Catégorie : Business News

• Beth Graham and her brothers cared for their mother for four years after she had a stroke.
• After their mom died, the siblings decided to spend the $75,000 inheritance on a trip to South Africa.
• Spending quality time with her brothers helped her deal with the loss.

I grew up in one of those weirdly close families where we all genuinely enjoyed spending time together.

My dad died young, at 56, leaving my adventurous, spirited mother a widow. I’m the youngest of three kids, with two older brothers, and we all share a love of travel.

Five years ago, during a visit back home to Florida to see my mom, she came into my room early in the morning complaining about « the worst headache of her life. » It was confirmed later, at the hospital, that she had a stroke.

For the next four years, we were her caregivers. Thankfully, her long-term insurance covered most of the expenses, but my brothers and I chipped in to cover things like round-the-clock caretakers and a new stereo so she could listen to soothing music.

As a wealth manager, my middle brother managed her larger assets and took care of things like selling her home, paying off her mortgage, and settling her estate. After she died and all of her outstanding expenses were covered, we were left with about $75,000 of inheritance.

Our initial thought was to split that among her three grandchildren to help jump-start their young adult lives. But one of my brothers doesn’t have children, so it didn’t seem fair. We began talking about how best to honor her with those remaining funds.

While it may sound selfish to some, we determined that she would have wanted to treat us with something — she was the kind of mom who always put our needs ahead of her own.

Caregiving is hard, and we all experienced burnout at different times, both emotionally and physically, so we wanted to find a way to unwind from the past few years.

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Including grandkids was too complicated

As my brothers and I all enjoy traveling I suggested we take a trip in her memory. Getting everyone to agree to that was actually the easy part. Deciding where to go proved more difficult.

The original plan was to include everyone on the trip: my husband, my sister-in-law, and the three grandkids. I suggested we rent a chateau in the south of France or a villa in Italy since my mom was such a foodie. But because of our range of interests — some like museums, others like organized tours, and others crave adventure — we concluded that a relaxing vacation in a home wouldn’t work.

Beth Graham

We settled on a trip to South Africa that would include a one-week safari and another week in Stellenbosch wine country — paying tribute to my mom’s love for great wine.

We soon realized that including our kids, some still in college and others just starting new careers, would not work. They wouldn’t be able to take two weeks off. So, as disappointing as it was, we decided to leave them behind. We were also very aware that this would give us the extra money to plan a more luxurious trip.

A trip to honor our mom

We flew business class from New York to Cape Town and spent two days exploring the region with a local guide. Then we traveled to Kruger National Park to our luxury resort in the private Sabi Sands Game Reserve and spent five days tracking the Big 5. We saw all five almost every day.

Beth Graham

I ordered three small memorial key chains. Each sibling was to bring along some of my mother’s ashes so that she could join us on the trip. One evening, we gathered at the resort’s bar, poured a glass of wine for her, surrounded by our keychains, and toasted her for our amazing lives and sibling relationships.

After a memorable — and emotional — week, we journeyed on to our luxury Airbnb in Stellenbosch to toast her some more as we sampled the wines of the region. The end of our trip was bittersweet because we knew our time together honoring her with this trip was coming to an end.

We spent all of that money and then some, but none of us had any doubt that she was looking down on us and smiling. As an adult, it’s rare that I get time to properly catch up with my own siblings. That quality time together was special and, hopefully, exactly what our mom would have wanted.

Got a personal essay about reconnecting with family that you want to share? Get in touch with the editor: akarplus@businessinsider.com.

• Progesterone dermatitis is a rare immune sensitivity condition.
• Symptoms present like common skin conditions, including eczema and hives, or allergic reactions.
• Experts weigh in to help you understand the condition.

Autoimmune progesterone dermatitis is a rare condition that can occur when progesterone rises during a woman’s menstrual cycle. It can cause a physical reaction that may present differently depending on the person, but symptoms often mirror skin conditions like eczema, hives, or other allergic reactions.

Dr. Purvi Parikh, an allergist and immunologist, told Business Insider that progesterone dermatitis is thought to be caused by the immune system becoming sensitive to a naturally occurring hormone.

« Basically, your own immune system starts forming either an allergy or a sensitivity to progesterone. We have progesterone in our body as a hormone, and so normally, we shouldn’t be allergic to it because it’s a naturally occurring thing, » Parikh said.

Symptoms of the condition usually appear between 3 and 10 days before the first day of your period, during the luteal phase of menstruation.

« What we know is there is a sensitivity or an allergy that seems to be a reaction to the high progesterone levels that occur during the luteal phase, which is directly before the menstrual period, » Angela Brimhall, a board-certified holistic dermatologist, told Business Insider.

Are some more likely than others to develop autoimmune progesterone dermatitis?

Whether you’re taking hormonal birth control to prevent unwanted pregnancy, reduce the symptoms of premenstrual syndrome, or another reason, there are plenty of benefits associated with it. But depending on the type of birth control you take, it could also increase your chance of developing autoimmune progesterone dermatitis.

« In some women, taking outside progesterone, or what we call ‘exogenous progesterone,’ either in the form of birth control or for other reasons, can sometimes cause your immune system to become sensitive or hypersensitive to it, » Parikh said.

Parikh said that during the menstrual cycle, natural progesterone rises, and your immune system can begin to experience the hormone as something you’re allergic to, with increased risk for those taking forms of progesterone from outside the body.

Dr. Somi Javaid, a board-certified OB-GYN, told Business Insider there’s no known genetic predisposition to developing autoimmune progesterone dermatitis. The Autoimmune Association notes that while any premenopausal woman could develop the condition, it appears to be rare in pregnant women.

If you develop the condition, what can you expect?

If you develop autoimmune progesterone dermatitis, you may experience physical symptoms similar to an allergic reaction.

Related stories

« It can present with a variety of skin manifestations, » Javaid said. « You can have something that looks like eczema, hives, angioedema, erythema multiforme, vesicles that look like papules, mouth erosions, or itching. It’s a hypersensitivity, so it can feel like an allergic reaction. That’s why people say they feel like they’re allergic to their cycle. »

The type of treatment that will be most beneficial to you depends on the specific symptoms you experience.

« First-line therapies can be topical steroids, oral steroids, antihistamines, or a medication to help block the product production of progesterone, » Javaid said.

In addition to medication, Javaid some basic lifestyle changes could benefit people with progesterone dermatitis.

« Anything that helps regulate hormones will also help, » Javaid said. « Making sure you’re sleeping, managing your stress. If we’re talking about an inflammatory response, limiting things you put in your body that promote inflammation, like fried foods, processed foods, sugar, and alcohol. »

How can you tell the difference between progesterone dermatitis and regular allergy symptoms?

Physical symptoms of autoimmune progesterone dermatitis can be hard to spot as they can appear similar to allergies or common skin conditions. But before you write your symptoms off as allergies, take note of when they worsen and how often you experience them.

Javaid told Business Insider that while there’s no single diagnostic tool for autoimmune progesterone dermatitis, paying attention to your menstrual cycle can help.

« Tracking your cycles against your symptoms is going to be the key diagnostic tool and what you should do to help yourself when you go to your provider to make that diagnosis, » Javaid said.

Parikh told Business Insider that noticing a clear cyclical pattern to your symptoms that worsens during your menstrual cycle is a warning sign.

Why you may not have heard of autoimmune progesterone dermatitis before

You may not have heard of autoimmune progesterone dermatitis because there’s little existing research on it. In fact, the National Library of Medicine said that « less than 200 cases of this rare condition have been reported in literature. »

Though a lack of research could indicate the condition is rare, it could also indicate a larger issue in women’s healthcare.

« I think it is underdiagnosed, » Parikh said. « For women in general, unfortunately, traditionally, their concerns and symptoms may not be taken as seriously or may be disregarded by the healthcare system. There’s a lot of data on that. So initially, people may have presented with symptoms, but they weren’t diagnosed as autoimmune progesterone dermatitis. »

If you think you have autoimmune progesterone dermatitis, a great first step is to consult a medical provider to discuss your symptoms and potential treatment options.

• Guests can sleep on the USS Cobia, a World War II submarine, at the Wisconsin Maritime Museum.
• The submarine is listed on Airbnb and can sleep up to 65 people in sailors’ bunks.
• My stay was a memorable experience that gave me a newfound respect for US Navy submariners.

At the Wisconsin Maritime Museum in Manitowoc, you can descend a steep staircase into the USS Cobia, a US Navy submarine that sank 13 ships and earned four battle stars in World War II. You can walk through the rooms and learn about its history in combat from a US Navy veteran or self-guided audio tour.

Unlike other museums, you can also sleep there.

Through the museum’s « Sub Bnb » experience, guests can book a stay on the USS Cobia via Airbnb and spend the night in the same bunks where submariners once slept during their wartime service.

For years, the Wisconsin Maritime Museum hosted Boy Scout troops and other large groups on the submarine, which can sleep up to 65 people. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit and large groups could no longer visit, the museum pivoted to hosting individual families. The experiences proved so popular that the museum has continued to offer overnight stays for large and small groups alike.

« The Sub Bnb was a business move in many ways for the sustainability of the museum, » Wisconsin Maritime Museum director Kevin Cullen told Business Insider.

The cost of the Sub BnB starts at $500 per night, plus a $100 cleaning fee and an $85 Airbnb service fee for a total of $685. Business Insider paid a discounted media rate of $200 to report this story.

The funds earned from Sub Bnb stays help support the museum.

« Just by staying there, you get that authentic experience, but you’re also supporting preservation for generations to come, » Cullen said.

In December, I visited the Wisconsin Maritime Museum for an overnight stay on the USS Cobia accompanied by my dad, a maritime enthusiast.

Here’s what it’s like to spend a night on a World War II submarine.

• Frontier Airlines’ annual all-you-can-fly flight pass called « GoWild! » costs $299 through Wednesday.
• I bought the seasonal subscription in 2023 and used it to crisscross the US.
• While it has limitations, I think GoWild is good for flexible travelers with a spontaneous spirit.

Frontier Airlines’ all-you-can-fly pass is an interesting concept that comes with a major catch.

Called « GoWild!, » the subscription-based program gives members exclusive access to heavily discounted flights — $0.01, plus taxes and fees.

On Tuesday, Frontier announced the annual pass option for just $299, valid for travel between May 1, 2025, and April 30, 2026. This is GoWild’s lowest price yet, which goes up to $499 after December 18.

Frontier also sells seasonal and monthly passes. Be aware that GoWild will automatically renew unless you cancel.

Bookings can be made the day before for domestic flights or up to 10 days in advance for international flights, with the option to pay an early booking fee for dates beyond that.

Luggage, reserved seats, snacks, and drinks still cost extra. New this year is the ability to earn Frontier Miles when booking seats and bags with a GoWild ticket.

Hypothetically, GoWild means one could wake up one morning and, on a whim, go hop across Frontier’s route map for as low as $15 per leg with just a personal item.

It sounds too good to be true, so I decided to test it out using Frontier’s $299 unlimited fall and winter pass in 2023.

I visited three cities over five days, spending $60 total on last-minute flights. There were early mornings and late nights, some moments of uncertainty, and hours of flying on Frontier’s uncomfortable planes.

After using the pass, I found that GoWild can be extremely frustrating to use if you aren’t flexible or willing to get creative. But for others, it may be a golden ticket.

Over 4,000 miles in five days for $60

Frontier’s GoWild pass offers unlimited flights across its entire network, which touches the US, Mexico, and the Caribbean.

I started my 2023 trip in Austin after a friend’s wedding. Then, I flew to Las Vegas and Orlando. I took the Brightline train to Miami to catch a flight to Philadelphia, where I then headed home to Connecticut via Amtrak.

Taylor Rains/Business Insider

Thanks to the early booking option, I booked my first leg to Vegas about a week in advance to ensure I’d at least get out of Texas. It was an extra fee, but it was worth the peace of mind.

The other two legs were booked at the lowest rate, so I paid $15 to Orlando and Philadelphia and $30 to Vegas for a total of $60 on three flights. Without the pass, the flights would have cost about $260.

I personally enjoyed piecing together the trip and having various options to work with, but I also loved that I could potentially switch up plans on a whim.

But I realized the too-good-to-be-true pass has a few pain points that make it only really useful for certain lifestyles.

The « unlimited » flight pass has its limitations

One of the biggest concerns about GoWild is actually getting anywhere at all.

Not only are there blackout dates, but it’s not uncommon for Frontier to have nonstop flights listed but no GoWild seats available for purchase.

Frontier Airlines

This could force people to ditch paradise destinations like Cancun for a completely different city in a random place, like Ohama, for example. Not that a spontaneous trip to Nebraska can’t be fun, but it’s not the beach getaway one may have expected.

Related stories

Plus, last-minute GoWild seats to the Caribbean are difficult to snag, as a Wall Street Journal reporter who tested the pass in June 2023 found.

Travelers also have to consider last-minute hotels and activities may be more expensive or sold out.

Frontier doesn’t have the best flight schedule

I didn’t have many options for leaving Austin except a 10 p.m. flight to Las Vegas. I wasn’t thrilled about the late departure, but that’s part of the experience.

After a full day of touring around Las Vegas, I was hoping to sleep in the next morning and then take a red-eye flight to Florida that night.

Taylor Rains/Business Insider

Surprisingly, on the one day that I wanted to fly to Orlando, Frontier had only a 6:15 a.m. flight — nothing later. I sucked it up and trudged through another sleepless night after leaving Vegas’ famous Sphere at 11:30 p.m.

After a full day exploring Miami with a friend, I switched my next day’s Philadelphia flight from 6:10 a.m. to 1:11 p.m. to get more sleep.

There was no cancellation fee, but I also lost a day of exploring Philadelphia.

I restricted myself to a personal item

Because I was trying to book the cheapest GoWild flights possible, I forwent a carry-on bag, which cost over $60 for each leg.

I brought a regular-sized backpack with a laptop pocket in the back. I packed it so that nothing bulged out, and it fit perfectly inside Frontier’s size checker.

Taylor Rains/Business Insider

I’ll admit that I had to pack and repack several times, and I had to ditch a lot of outfits that I wanted to bring with me.

Bringing only a personal item ended up being extremely challenging, so I recommend just paying for the carry-on if you think you’ll need it.

If you do opt for the free option, be warned: an agent visually checked every personal item during boarding during all three flights.

They forced those that looked too big into the size box and charged extra for the bags that didn’t fit — likely part of Frontier’s controversial bag incentive program.

Finding GoWild seats is a lot of tedious guess-and-check

The process of searching and booking GoWild seats is a cumbersome task. The flights can only be bought on Frontier’s website, not its app, and customers have to check each one by one.

Taylor Rains/Business Insider

Fortunately, some computer-savvy individuals independent of Frontier launched « The 1491 Club, » which has a monthly fee but lists every single GoWild seat available.

It saved me a lot of effort when trying to Tetris together my GoWild itinerary.

Getting home proved tricky once I realized that using Frontier isn’t ideal for those of us living in no-man’s land Connecticut.

When I bought the pass, I initially planned to use Stewart International Airport in New York, 40 minutes away, but Frontier has sadly since shut down operations there.

I ended up taking a two-hour Amtrak home from Philadelphia for $40 and Ubering home from the station.

Taylor Rains/Business Insider

I could save time by driving to a New York City airport, but then I’d be locked into returning to the same airport, which would make using GoWild even tougher.

My advice is that if you don’t live near a Frontier hub or focus city, GoWild will be nearly impossible to use unless you’re willing to add drive time, parking fees, rideshare trips, or train fares.

GoWild is most realistic for those with remote or flexible jobs

Despite the less-than-favorable flight times, I managed to check off my list of cities to hit and things to do.

While I had a good experience, there are still a lot of limitations to the « unlimited » flight pass, and the costs can add up.

Personal items that bulge just a little too much may be subject to Frontier’s hefty carry-on fee. You also have to pay extra for more luggage or legroom.

There’s also no guarantee you’ll get to your desired destination until the day before unless you fork out even more money for an early booking fee. This uncertainty can be stressful.

But for those who love to travel on a whim, the concept of not knowing your next move could be a dream adventure.

Taylor Rains/Business Insider

Spontaneous digital nomads or freelancers would likely get the most out of the pass. I have a remote job, so I could make it work.

I’m sure there are a lot of people who could make weekend getaways via GoWild work, too. But it’d come with risks like getting stuck somewhere and missing work — at that point, I don’t think it’d be worth the hassle.

• Walmart is testing out body-cams for store employees in one market in Texas.
• A spokesperson said the goal of the pilot is to improve worker safety and evaluate the results.
• Earlier this year, Axon introduced a line of cameras designed for retail and healthcare workers.

Walmart shoppers in Texas may want to think twice before losing their cool with a store employee — the interaction could be captured from an up-close-and-personal camera angle.

The retail giant is testing body-cams for store employees in the Dallas area. A Walmart spokesperson told Business Insider the goal of the pilot is to improve worker safety and evaluate the results before making long-term decisions about a wider rollout.

« While we don’t talk about the specifics of our security measures, we are always looking at new and innovative technology used across the retail industry, » the spokesperson said.

One shopper told CNBC they saw a receipt-checker in Denton, Texas, wearing a yellow-and-black camera earlier this month, and an image of a rack of 16 similarly colored cameras was posted last month to the r/Walmart forum on Reddit.

A Walmart-branded poster in the image instructs users in ways to wear the camera, how to stop and start recording an event, and a reminder to remove the camera when visiting break rooms or restrooms.

The charging station for the cameras is marked with the Axon brand, which is most widely known for supplying body cameras for law enforcement officers. Axon declined to comment.

Earlier this year, Axom introduced a line of cameras designed for retail and healthcare workers, which look similar to the ones in the Reddit image.

In a survey, Axon found nearly half of retail workers said they had seen or been a victim of physical or verbal violence while on the job. Of those, most surveyed said they had experienced multiple incidents.

The company said one retailer who used the cameras in an early trial saw the number of incidents cut in half, and another found the cameras to be highly effective at de-escalating confrontations.

Over the summer, TJ Maxx equipped store associates with body cameras as a method to deter crime.

« We hope that these body cameras will help us de-escalate incidents, deter crime, and demonstrate to our Associates and customers that we take safety in our stores seriously, » a spokesperson said at the time.

If you are a Walmart worker who wants to share your perspective, please contact Dominick via email or text/call/Signal at 646.768.4750. Responses will be kept confidential, and Business Insider strongly recommends using a personal email and a non-work device when reaching out

• Amazon will invest another $10 billion in Ohio data centers, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said.
• The company will consider locations outside its power-strained hub in Columbus.
• In exchange for tax credits, Amazon committed to more than 1,000 new jobs in its Ohio data centers.

Amazon has committed to spending $10 billion on the expansion of its Ohio data center operations, in addition to the billions of dollars it has already said it plans to spend in the state, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said Monday.

The tech giant’s new Ohio facilities, which should be completed by the end of 2030, will help power the push into AI by its cloud computing unit, Amazon Web Services.

Just last year, AWS said it would invest $7.8 billion to expand its data center hub in Columbus and the surrounding suburbs. The company started building data centers in the region in 2015 and has at least six different campuses that are either operational or under construction.

Ohio has committed to spending more than $23 billion on data centers in the state between the money it has already spent and its committed investments, a spokesperson for Ohio’s Department of Development said.

The investment in Ohio is part of Amazon’s aggressive spending plan on data center construction to support AI demand. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said on the company’s third-quarter earnings call in October that it plans to spend $75 billion on capital expenditures in 2024, most of which will go to cloud computing and data centers, and it expects to spend even more next year.

Local politicians have dubbed the Central Ohio « the Silicon Heartland. » Gov. DeWine touted the AWS announcement this week as « strengthening the state’s role as a major technology hub. »

Most of Amazon’s data centers are located in Northern Virginia, the largest data center market in the world. That area has become saturated with new facilities waiting to be connected to the electric grid. In the last 18 months, Amazon and its competitors have announced plans to build data centers in states nationwide. Just this year, Amazon announced plans to spend $11 billion on data centers in Indiana and $10 billion in Mississippi.

Job creation in Ohio

Ohio, which offers a generous slate of state and local tax incentives, including an up to 100% sales and use tax exemption for data center equipment, has seen a sharp uptick in development.

For this latest investment, the Ohio Tax Credit Authority approved additional job creation tax credits in AWS’s existing economic development agreement with the state. In exchange for annual job creation tax credits, AWS has promised 1,058 « full-time equivalent » jobs with a minimum average annual payroll of $101.37 million, a spokesperson for Ohio’s Department of Development told Business Insider.

Ohio law defines « full-time equivalent employees » as the result of a calculation, or « dividing the total number of hours for which employees were compensated for employment in the project by two thousand eighty. » The employees must be directly employed by Amazon for the company to receive its tax credits, although there is no requirement for the kinds of jobs Amazon must offer.

When BI contacted AWS and asked what types of jobs would be available in its new Ohio data centers, an AWS spokesperson reiterated the information listed in Gov. DeWine’s press release, which referred to the jobs as « new » and « well-paying. »

Related stories

Electricity demand rises

AWS’s financial commitment to the state will hinge on whether local utilities can provide the amount of electricity the company eventually says it will need.

AEP Ohio, the Columbus utility that serves Amazon, said earlier this year that it received 30 gigawatts of service requests from data centers alone — an amount that would put the region’s demand for electricity close to New York City’s.

Much of that demand comes from the wealthy suburban enclave of New Albany, Ohio, where Meta, Microsoft, Google, and QTS are all constructing major data center projects. The site of Intel’s future semiconductor chip plant is in neighboring Johnstown, Ohio. The New Albany Company, the real estate company founded by billionaire retail mogul Les Wexner, orchestrated many of the area’s major land sales to tech companies, including Intel.

For its newest data centers, AWS will look to sites beyond the Columbus region, though no locations have been finalized, according to a statement from Gov. DeWine’s office. If AWS locates a data center outside the Columbus region, it would likely be outside AEP’s service territory.

AEP has asked Ohio’s public utilities regulator to approve a tariff and a special rate class for data centers that would require the power-hungry facilities to pay for the majority of electricity they anticipate needing — even if they ultimately do not consume all of it.

The data center industry, including Amazon, is working to quash AEP’s proposal. In a November testimony filed with the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, Michael Fradette, who leads Amazon’s energy strategy, called the proposal a « discriminatory structure » that « unfairly targets data center customers by targeting customers in specific industries. »

The matter has sowed division among corporate interests in Ohio. Those who oppose the tariffs include the Ohio Manufacturers’ Association Energy Group, a lobbying offshoot of the state’s major manufacturing industry trade group, and the Ohio Energy Leadership Council, which is represented by David Proaño, a lawyer in BakerHostetler’s Columbus office who also represents Amazon’s data center business before the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio.

Meanwhile, Ohio Energy Group, which counts Cargill, Ford, GE, and Intel as members, has testified in favor of AEP’s proposed data center tariffs. Walmart, a large customer of AEP in Ohio, has also come out supporting the tariff.

AEP is planning new transmission infrastructure projects to service data centers in the Columbus area, as well as the Intel chip plant. The future of the chip plant, which is supposed to bring 3,000 advanced manufacturing jobs to central Ohio, is uncertain as the company debates spinning off its struggling foundry business.

Rising energy demand from Columbus area data centers has triggered the need for new transmission infrastructure. Under AEP’s existing rate structures, the costs of new transmission lines to data centers could be spread to other ratepayers.

Many of AEP’s residential, commercial, and industrial customers saw transmission costs rise by $10 monthly in April, the fourth rate increase approved for the utility in three years. Next year, average bill totals will increase another $1.50 a month to support grid reliability, the utility said.

Do you have insight, information, or a tip to share with this reporter? Contact Ellen Thomas via the secure messaging app Signal at +1-929-524-6964.

• Trump’s lawyers allege there was juror « misconduct » at his NY hush-money trial.
• Details of the allegations, which Trump hopes will void his conviction, are not being released.
• Manhattan prosecutors called the allegations « unsworn, unsupported, heresay. »

One day after Donald Trump lost his 11th-hour bid to void his hush-money conviction, a juror « misconduct » battle is brewing, according to a newly-public series of court filings in the case.

The heavily-veiled dispute began with a December 3 letter, in which the president-elect’s lawyers told the trial judge, New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan, that « the jury in this case was not anywhere near fair and impartial. »

Nearly two-thirds of the 15 page letter is redacted, but in it, defense lawyer Todd Blanche — Trump’s pick for deputy attorney general — complained to Merchan about « extensive and pervasive misconduct » that « violated President Trump’s rights under the federal Constitution and New York law. »

Details of the alleged misconduct, and even whether it concerns a single juror or more than one, are redacted. The letter demands that the misconduct be considered as evidence in Trump’s yet-resolved request that Merchan void the case in the interest of justice.

The defense followed up their December 3 letter to the judge with two more dated December 5 and 9. Both asked that the December 3 letter be made public in redacted form, a request opposed by prosecutors with New York Attorney General Alvin Bragg.

Prosecutors responded December 9 by noting that Trump’s misconduct claim « consists entirely of unsworn allegations, » based on « hearsay and conjecture. »

As part of Monday’s 41-page denial of Trump’s most recent dismissal effort, Merchan responded by saying he would only consider Trump’s misconduct claims if they were formalized in a motion.

This story is developing, check back for more information.

• Investment tactics often require big buy-ins and high fees.
• New tech is lowering the price of entry in fields like direct indexing and private markets.
• This article is part of « Transforming Business, » a series on the must-know leaders and trends impacting industries.

Investing like a billionaire comes with a high price tag. But thanks to technology, the barriers to these elite opportunities are starting to crumble.

Consider direct indexing, a strategy favored by the rich to lower taxes by selling underperforming stocks and using the losses to offset other gains. These personalized portfolios used to be out of reach of the merely affluent, requiring steep account minimums. Over the past five years, direct indexing has exploded as technological advancements have made it worthwhile for wealth managers to offer the services to Main Street customers. The account minimum for Fidelity’s FidFolios, for example, is only $5,000.

« Direct indexing has become accessible at a different level of wealth than it has been in the past, » said Ranjit Kapila, the copresident and chief operating officer of Parametric. « That wouldn’t have been available or possible without the technology trends we’ve had to be able to do this level of computation at scale in a cost-efficient manner. »

Parametric, the pioneer of direct indexing, is also moving downstream. By adopting fractional-share investing, Parametric lowered the minimum for its core product to $100,000 from $250,000. The firm plans to offer a direct-indexing product with fewer customization features for $25,000 in 2025.

Private markets face steeper hurdles. This opaque field was traditionally reserved for deep-pocketed investors like pension funds and ultrarich individuals. But now investors have more access to financial results for funds and privately held companies as data providers race to meet their needs. Machine learning and AI have made it easier for these firms to extract and analyze data.

BlackRock views this data as the great equalizer and has grand ambitions of indexing these opaque private markets. The asset-management giant agreed this summer to acquire the data powerhouse Preqin for $3.2 billion.

« We anticipate indexes and data will be important to future drivers of the democratization of all alternatives, » BlackRock CEO Larry Fink said on a conference call. « And this acquisition is the unlock. »

Leon Sinclair, Preqin’s executive vice president, argued that with the number of public companies dwindling, it’s imperative for mass-affluent investors to get better access to private markets.

« Clearly there’s more, deeper, better sources of funding for private companies that could stay private for longer, » Sinclair said. « I think it’s fair that the mass affluent can — in the right way — be brought along on that journey to get exposure to that part of the mosaic earlier. »

Investing in automation for a competitive edge

Kapila described these technological developments as part of a trend in wealth management to capture customers before they make it big.

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« There’s a desire by financial advisors to try and engage investors earlier in their wealth-accumulation cycle, » Kapila said.

Parametric, acquired by Morgan Stanley in 2021, operates in a competitive arena. Thanks to a wave of similar acquisitions, Parametric faces well-capitalized rivals such as BlackRock’s Aperio and Franklin Templeton’s Canvas. Industry stalwarts like Fidelity and upstarts like Envestnet also want a piece of the action.

Kapila said the need to compete on scale and fees required Parametric’s technology to be as efficient as possible.

« It’ll be harder, » he said. « We have to do many, many more accounts to really drive growth in assets, etc. But those challenges are exciting to me as a technologist. »

To meet that need, Kapila is pushing Parametric to develop more automated products, such as Radius, which launched this year. Radius constructs equity and fixed-income portfolios and runs simulations to identify the best selections for portfolio managers. He plans to launch more cloud-native tools, which are easier to scale and manage, for other asset classes in 2025 and 2026. Parametric is also piloting generative-AI tools to onboard accounts more efficiently.

Clients’ expectations are also rising. There’s demand for Parametric’s tax benefits but with actively managed strategies rather than indexes, he said, spurring partnerships with asset managers.

Parametric recently launched an offering that allows customers to pick equities off strategies from the financial-advisory and asset-management firm Lazard.

To stay ahead of the curve, Preqin is developing more sophisticated products. Last year, the UK firm launched an Actionability Signal that uses machine learning to identify private companies likely to be open for investment.

« The sole focus on public information for certain tasks around valuation and risk management are not really going to be the way that people do this, » Sinclair said. « We’re moving much more to a world where real proprietary private information at the asset level, which is transactionally oriented, is available to people. »

In June, his division launched a data tool that analyzes $4.8 trillion worth of deals across 6,500 funds. This database can be used in a slew of ways, from backing up valuations in negotiations to identifying which financial factors, such as revenue growth or debt paydown, contributed the most value to a successful deal.

With the rise of generative AI, Sinclair expects that users will be able to interpret data with more ease using natural language commands.

« I think you’ll see that be more prominent across the industry where people expect to interact with large data sets in really natural common ways, » he said. « We think all that will probably start to be visible over the coming years. »

Tech is the first step to narrowing education gaps

On average, retail investors allocate just 5% of their portfolios to alternative investments. If BlackRock successfully indexes private markets, it could go a long way toward boosting that percentage.

However, Sinclair said more work is required to help mass affluent investors feel comfortable investing in private markets. As someone who grew up working class and was only introduced to finance in college, he knows there is an education gap to overcome.

« To get Joe Bloggs very excited and comfortable with committing capital, they need to be able to understand what the different basis of those returns are, » Sinclair said.

He added: « I think it’s in the industry’s interest to enable those new sources of capital, to bridge the gap in understanding, to bridge the gap in analytics, to bridge the gap in frequency of reporting, to make that an easier journey for people to go on. »

• I’ve always been a perfectionist, pushing myself to the extremes for success.
• I felt like a failure when I became a mother, so I had to shift my perspective.
• I now want my daughter to embrace failure and be resilient.

I am a trifecta of eldest daughter stereotypes: overachiever, people-pleaser, and perfectionist. I have always been a rule follower, and as a teenager, I rarely challenged my Indian immigrant parents‘ strict rules.

By some combination of nature and nurture, I channeled these traits into academics in high school, spending inordinate amounts of time obsessing over my grades (especially that one B+ that ruined my high school valedictorian dreams).

Academic success became the cornerstone of my self-esteem as I entered college, and my priorities reflected this. I turned down invitations to socialize, travel, and explore in order to study, study, and then study some more. I lost more sleep worrying about a possible B or C grade than over developmentally appropriate partying.

Even though my perfectionism helped me get into graduate school and pursue my career of choice as a psychologist, by my 20s, I knew intellectually that putting all my self-worth eggs in the external achievements basket was a recipe for disappointment and anxiety.

However, without a constructive perspective on failure, I was unmotivated to take risks. What I didn’t realize until later was that my fear of failure would also affect my parenting.

Achieving my highest professional goal left me unfulfilled

After earning tenure at my university, I was euphoric but soon felt restless. I didn’t understand why the achievement was so anticlimactic, but with the help of my therapist, I discovered that I wanted something more, something more meaningful. It turned out that after having spent my entire adult life firmly in the child-free zone, I wanted to have a baby.

A few years later, at age 38, I got pregnant. At the time, I was working six days a week, so I couldn’t do my usual overpreparation by reading dozens of books about pregnancy and parenting. I told myself that this was actually a blessing in disguise because it forced me to curb my overachiever tendencies.

Well, even if I had read a library of books on parenting, I would not have avoided the inevitable uncertainty of being a parent. I struggled with breastfeeding, as many mothers do, and in my postpartum period, I filtered this experience through my default lens of success vs. failure. I carried guilt about my breastfeeding challenges for many months, counting them as failures.

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A lactation consultant transformed my perspective on parenting

Thankfully, the next day, my daughter’s pediatrician referred me to a lactation consultant to whom I will forever be indebted.

She met with me via Zoom, and her long white hair and confident smile instilled hope. She normalized my feelings of failure, imparted an attitude of experimentation and grace, and helped me refocus on the task at hand. She helped me see that what really matters is learning how to be the parent that my daughter needs, not the parent that I or others think I should be.

Of course, this is no easy task. The lexicon of modern parenting styles continues to grow. At the same time, both parents and youth are struggling with mental health, and social media glorifies success. Our educational system further reinforces the connection between self-worth and achievement through grades.

I hope to set a good example for my daughter

While we work on changing our systems and culture to be more compassionate, there are many immediate ways to foster resilience in ourselves and our children.

Some of the strategies I’ve been implementing include trying things that I’m not good at. I recently took a satire writing class and won’t be pitching The Onion anytime soon. I’m also allowing myself to meet an 80% standard on any task that is not related to a current priority and practicing grace toward myself, my husband, and my daughter.

My hope for my daughter has always been that she sees her innate worth reflected in the love of her family and support system and that she is equipped with the tools to face challenges with confidence and courage. Now I know that this starts with me.

• My family moved to Alaska for my husband’s job.
• I went into labor a month early, and our hospital couldn’t treat him.
• We flew to Washington state to receive care and my husband was able to come with us.

When my family and I decided to move to Alaska for my husband’s job, we didn’t know I’d be newly pregnant when we eventually arrived at our island home.

My husband began teaching at a small university campus in southeast Alaska, and we enrolled our daughter in pre-K. We made some lovely friends, and I set up a writing desk in a corner of the master bedroom, with views of the Tongass National Forest out the window.

I thought I was ready to welcome an infant to this new life we’d embarked on — but I didn’t expect to go into labor early.

The doctors recommended flying down south

When my water broke at 35 weeks and five days, I had a sinking feeling: it was too soon. I gave birth to a seven-pound boy the next day, and the doctors and nurses were initially optimistic.

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He was big — that was a good thing. But he began to have trouble breathing almost right away, and within a few days, it became clear that our small hospital didn’t have the capacity to treat him. « If I were you, » the pediatrician said gravely, « I’d fly south. »

We did. My son and I were loaded into a Lear Jet and flown to Washington state, where we spent most of the month in a succession of neonatal intensive care units. But he and I are not the heroes of this story: that title goes to my husband.

When it became clear that we’d have to be medically evacuated out of Alaska, Steve left the hospital and packed me a bag. He searched for flights so he and our 5-year-old could join the baby and me in Washington the next day. He coordinated with my mom, who flew in from across the country, and he picked her up at SeaTac. He found a hotel near the hospital and spent those weeks sharing a room with his preschooler and his mother-in-law — like I said, a hero.

He worked remotely

In the course of packing up our lives for a trip of unknown duration to a destination 750 miles away, Steve also packed up his work. Our baby was born just before the start of the spring semester. Steve was able to start the semester remotely, thanks to a supportive campus director and staff and a long history of remote teaching in Alaska, which accommodates students in rural villages and towns across the state.

Each night in the hotel, Steve would stay up long after our daughter went to bed, preparing lessons, grading papers, and engaging asynchronously with students’ discussion posts.

What this meant, practically speaking, was that during an incredibly challenging time, Steve and I were able to confer about everything from our son’s medical advice to our daughter’s big feelings. We were even able to find moments of levity and joy together, like when we took our daughter to the therapy pool at the children’s hospital and watched her diving under the warm water to retrieve little plastic sharks. In other words, we were able to be a family.

I know it wasn’t easy for Steve to work from a hotel room. Nor was it easy for him to focus on his job when there were so many critical decisions that we had to make daily. Sure, it was hard on me, too — but everyone seemed to recognize that. I was treated like a queen.

Everyone gave me credit, but he deserved it too

In one of the hospitals, I had access to my own private bedroom, where I could sleep for a few hours while the baby slept. I was also given daily coupons for the Starbucks downstairs. In another hospital, I was able to order meals on demand since I was a breastfeeding mother.

My husband, on the other hand, was mostly ignored. By the end of our time in the NICU, I could read the exhaustion on his face. He started to tell me what a good job I had done, but I cut him off. I didn’t need the compliment, but I thought maybe he did, so I said it: « This was hard on you, and you did an amazing job, and I’m so glad you were here. »

I’m grateful to a lot of people for their help during that month: the friends who cleaned out our fridge and then delivered soup, fresh bread, and flowers when we arrived home; the doctors and nurses who were diligent and kind; my mother and my daughter, both of whom made sacrifices of their own during that stressful month.

But mostly, I’m grateful to my husband, who made it possible for us to get the best care for our son without breaking up the family into little pieces. I hope when our son grows up, he becomes the same kind of man.