-abiding lodging businesses in Florida.”

Airbnb’s VCA prohibits the state and dozens of local governments from obtaining the detailed information that is necessary to verify accurate tax collection. This means Florida taxpayers and government agencies have no way to ensure that Airbnb is paying what it truly owes.

“Online lodging marketplaces operating in our state can benefit the economy, but the appropriate short-term rental tax system would require these online marketplaces to collect and remit all applicable hotel and lodging taxes in a fair and transparent fashion,” said Brewster Bevis of Associated Industries of Florida. “Taxes are not ‘voluntary,’ and all similarly situated businesses should follow the same collection rules.  How much in state and local tax revenue is potentially being lost because of this lack of transparency and accountability?”

Transient rental taxes should be collected on all short-term lodging accommodations in Florida.  These taxes collected are designed to fund a wide-range of state, county, and city services such as mass-transit facilities, health care services to indigent populations, and land purchases for conservation and recreation. Hotels must pay these taxes and are subject to robust audits by the Department. Under the VCA, Airbnb is not subject to the same rules.

Airbnb’s VCA with Florida requires that any government audit must be done using anonymous user data and prevents state and local tax agencies from sharing information. This makes it impossible to identify owners of illegal rental listings or rentals that are not complying with existing regulatory laws. It also only calls for aggregate data on gross rent and tax due to be reported to state and local governments, which is not enough to ensure they are collecting all applicable taxes.

The VCA also allows Airbnb to withhold information necessary to enforce regulatory and business licensing rules on short-term rental properties booked via Airbnb.

A Bloomberg report recently concluded that VCAs create a system lacking in certainty and stability for governments because they can be terminated at any time and lack transparency – making proper oversight from tax officials “difficult, if not impossible.”

“The state’s current tax agreement allows Airbnb to effectively operate under its own honor system, as do similar tax agreements at the local level,” said Anne Gannon, Palm Beach County Tax Collector. “Florida’s taxpayers and communities are potentially being shortchanged if these short-term rental marketplaces are not collecting and remitting the full amount of taxes owed. There is no public benefit to letting them avoid paying taxes that are dedicated for important local uses, such as health care to underserved populations, trauma care services, and community recreation and conservation.”

AAHOA is the largest hotel owners association in the world. The over 18,500 AAHOA members own almost one in every two hotels in the United States. With billions of dollars in property assets and hundreds of thousands of employees, AAHOA members are core economic contributors in virtually every community. AAHOA is a proud defender of free enterprise and the foremost current-day example of realizing the American dream.

Deutsche Bank India CEO Ravneet Singh Gill has been named the new MD and CEO of Yes Bank. Ravneet Singh  Gill will assume the charge at Yes Bank from March 1. Over 26 years in banking, Gill has spent 21 years with the German bank across portfolios like structured financing, foreign exchange, transaction banking, risk management and private banking.

Deutsche Bank AG of Frankfurt, Germany multinational investment bank and financial services has operation in 58 countries with a large presence in Europe, the Americas and Asia. is the 15th largest bank in the world. It sits on three pillars – the Private & Commercial Bank, the Corporate & Investment Bank (CIB) and Asset Management (DWS). Deutsche is the fifth largest foreign bank in India in terms of number of branches, behind StanChart, HSBC, Citibank and RBS.

Yes Bank Limited is India’s fourth largest private sector bank, founded by Rana Kapoor and Ashok Kapur in 2004. It primarily operates as a corporate bank, with retail banking and asset management as subsidiary functions. As on 31 January 2019, Yes Bank had 1, 150 branches and 1800+ ATMs in India. It had a balance sheet size of Rs. 250,000 crore and Gross NPA of 1.72%, making it the fourth largest private sector bank in India

“The RBI’s decision is a warning shot to the new private sector banks that they can no longer continue to mismanage their operations, that the regulator’s writ reigns supreme and that bank CEOs violate it at their peril,” Hazari noted. “Such a decision, though causing uncertainty for shareholders, reinforces the banking regulator’s credibility as a supervisor.”

In September 2018, The Reserve Bank had asked Kapoor, who is one of the promoters of the city-based lender along with his sister-in-law Bindu Kapur, to leave the office by the end of this month. It has been a troubling year for India’s private sector banks. The latest one to receive a blow is YES Bank, the country’s fourth-largest private lender. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Sept. 19 extended its managing director and CEO Rana Kapoor’s term only till Jan. 31, 2019.

The RBI has asked the private sector lender to find the replacement of MD and CEO Rana Kapoor, whose term ends on January 31, 2019.

On January 9, 2019, YES Bank informed stock exchanges that it has shortlisted the names of potential candidates to succeed Kapoor, who is to demit office by month-end. The bank, however, did not disclose the names of the shortlisted candidates for the top post.
The bank has received Reserve Bank approval for new managing director and chief executive Ravneet Gill. He can join on or before March 1, 2019,” Yes Bank said in a statement.

He will succeed Rana Kapoor, whose term ends on January 31. In 2012, Ravneet Gill had been appointed as the chief executive officer of Deutsche Bank AG in India. He inducted into the bank’s Asia-Pacific executive committee as a member. He had joined Deutsche Bank in 1991 in private wealth management and moved to the corporate bank in 1993.
In 2003, Gill took over as head of corporate banking coverage and held the position till December 2008 when he was appointed head of coverage for global markets.

Anubhav Gupta, assistant director of the Asia Society Policy Institute, in his conversation with James Crabtree, author of The Billionaire Raj: A Journey Through India’s New Gilded Age, discussed India’s Billionaires in 2018. The conversation covered how India’s super-rich have grown in number over the past two decades, how they have altered their country’s perception in the eyes of the world, and the specter of corruption that looms over India’s economic future.

This story is part of Forbes’ coverage of India’s Richest 2018.  Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder of mobile payments giant Paytm, seems unstoppable. In August, billionaire investor Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway invested $300 million in Sharma’s firm, joining a galaxy of marquee investors such as Alibaba and SoftBank. “It’s an endorsement of the India story. I feel more responsibility than ever before,” says Sharma of Buffett’s bet, which valued Paytm north of $10 billion and boosted the 40-year-old’s net worth.

A rout in the rupee–down 13% since we last measured fortunes a year ago–practically wiped out the Indian stock market’s 14% rise in the same period. Even so, 11 of the nation’s 100 richest saw their fortunes jump by $1 billion or more. Oil and gas tycoon Mukesh Ambani added $9.3 billion amid the continuing success of his Reliance Jio broadband telco service. He remains at No. 1 for the 11th year in a row.

The biggest gainer percentage wise is biotech queen Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, one of only 4 women on the list, who saw her wealth soar by two thirds. Shares of her Biocon jumped when it received approval from the U.S. Food & Drug Administration last December for a cancer drug codeveloped with Mylan and have nearly doubled in the past 12 months.

Overall, the top 100 have eked out only a 2.7% gain in their combined wealth to $492 billion since our 2017 list. Close to half are poorer, six of them by $1 billion or more. Among them is Acharya Balkrishna, cofounder of herbal consumer goods maker Patanjali Ayurved, whose fortune fell by more than a fourth as sales slowed. Higher fuel prices took a toll on the wealth of Kapil & Rahul Bhatia, the father-son pair behind IndiGo, the country’s biggest airline, which at least gained market share as rivals reeled under financial woes.

Graphite India’s Krishna Kumar Bangur is number 91 on the list. Among the five new faces are Krishna Kumar Bangur, who controls Graphite India, which is benefiting from acute demand from the steel sector for its graphite electrodes; and south Indian infrastructure magnate P.P. Reddy of Megha Engineering & Infrastructure.

Eight dropped off the list, including Rana Kapoor, whose Yes Bank shares plunged after the Reserve Bank of India said he must step down as CEO in January. The regulator’s move was reportedly a response to inadequate disclosure of bad loans, which Yes Bank has denied. The fortune of paints tycoon Ashwin Choksi, who died in September, is now listed under his family.

This list was compiled using shareholding and financial information obtained from the families and individuals, stock exchanges, analysts and India’s regulatory agencies. The ranking lists family fortunes, including those shared among extended families such as the Godrej and Bajaj families. Public fortunes were calculated based on stock prices and exchange rates as of September 21. Private companies were valued based on similar companies that are publicly traded.

The International Monetary Fund has appointed Gita Gopinath as economic counsellor and director of the IMF’s Research Department on October 1^st. Managing Director Christine Lagarde made the announcement, the fund said in a news release.

Gopinath, currently the John Zwaanstra professor of international studies and economics at Harvard University, will succeed Maurice Obstfeld, who announced in July that he would retire at the end of 2018.

“Gita is one of the world’s outstanding economists, with impeccable academic credentials, a proven track record of intellectual leadership, and extensive international experience,” Ms. Lagarde said. “All this makes her exceptionally well-placed to lead our Research Department at this important juncture. I am delighted to name such a talented figure as our Chief Economist.”

Ms. Gopinath is co-editor of the American Economic Review and co-director of the International Finance and Macroeconomics Program at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). She is co-editor of the current Handbook of International Economics with Former IMF Economic Counsellor Kenneth Rogoff. She has authored some 40 research articles on exchange rates, trade and investment, international financial crises, monetary policy, debt, and emerging market crises.

Gopinath was born and grew up in India. She is a U.S citizen and an Overseas Citizen of India. She received her Ph.D. in economics from Princeton University in 2001 after earning a B.A. from the University of Delhi and M.A. degrees from both the Delhi School of Economics and University of Washington. She joined the University of Chicago in 2001 as an Assistant Professor before moving to Harvard in 2005. She became a tenured Professor there in 2010.

There are four Indian American-led companies that are among the World Economic Forum’s 2018 cohort of Technology Pioneers, that have been chosen among the group of 61 early-stage companies from around the world, including Cohesity, CognitiveScale, ThoughtSpot and Drive.ai.

The cohort of companies, according to WEF, are pioneering new technologies and innovations ranging from the use of artificial intelligence in drug discovery, the development of autonomous vehicles, advancing cybersecurity and reducing food waste, to applying blockchain to a decentralized engagement platform.

“Innovation comes from all corners of the earth and from a very diverse group of entrepreneurs, and with this selection we recognize that,” said Cheryl Martin, head of the Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship and member of the managing board at the World Economic Forum. “The next step is to help these pioneers bring their solutions to complex world-critical problems to global markets and to take action for the public good.”

In joining this community and the two-year journey where they become part of the forum’s initiatives, activities and events, they bring cutting-edge insights and novel perspectives to world-critical discussions, WEF said.

“Technology and start-ups are not just about computer software, consumer apps and social networks,” said Fulvia Montresor, head of Technology Pioneers at the World Economic Forum. “Technology Pioneers 2018 are tackling complex challenges such as environmental sustainability, efficient energy use and access to healthcare.”

Cohesity, founded in 2013 in San Jose, Calif., is led by founder and chief executive officer Mohit Aron. The company is an industry-leading platform for hyperconverged secondary storage solutions. Cohesity offers native copy data management on intelligent web-scale storage, end-to-end data protection, and in-place analytics, all on one data platform, WEF said.

“Cohesity is transforming the way organizations manage and extract value from their secondary applications and data by revolutionizing modern data center and cloud operations with a hyperconverged, web-scale, data platform,” Aron said in the company’s bio.

Aron was recently named a finalist in Ernst & Young’s U.S. Entrepreneur of the Year competition. The 2014-founded Austin, Texas-based CognitiveScale, led by chief executive Akshay Sabhikhi, is developing a new generation of augmented intelligence cloud software powered by artificial intelligence and blockchain technology.

“CognitiveScale pairs humans and machines to augment and extend human ingenuity. AI has the potential to transform the economy and society by unlocking human potential and creating new opportunities, and we are on a mission to make it happen,” Sabhikhi said in the company bio page on the WEF website.

It makes sense of unstructured data by emulating cognitive functions like perception, abstraction, reasoning and learning. It finds hidden meaning within all available data to ensure enterprises and their customers have the right answers to and advice for problems they want to solve, WEF said.

Drive.ai develops AI software for autonomous vehicles using deep learning. The Calif.-based company, founded in 2015 and led by CEO Sameep Tandon, designs retrofit kits that are integrated software and hardware solutions, which includes sensors such as radar, high-definition cameras and light detection and ranging, its bio said.

It has developed custom sensor locations enabling a vehicle to gain a full 360 degree understanding of its environment and enabling sensor redundancy to ensure safety.

Drive.ai’s custom sensor locations maintain high fidelity in all data collected as the vehicle drives autonomously and optimizes the performance in Drive.ai’s proprietary deep learning algorithms.

“Drive.ai uses artificial intelligence to create self-driving systems that improve the state of mobility today. We work with public and private partners to solve transportation challenges quickly and safely, with geofenced self-driving solutions,” Tandon said in the bio.

Founded in 2012, ThoughtSpot, a search and artificial intelligence-driven analytics platform, is based in Palo Alto, Calif. It was co-founded by Ajeet Singh, who serves as the company’s CEO.

ThoughtSpot is helping companies succeed in the digital era by putting the power of a thousand analysts in every business person’s hands, its bio said.

Businesses can take advantage of Google-like search to automatically analyze billions of rows of data and gain insights based on this data – all with a single click. The platform connects with any on-premise, cloud, big data or desktop data source, deploying 85 percent faster than legacy technologies.

“With ThoughtSpot’s search and AI-driven analytics, the world’s one billion knowledge workers each have the power of 1000 analysts in the palm of their hands, allowing them to search data in the same way they use Google to search the internet,” Singh said.

The newly selected Technology Pioneers will meet at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2018 in Tianjin, People’s Republic of China, on Sept. 18 to Sept. 20.

Some of them will also participate in the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2019 in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland, in January. As leaders of innovation, they will be supported by the Forum’s new Centre of Innovation and Entrepreneurship and contribute to fostering the innovation ecosystem and delivering critical mass to solve global challenges, WEF said.

Amazon.com’s stock market value reached $900 billion on Wednesday for the first time, marking a major milestone in its 21-year trajectory as a publicly listed company and threatening to dislodge Apple as Wall Street’s most valuable jewel.

After Jeff Bezos founded the online book-selling company in his garage in 1994, Amazon survived the dot-com crisis and then expanded across the retail industry, altering how consumers buy products and setting off a Darwinian struggle among brick-and-mortar stores.

After announcing on Wednesday that it sold more than $100 million products during its annual Prime Day sale, the Seattle, Washington company’s stock briefly touched $1,858.88, giving Amazon a stock market value of $902 billion. It later reversed, trading down 0.16% for the session.

Amazon’s stock has surged more than 57% in 2018, bringing its increase to over 123,000% since it listed on the Nasdaq in 1997. An investor who bought 1 share of Amazon for $18 in the IPO would now have an investment worth more than $22,200, including three stock splits in the 1990s.

Amazon, video streaming service Netflix and a handful of heavyweight technology companies have fueled Wall Street’s rally in recent years and they remain key parts of portfolio managers’ portfolios.

Apple replaced Exxon Mobil in late 2011 as the US company with the largest stock market value. The Silicon Valley company’s shares have risen 12 percent in 2018, bringing its stock market value to $935 billion.

The calculations for Apple and Amazon’s market capitalizations are based on the number of shares outstanding in their March-quarter reports. Amazon has increased its share count by over 1 million shares per quarter in recent years, and if it continued that in the June quarter, its stock market value may already have exceeded $900 billion.

Amazon reports its results on July 26 and Apple, which has been reducing its share count through buybacks, reports its June-quarter results on July 31.

As Amazon expands into grocery retail through its acquisition of Whole Foods Market last year, and as more businesses move their IT departments onto the cloud, its stock price has been red hot, recently trading at 111 times expected earnings, compared to more-profitable – but slower growing – Apple’s valuation of 15 times earnings.

Amazon dislodged Microsoft Corp as the No. 3 US company by market capitalization in February. Since then, Microsoft has been overtaken by Google-owner Alphabet.

PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi is the world’s highest-paid female CEO, with a compensation of $25.9 million, the Associated Press reports. Although women make up only 5 percent of the CEO ranks at S&P 500 companies, median compensation for a female CEO was valued at $13.5 million for the 2017 fiscal year, versus $11.5 million for their male counterparts, according to an analysis by executive data firm Equilar done for the AP.

The AP’s compensation study covered 339 executives at S&P 500 companies who have served at least two full consecutive fiscal years at their respective companies, which filed proxy statements between Jan. 1 and April 30. Some companies with highly paid CEOs do not fit these criteria, such as Oracle. Debra Cafaro, CEO of real estate investment trust Ventas came in second at $25.3 million. And Mary Barra, CEO of General Motors, wrapped up third.

Nooyi was named president and CEO on Oct.1, 2006 and assumed the role of chairman on May 2, 2007. She has directed the company’s global strategy for more than a decade and led its restructuring, including the divestiture of its restaurants into the successful YUM! Brands, Inc. She also led the acquisition of Tropicana and the merger with Quaker Oats that brought the vital Quaker and Gatorade businesses to PepsiCo, the merger with PepsiCo’s anchor bottlers, and the acquisition of Wimm-Bill-Dann, the largest international acquisition in PepsiCo’s history.

Actor Kal Penn will star in a new documentary, as yet untitled, about the global economy for Amazon, to be produced by Adam McKay, Will Ferrell and Adam Davidson (co-founder of NPR’s “Planet Money”), according to Variety. The docuseries will offer viewers insight into the global economy.

“Look, I’m terrible at math and really good at sophomoric humor, so the idea that we can explore economics around the world by visiting places like a dildo factory in California piqued my interest,” Variety quoted the Indian American actor as saying. “To have an opportunity to explore the world while we combine the serious with the bizarre with Adam and Will is super exciting.”

The untitled show will offer insight into the global economy and its “comedic eccentricities.” Amazon Studios is ready to explore the global economy with Will Ferrell, Adam McKay and Kal Penn.

The retailer/streamer has handed out a straight-to-series order for an untitled docuseries examining the world’s finances. Penn will host the series, which is exec produced by Ferrell and McKay (The Big Short) as well as Adam Davidson (the co-founder of NPR’s Planet Money).

Amazon says the docuseries will offer “extraordinary insight into the global economy and its comedic eccentricities, all through a sardonic lens unique to McKay.”

“Adam Davidson is one of the more brilliant and funny minds out there. After collaborating with him on The Big Short, I jumped at the chance to continue trying to make economics and finance accessible to a wide audience,” McKay said.

Penn, the former White House associate director of public engagement, will invite viewers to meet the “geniuses, madmen and huskers” who make the decisions and investments that impact society. Topics to be explored include cryptocurrency, money laundering, death and corruption as the show sets out to explore how money, greed and power affect the hyper-connected world.

“Adam McKay is well known for finding the humor and absurdity in mind-blowing true stories, and we’re excited to bring that to Prime members with this series,” said Heather Schuster, head of unscripted at Amazon. “As with all of our unscripted series, we are committed to providing our customers with unprecedented access — this time to the fascinating and often illusive back rooms of global wealth and industry.”

Ferrell, McKay, Kevin Messick, Eli Holzman, Aaron Saidman and Aliyah Silverstein exec produce the docuseries from Intellectual Property Corp. and Gary Sanchez Productions. Davidson will be credited as a co-EP, while Penn will consult.

Penn will take viewers around the world to meet the “geniuses, madmen and hucksters” who make the decisions—and investments—that change people’s lives. The series will reportedly cover a range of topics, including cryptocurrency, money laundering, death and corruption, to explore how money, greed and power affect the hyper-connected world.

Penn was last seen on ABC’s “Designated Survivor.” Previously, he served as the host of Fox’s one-hour unscripted competition series, “Superhuman,” that tested the abilities of ordinary people to use their extraordinary skills – in fields such as memory, hearing, taste, touch, smell and sight.

For 2018, the basic structure of Social Security is the same in terms of how workers are taxed and how benefits are calculated and paid. However, there are a few notable changes to be aware of, such as the gradually increasing full retirement age and several thresholds and other Social Security figures that adjust over time with inflation. With that in mind, here’s a rundown of eight 2018 Social Security changes that are set to go into effect.

Image source: Getty Images.

1. The full retirement age is increasing for some eligible seniors

The full or normal retirement age for Social Security benefits has been 66 years of age for some time now but is set to gradually increase to 67 for Americans born after 1954.

Data source: Social Security Administration.

The reason this is important now is that the change has begun to affect people who are reaching the age of eligibility for Social Security benefits. Specifically, Americans who will turn 62 in 2018 (born in 1956) have a full retirement age of 66 years and four months, and those who will turn 63 in 2018 have a full retirement age of 66 years and two months.

Here’s why this is important. Since most Americans claim Social Security before they reach full retirement age, this means that early retirement will have a more dramatic reduction. For example, if a worker with a full retirement age of 66 claims at 62, he or she would face a 25% reduction. If their full retirement age is 66 years and four months, the reduction percentage would be 25.8%.

2. Finally, a decent cost-of-living adjustment for retirees

The Social Security Administration announced a 2% cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, for beneficiaries, starting with the Dec. 2017 payment. This is the highest COLA in six years and is due to higher inflation — specifically, the rise in the CPI. However, this is still historically low. Social Security COLAs have averaged roughly 3.8% since the current method was implemented in 1975. Furthermore, for many retirees, this year’s increase could be consumed by rising Medicare Part B premiums.

3. Higher payments for beneficiaries

While many retirees will see some or all of their increase swallowed up by rising Medicare premiums, the COLA should produce higher checks for beneficiaries. The SSA estimates that the average retired worker will get a $27 raise to $1,404, and that the average couple receiving benefits will see their combined payments rise by $46 to $2,340.

Additionally, because of the higher taxable earnings cap from 2017, the maximum benefit is increasing significantly. The highest possible benefit payable to a worker retiring at their full retirement age is rising by more than $100 to $2,788 per month in 2018.

4. A slightly higher taxable earnings cap

Speaking of the taxable earnings cap, this is rising for 2018 as well. Each year, there is a maximum amount of wage income that is subject to Social Security tax. For 2017, this maximum was set at $127,200 — meaning that any amount of earned income above this threshold was not taxable for Social Security. In 2018, the maximum taxable earnings amount is rising by $1,500 to $128,700, meaning that high-income individuals will end up paying more in Social Security tax than they did in 2017.

5. Disability thresholds are rising

Social Security pays disability benefits to more than 10 million people, and there are maximum amounts of income that people can still earn while collecting disability benefits. For 2018, these monthly thresholds are rising slightly.

Data source: Social Security Administration.

6. So are SSI payments

There are two Social Security disability programs — Social Security Disability Income (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI). SSDI payments are based on a beneficiary’s work record, just like retirement benefits.

On the other hand, SSI payments are based on a standard payment amount. For 2018, the SSI federal monthly payment standard is increasing.

Data source: Social Security Administration. Table by author.

7. The earnings test limits are going up

If you claim Social Security before reaching full retirement age and are still working, the amount of money you earn could potentially reduce your Social Security benefits. This is known as the Social Security earnings test, and there are two different versions of the test, depending on your age.

If you will reach full retirement age after 2018, $17,040 in earnings ($1,420 per month) will be excluded from consideration. Beyond this threshold, your retirement benefits can be reduced by $1 for every $2 in excess earnings.

If you will reach full retirement age during 2018, $45,360 in annualized earnings ($3,780 per month) are excluded. Beyond this threshold, your retirement benefits can be reduced by $1 for every $3 in excess earnings. For this test, only the months before you reach full retirement age are considered. If your benefits are withheld because of the earnings test, it could permanently increase your benefit once you reach full retirement age, so this money isn’t necessarily lost.

8. Social Security “credits” represent more earnings

As a final Social Security change for 2018, the “credits” workers need to earn to qualify for benefits are getting a little more expensive.

Specifically, in order to be eligible for a retirement benefit, you need to earn 40 Social Security credits, up to a maximum of four per year. In 2018, each credit represents $1,320 in earnings, so you’ll need to earn at least $5,280 in order to earn the four possible credits for the year.