• Warren Buffett, the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, wrote in his annual letter out Saturday that the company planned to buy back more of its stock. 
• Buybacks have recently drawn the ire of some politicians.
• Senators Chuck Schumer and Bernie Sanders wrote in a New York Times op-ed earlier this month that corporate stock buybacks should be limited.

Warren Buffett released his annual letter to shareholders on Saturday, and in it he said that his Omaha-based conglomerate, Berkshire Hathaway, planned to buy back more of its stock.

Buffett wrote it's likely, over time, that "Berkshire will be a significant repurchaser of its shares, transactions that will take place at prices above book value but below our estimate of intrinsic value."

That prospect is likely to draw the ire of politicians like Senators Bernie Sanders and Chuck Schumer, who wrote in a New York Times op-ed earlier this month that corporate stock buybacks should be limited.

"At a time of huge income and wealth inequality, Americans should be outraged that these profitable corporations are laying off workers while spending billions of dollars to boost their stock’s value to further enrich the wealthy few," they wrote.

The senators argued public companies buying back stock exacerbates income inequality and impedes long-term economic growth, adding that they do not benefit the vast majority of Americans. 

When reached for comment, Justin Goodman, national press secretary for Senator Schumer, pointed Business Insider to a post Schumer wrote on Medium earlier this week responding to criticism of the proposal. A press contact for Senator Sanders did not respond to Business Insider's request for comment on Berkshire Hathaway's plans. 

But Berkshire isn't the only one planning to buy back large amounts of its stock. 2019 is expected to be another record year for stock buybacks, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Last year, companies announced more than $1.1 trillion in share repurchases. 

Buffett and his vice chairman, Charlie Munger, are big fans of buybacks. He wrote that most of Berkshire's major holdings, like American Express, buy back their shares.

"We very much like that: If Charlie and I think an investee's stock is underpriced, we rejoice when management employs some of its earnings to increase Berkshire's ownership percentage."

Analysts said this quarter's guidance on share buybacks would particularly notable because the company's board of directors last summer loosened its policy for buying back stock. Buffett and Munger said they would authorize stock buybacks when the repurchase price fell "below Berkshire's intrinsic value."

In the third-quarter, Berkshire bought back nearly $928 million of its stock, at a price of about 1.35 times its third-quarter book value per share. Prior to the policy change, the company said it would not buy back its stock above 1.2 times book value per share.

Kai Pan, an analyst at Morgan Stanley, said 1.35 times book value per share could be the new "floor" below which Berkshire would consider the stock below its intrinsic value. 

After all, taking value into consideration has long been a core tenet of Buffett's investing philosophy. He wrote in his letter that repurchases should be "price-sensitive." 

He added: "Blindly buying an overpriced stock is value destructive, a fact lost on many promotional or ever-optimistic CEOs."

Read more of Markets Insider's Berkshire Hathaway coverage:

• WARREN BUFFETT: We're hunting for an 'elephant-sized acquisition'
• WARREN BUFFETT: The new accounting rule will produce 'wild and capricious swings in our bottom line'
• WARREN BUFFETT: Berkshire Hathaway raked in $3.8 billion in dividends last year — here's how much our 5 biggest holdings paid
• Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway is taking a nearly $4 billion hit as Kraft Heinz craters to a record low

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un is 35 — here's how he became one of the world's scariest dictators

• U.S. News & World Report recently published their annual lists of top hotels around the world.
• La Réserve Paris was ranked as the No. 1 hotel in Europe, followed by Hotel Sanders in Copenhagen and Hotel Eden in Rome.
• The 40-room hotel opened in 2015, but has already received accolades due to its luxury suites, personalized amenities, and prime location.

La Réserve Paris Hotel & Spa is the best hotel in Europe.

U.S. News & World Report ranked the luxury hotel as the No. 1 hotel in Europe in this year's report. La Réserve Paris also previously received accolades from Condé Nast Traveller — including top hotel in Paris and Gold List status— along with a Trip Advisor five-star rating and Certificate of Excellence. 

Located in the well-known eighth arrondissement of Paris, the hotel exudes old elegance but is barely four years old. While it is furnished with antique decor, modern amenities make the grand hotel a state-of-the-art stay. As many travelers remain interested in boutique hotels, La Réserve Paris offers luxury resort perks in a small setting.

Read more: Millionaires are showing off their money differently than they used to, and it's led to the creation of 2 distinct luxury worlds

The hotel offers a spa, a pool, and many impressive dining options: two luxury restaurants, a wine cellar, and a la carte service. There's also a hidden smoking room with a cigar chest, contributing to recent trends of hotels' secret luxuries.

La Réserve Paris is one of multiple properties of the French hotelier Michel Reybier's group, including La Réserve Genève in Switzerland and La Réserve Ramatuelle, also in France. For the Paris hotel and spa, Reybier once again enlisted the help of star designer Jacques Garcia.

The hotel also notably achieved palace distinction, a status introduced by Atout France, otherwise known as the France Tourism Development Agency. According to the agency's statement, certain five-star hotels deserve additional recognition. La Réserve Paris is the smallest of the current 25 palace hotels.

SEE ALSO: Take a look inside the best hotel in the US, a Hawaiian resort with 7 swimming pools where a villa goes for $18,000 per night

NOW READ: Luxury travelers want more than ever before, and hotels are borrowing a tactic used by Netflix and Amazon to keep up

La Réserve Paris is located in a renovated mansion in the heart of France's capital city.

Source: La Réserve Paris Hotel & Spa, The Telegraph

In the 8th arrondissement, one of Paris' most prominent neighborhoods, the hotel sits in a prime location.

Source: Google Maps

La Réserve Paris is walking distance from Jardins des Champs-Élysées ...

Source: Google Maps

This is a preview of a research report from Business Insider Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service. To learn more about Business Insider Intelligence, click here. Current subscribers can read the report here. 

If we're living through a “retail apocalypse” that spells doom for brick-and-mortar retail, as many have suggested, why are e-commerce leaders like Amazon, Alibaba, and JD.com so focused on building their own brick-and-mortar networks?

It's because they want to revitalize physical stores by introducing features associated with online shopping like personalization — and a whopping 65% of consumers said personalization and promotions are most important to their shopping experiences, according to a report from Oracle cited by Chain Store Age.

Brick-and-mortar retailers have the opportunity to reap the same benefits of personalization that e-tailers do, like repeat visits and impulse purchases, but they need to invest in the right technologies and techniques to do so because they currently don’t meet shoppers’ expectations. For example, 41% of consumers expect sales associates to know about their previous purchases, but just 19% have experienced this, according to a report from Segment.

In this report, Business Insider Intelligence analyzes how physical retail’s personalization is being outperformed by e-commerce’s, and examines the value personalization holds for brick-and-mortar in particular. We also look at what techniques and technologies are available to help retailers identify and track consumers in-store, and how they can be used to bolster their personalization capabilities. Finally, we examine the different channels through which retailers can reach consumers with their personalized offerings in-store.

The companies mentioned in this report are: Amazon, Alibaba, JD.com, Intel, Mastercard, Target, Velocity Worldwide, RetailMeNot, b8ta, Nordstrom, Saks Fifth Avenue, Sitecore, Oak Labs, Calabrio, and Alegion.

Here are some of the key takeaways from the report:

• Consumers say that a personalized shopping experience can inspire loyalty and increases in spending.
• But brick-and-mortar retailers aren't meeting consumers’ in-store personalization expectations.
• The nature of online shopping gives e-commerce the upper hand when it comes to personalization.
• Physical retailers can close the gap in personalization by identifying consumers when they enter, tracking them throughout their journey, and then using that information to inform individualized offerings.
• To make the most of personalized offerings, retailers must consider how content is being presented to consumers in-store, and what the strengths of each channel are.
• If physical retailers fail to improve their in-store personalization, they risk losing sales and market share to e-commerce companies, both online and in-store.

In full, the report:

• Identifies the values of personalization to physical retailers.
• Details the reasons e-tailers currently offer better personalization than brick-and-mortar stores.
• Outlines the technologies and processes that can bolster in-store personalization.
• Discusses how retailers can best present personalized offerings in-store.

Join the conversation about this story »

• Income inequality has increased in the US over the years, and many consider generational wealth to be one of its key causes.
• The fortunes of US family dynasties have been on the rise, and some rich families are taking advantage of new tax laws that make it more flexible for them to pass money on to their heirs.
• Some billionaires are thinking twice about how they're tackling generational wealth; Bill Gates and Warren Buffett plan to give most of their money away through the Giving Pledge, instead of keeping it in the family.

The median American family owns just over $80,000 in household wealth, while 15 family dynasties own a combined $618 billion.

That's according to the left-leaning Institute for Policy Studies' Billionaire Bonanza report, which examined the growing concentration of wealth in the US by looking at 15 dynastically wealthy families from the Forbes 400 list and data from the Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finance.

"Each of these family's wealth comes from companies started by an earlier generation, either a parent or more distant ancestor," states the report. "Each of them also represents a wealth dynasty passing generation to generation free from interruption."  

Since 1982, the combined wealth of three families — the Waltons, the Kochs, and the Mars — increased by 5,868%, while the median household wealth over the same period decreased by 3%. The families' combined wealth totals $348.7 billion, quadruple the median wealth of US families.

Read more: The 25 richest American families, ranked

"A lot of folks don't like to acknowledge the big leg up they get in things like buying a house or avoiding significant student debt as a result of generational wealth," Josh Hoxie, director of the Project on Opportunity and Taxation at the Institute for Policy Studies, told Business Insider.

"That leads to big problems when other people who don't have generational wealth look around and wonder why they're so far behind," he continued. "The reality is that the top indicator for economic prosperity is not hard work or intelligence, it's the family you're born into."

Generational wealth is seen as a key contributor to the gap between the rich and the poor

From 1978 to 2012, the amount of wealth among the richest .1% of families in the US grew from 7% to 22%, according to a University of California, Berkeley study.

That figure nearly doubles to 40% when looking at the wealthiest 1% of American households, according to a paper published in 2017 by the National Bureau of Economic Research.

"Today's extreme wealth inequality is perhaps greater than any time in American history," Hoxie wrote in the Billionaire Bonanza report. "This is largely the result of rapidly growing wealth dynasties and a rigged economy that enables the ultra-wealthy to grow their wealth to never-before-seen highs."

In 2015, the income the bottom 99% of families took home was, on average, 26.3 times less than the top 1% of families, according to IRS data reported by the Economic Policy Institute, a nonprofit and nonpartisan think tank.

From 1980 to 2014, income doubled for the top 10% of earners, tripled for the top 1%, and quadrupled for the top .1%, according to The Quarterly Journal of Economics' "Distributional National Accounts: Methods and Estimates for the United States." 

Read more: Calls to 'abolish billionaires' raise eyebrows, but they've been a long time coming

In an attempt to even the playing field between the richest and poorest Americans, a number of wealth-tax proposals have been introduced in 2019. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez suggested a 60% to 70% top tax rate for Americans earning $10 million or more. Sen. Elizabeth Warren introduced a plan to levy a 2% tax on wealthy Americans' assets over $50 million and 3% for assets over $1 billion. Sen. Bernie Sanders' "For the 99.8% Act" would impose a graduated scale for the estate tax that increases to a 77% rate for assets in excess of $1 billion.

And the idea of abolishing billionaires reached a boiling point with a column by Farhad Manjoo in the New York Times in early February.

New tax laws increase flexibility for passing down wealth

Passing wealth down from generation to generation usually happens through a trust.

Most families establish revocable living trusts (meaning they can be changed) as the centerpiece of an estate plan that becomes irrevocable (meaning they can't be amended) upon their death, Michael Rosen-Prinz, a partner in the Private Client Practice Group at McDermott, Will & Emery who works with ultra high-net-worth clients, told Business Insider. 

But recent tax reform has allowed for more flexibility in estate planning, Alicia Waltenberger, the director of wealth planning strategies at TIAA Institute, told Business Insider.

President Trump's Tax Cuts and Jobs Act doubled estate tax exemptions and gift tax exemptions. An estate tax is a tax on money or assets transferred upon the trustor's death, whereas a gift tax is imposed if the transfer occurs while the trustor is living. Several states have a separate state-level estate or inheritance tax.

An individual can transfer over $11 million in assets, and married couples more than $22 million, before being subject to federal estate taxes and federal gift taxes, according to Rosen-Prinz. The exemption amount is set to be halved at the end of 2025, and is subject to changes in new tax legislation, he said. 

"The IRS has made it clear that if the gift and estate tax exemption is reduced, it will have been a 'use it or lose it' situation," Rosen-Prinz said.

Sheltering taxes— methods to reduce one's tax liability — leaves more money for families to pass on to other family members, who can use it to grow their wealth if they choose.

Consider Sheldon Adelson, CEO of casino company Las Vegas Sands who has an estimated net worth of $35.3 billion. From 2010 to 2013, he passed on $7.9 billion to his heirs while escaping $2.8 billion in gift taxes, The Washington Post reported.

"Some families with substantial wealth are using lifetime gifts as seed funding for irrevocable trusts, and then selling interests in closely held businesses and real estate at a discounted value to those trusts to further reduce the value of their taxable estates,"Rosen-Prinz said.

Read more: 7 strategies rich people use to pay less in taxes

"Gifting can be done for a variety of reasons," Waltenberger said, "including non-taxable reasons such as having the ability to see the enjoyment and use of the gifted assets now during lifetime, and taxable reasons such as shifting of assets expected to appreciate in the future, so that that appreciation happens in the hands of others, not us where it may be subject to potentially higher income tax rates and/or estate tax at some point."

These tactics are often viewed as the root of massive family wealth, widening the gap between America's rich and poor.

Some of the superrich are thinking twice about how they pass down wealth

The superrich are beginning to think twice about how they're passing wealth to their heirs, according to Rosen-Prinz.

"The previous generation's plan to just transfer as much money tax free down the family tree is being reconsidered in favor of a more nuanced approach based on the personalities and circumstances of the beneficiaries," Rosen-Prinz said.

Older generations may think about limiting the access their children will have to family wealth thanks to highly visible heirs and "trust fund babies" flaunting their wealth on social media, he added, and might include provisions to ensure that the trust can be modified in the future.

"Often, charities or 501(c)(4) social welfare organizations are included as additional discretionary beneficiaries — both to fulfill philanthropic wishes of the settlor and also as 'overflow valve' for additional wealth that may not further benefit the human beneficiaries of the trust," Rosen-Prinz said.

Or, the superrich could take a cue from high-profile billionaires Bill Gates and Warren Buffett.

Bill Gates, who has an estimated net worth of nearly $96 billion, and his wife, Melinda, created the Giving Pledge, in which wealthy individuals agree to donate the majority of their money. So far, 189 billionaires, or would-be billionaires, have joined.

The Gates themselves plan to leave only a fraction of their wealth to their children.

And Warren Buffett, the third-wealthiest person on the Forbes 400, pledged his entire fortune to charity and taxes. Buffett has been vocal about his efforts to reduce the vast wealth sitting in the hands of a few influential people.

"Dynastic wealth, the enemy of a meritocracy, is on the rise,"Buffett said in 2007. "Equality of opportunity has been on the decline. A progressive and meaningful estate tax is needed to curb the movement of a democracy toward plutocracy."

SEE ALSO: Bill Gates says the politicians proposing 70% income tax rates for the superrich are 'missing the picture'

DON'T MISS: Billionaires who hate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's 70% tax on the superrich are adamant it will hurt the economy — but history suggests otherwise

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: What it's like to do your own taxes for the very first time

• The New York Giants were reportedly close to trading away star wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. in 2018.
• According to ProFootballTalk, the Giants decided against the move after hearing that the Patriots were interested in bringing him to New England.
• It's not the first time the looming interest of the Patriots has influenced the thinking of other teams in the NFL.

Across the NFL, teams are often trying to be more like the New England Patriots.

Whether that means hiring one of Belichick's assistants or adopting a version of the "Patriot Way," it's clear that other teams in the league want to replicate New England's formula for success.

The Patriots influence on the league is so strong that it can have an effect on the trade market for some of the biggest talents in the league.

As NFL insider Chris Simms explained to ProFootballTalk's Mike Florio, the New York Giants were almost ready to trade away star wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. in 2018, only to reconsider when they found out the Patriots were interested.

Because the Patriots thought Beckham was good enough for them, the Giants had reason to wait on their decision to deal him away.

It's not the first time the Patriots have shown such influence over thinking across the league. In 2016, an unnamed free agent drawing no interest reportedly wound up receiving calls from four other teams as soon as the Patriots showed interest.

Read more:The story of one NFL free agent shows how much influence the Patriots have over the rest of the league

Faulting the Giants for the logic is hard. As Florio points out, the Patriots have had success throughout the Brady-Belichick era trading for receivers. Randy Moss, Wes Welker, Brandin Cooks, Chris Hogan, and more, all had huge roles with the teams that their former employers were forced to watch in frustration.

Rather than suffer a similar fate, Simms says the Giants decided on keeping Beckham in New York. Given the success of the Patriots in the past, it was probably a smart move.

SEE ALSO: 2019 NFL MOCK DRAFT: What the experts are predicting for the first round

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Tom Brady and Gisele Bündchen have a combined net worth of $580 million. Here's how the power couple makes and spends their money.

This is a preview of a research report from Business Insider Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service. To learn more about Business Insider Intelligence, click here.

In the US, the in-store mobile wallet space is becoming increasingly crowded. Most customers have an option provided by their smartphone vendor, like Apple, Android, or Samsung Pay. But those are often supplemented by a myriad of options from other players, ranging from tech firms like PayPal, to banks and card issuers, to major retailers and restaurants.

With that proliferation of options, one would expect to see a surge in adoption. But that’s not the case — though Business Insider Intelligence projects that US in-store mobile payments volume will quintuple in the next five years, usage is consistently lagging below expectations, with estimates for 2019 falling far below what we expected just two years ago. 

As such, despite promising factors driving gains, including the normalization of NFC technology and improved incentive programs to encourage adoption and engagement, it’s important for wallet providers and groups trying to break into the space to address the problems still holding mobile wallets back. These issues include customer satisfaction with current payment methods, limited repeat purchasing, and consumer confusion stemming from fragmentation. But several wallets, like Apple Pay, Starbucks’ app, and Samsung Pay, are outperforming their peers, and by delving into why, firms can begin to develop best practices and see better results.

A new report from Business Insider Intelligence addresses how in-store mobile payments volume will grow through 2021, why that’s below past expectations, and what successful cases can teach other players in the space. It also issues actionable recommendations that various providers can take to improve their performance and better compete.

Here are some of the key takeaways:

• US in-store mobile payments will advance steadily at a 40% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) to hit $128 billion in 2021. That’s suppressed by major headwinds, though — this is the second year running that Business Insider Intelligence has halved its projected growth rate.
• To power ahead, US wallets should look at pockets of success. Banks, merchants, and tech providers could each benefit from implementing strategies that have worked for early leaders, including eliminating fragmentation, improving the purchase journey, and building repeat purchasing.
• Building multiple layers of value is key to getting ahead. Adding value to the user experience and making wallets as simple and frictionless as possible are critical to encouraging adoption and keeping consumers engaged. 

In full, the report:

• Sizes the US in-store mobile payments market and examines growth drivers.
• Analyzes headwinds that have suppressed adoption.
• Identifies three strategic changes providers can make to improve their results.
• Evaluates pockets of success in the market.
• Provides actionable insights that providers can implement to improve results.

Subscribe to an All-Access membership to Business Insider Intelligence and gain immediate access to:

	This report and more than 250 other expertly researched reports
	Access to all future reports and daily newsletters
	Forecasts of new and emerging technologies in your industry
	And more!

Learn More

Purchase & download the full report from our research store

Join the conversation about this story »

• When comparing a 15-year mortgage versus a 30-year mortgage, it helps to figure out how much you'll pay in total over time.
• Using the standard mortgage calculation formula, we estimated how much mortgage borrowers will pay their mortgage providers over time.
• Interest rates are critical to how much money a borrower will pay, but so is the time period.

Buying a house is one of the largest purchases many people will make over the course of their lives. And a mortgage will be one of the biggest loans a person will take out.

Monthly mortgage payments are generally calculated using a formula that combines the principal (the amount of money borrowed in the loan), the annual interest rate for the loan (what the lender charges you to borrow that money), and the term of the loan (the number of years it will take to pay the mortgage off).

The formula works backwards from the idea that each month, a borrower will be charged interest on the remaining balance of the loan, and then that balance will be reduced by the amount of the monthly payment. For a standard fixed-rate, fixed-term mortgage, we know how many payments the borrower will be making, and so we can figure out exactly how much they need to pay each month so the remaining balance of the loan is zero at the end of the term.

Using that basic mortgage payment formula, we can come up with some estimates for how much you'll end up actually paying your mortgage provider over time, based on some of the key parameters of the loan.

A bonus just for you: Click here to claim 30 days of access to Business Insider PRIME

The term of a loan is a huge factor in how much a borrower will pay in total. Shorter-term loans will have a higher monthly payment, but because there is less time for interest to compound, borrowers on a shorter-term loan will end up paying much less interest overall.

Indeed, author Chris Hogan suggested in his book "Everyday Millionaires: How Ordinary People Built Extraordinary Wealth — and How You Can Too" that long-term mortgages are a big reason why many people don't become rich.

Interest rates also make a big difference in how much a borrower will pay back in total. Higher rates will lead to higher monthly payments and more total interest paid on the loan.

Let's assume that a borrower is taking out a $250,000 loan under the following three term and rate scenarios:

• A 30-year term and a 4.25% annual interest rate, which at the time of writing is listed as the mortgage purchase rate offered by Wells Fargo.
• A shorter 15-year term and a 4.25% interest rate.
• A 30-year term, but a higher 5% interest rate.

Using the standard mortgage payment calculation, the two 30-year mortgages will have a lower monthly payment than the shorter-term 15-year mortgage:

Read more: The most and least expensive places to live in America

But that higher monthly payment means accruing less interest over time and paying off the principal of the loan faster. Here's what the three different scenarios would have paid off over the first 10 years of the mortgage:

After 10 years, the 15-year mortgage would have a much lower outstanding principal balance than the 30-year loans, and the slightly higher interest rate would result in a higher outstanding balance for the 30-year loan at 5% interest:

The effect of mortgage terms and interest rates can be seen in the total amount paid back to the bank at the end of the 15- or 30-year term. The shorter term leads to much less interest being paid overall, and the slightly higher 5% rate eventually leads to about $40,000 more in interest over a 30-year term:

• Read more:
• Here's the least expensive town for homeowners in every US state
• Here's exactly how much more you'll save in a high-yield savings account versus a checking account
• Here's how much male and female American workers earn at every age
• A minimum-wage worker needs 1.5 jobs just to afford half the rent for a 2-bedroom apartment in most of the US

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: What it's like to do your own taxes for the very first time

• Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, gave a talk to a members-only event at the Yale Club in New York on Tuesday.
• During the 30-minute lecture, Bezos said his private aerospace company, Blue Origin, would launch its first people into space aboard a New Shepard rocket in 2019.
• Bezos also questioned the capabilities of a space tourism competitor, Virgin Galactic, and criticized the goal of Elon Musk and SpaceX to settle Mars with humans.
• Ultimately, Bezos said he wants Blue Origin to enable a space-faring civilization where "a Mark Zuckerberg of space" and "1,000 Mozarts and 1,000 Einsteins" can flourish.
• Bezos advised the crowd to hold a powerful, personal long-term vision, but to devote "the vast majority of your energy and attention" on shorter-term activities and those ranging up to 2- or 3-year timeframes.

Jeff Bezos may be the richest human on Earth, as the founder of Amazon, but his ultimate dreams reside within a relatively obscure company called Blue Origin.

In fact, as Bezos told the CEO of Business Insider's parent company in April 2018, he liquidates $1 billion of stock a year to fund his private aerospace outfit.

"I believe and I get increasing conviction with every passing year, that Blue Origin, the space company, is the most important work I'm doing," Bezos said at the time.

On Tuesday, Bezos revisited his grand plans for humanity and gave updates on the work that Blue Origin is doing to help realize that vision. This time he spoke during a private event at the Yale Club in New York City. The Wings Club, a professional aviation group, organized the 30-minute lecture, which was moderated by Jeff Foust, a senior staff writer at Space News.

Their conversation covered everything from Blue Origin's progress on developing 21st-century rocket engines to backstopping the Mars-settling visions of Elon Musk and SpaceX. Bezos even at one point thanked the crowd for shopping at Amazon and the e-commerce companies it owns.

"Every time you buy shoes, you're helping fund Blue Origin, so thank you," Bezos said. "I appreciate it very much."

Business Insider has transcribed, lightly edited, and highlighted parts of the talk here.

SEE ALSO: SpaceX's list of competitors is growing — here are 9 futuristic rockets in the pipeline for the new space race

DON'T MISS: Jeff Bezos nearly died starting his rocket company Blue Origin — here's what happened

Bezos said commercial spaceflight today is expensive because it prioritizes reliability, which has the industry stuck on conservative launch systems. He thinks we need more practice to prove the worth and safety of reusable rocket systems.

Jeff Foust: The aviation industry is a mature, strong safe industry. Commercial spaceflight is still well on its way to hitting that goal. Where do you see the parallels between aviation and commercial space, and what role will Blue Origin play in that?

Jeff Bezos: I really do think we're at the barnstorming phase. It's a very interesting analog to early aviation, because a lot of industries — new technologies — are first used for entertainment. It's happened over and over again across industries, and of course, barnstorming was one of the first commercial things that small aircraft could do a long time ago. You see that today.

A very prominent case today is in machine learning and artificial intelligence. GPUs [graphics processing units] are instrumental in doing machine learning, but they weren't invented for machinery — they were invented to play video games.

One of the things that I'm very excited about with New Shepard, which is our suborbital tourism vehicle, is using that to get a lot of practice. One of the equilibriums we're at today with space launch is that we don't practice enough. The most-flown vehicles may fly a couple dozen times a year launching payloads into orbit. Anything we do just a couple of dozen times a year, you never get really good at.

Let's say that you're going to have some surgery. You should make sure that the surgeon does that operation at least five times a week. There's real data that backs up the fact that the practice effect makes that surgery much safer if your surgeon is doing it at least five times a week. And so we need to be going to space very frequently in a very routine way. One of the reasons that aviation is so safe today is because we do have so much practice. There are a bunch of reasons why it's safe — that's one of them.

We need to have [more] missions. If your payloads cost hundreds of millions of dollars, they actually cost more than the launch. It puts a lot of pressure on the launch vehicle not to change, to be very stable; reliability becomes much more important than cost, and it's hard to get off of that equilibrium. It actually drives you the wrong directions, where you have fewer launches and very expensive satellites, and that's what you see happening in many cases.

Reusable launch system's aren't good enough alone, Bezos said. They have to be easy to reuse or costs get too high, negating the point of their existence.

Bezos: What we want to do at Blue Origin is try to get on that practice groove, and to do that you have to have an operable reusable vehicle. The key point there is operability.

The space shuttle was only reusable in the most [daunting] of senses. In reality, they would bring the space shuttle back, inspect it in very elaborate ways, and then re-fly it. It would've been better to have an expendable vehicle.

You can't fly your 767 [airplane] to its destination and then X-ray the whole thing, disassemble it all, and expect to have acceptable costs. And so that reusability is really the key. What we want to do, our goal — you asked, "What is Blue Origin's goal in this?"— we want to drive down costs using reusability, and the vision is to figure out how there can really be dynamic entrepreneurialism in space.

Bezos said he admires that Mark Zuckerberg helped create Facebook in a dorm room using existing internet infrastructure. Bezos thinks "a Mark Zuckerberg of space" can't exist yet — but that Blue Origin is trying to make that possible.

Bezos: I've witnessed this incredible thing happen on the internet over the last two decades. I started Amazon in my garage 24 years ago — drove packages to the post office myself. Today we have 600,000-plus people, millions and millions of customers, a very large company.

How did that happen in such a short period of time? It happened because we didn't have to do any of the heavy lifting. All of the heavy-lifting infrastructure was already in place for it. There was already a telecommunication network, which became the backbone of the internet. There was already a payment system — it was called the credit card. There was already a transportation network called the US Postal Service, and Royal Mail, and Deutsche Post, all over the world, that could deliver our packages. We didn't have to build any of that heavy infrastructure.

An even more stark example is Facebook. Here's a guy who literally, in his dorm room, started a company — Mark Zuckerberg started a company in his dorm room, which is now worth half a trillion dollars — less than two decades ago.

How do you get that kind of entrepreneurial [advancement] in space? You need to lower the price of admission right now to do anything interesting in space because it requires so much heavy lifting and so much infrastructure development. The entry price point for doing interesting things is hundreds of millions of dollars. Nobody is going to do that in their dorm room. You can't have a Mark Zuckerberg of space today. It's impossible. Two kids in their dorm room can't start anything important in space today.

I want to take the assets that I have from Amazon and translate that into the heavy-lifting infrastructure that will [help] the next generation to have dynamic entrepreneurialism in space — kind of build that transportation network. That's what's going on, that's what Blue Origin's mission is. If we can do that, then the whole thing will take off and there will be thousands of companies doing creative things.

The future of retail is looking bright.

So bright that Business Insider Intelligence, Business Insider’s premium research service, expects the industry to top $5.5 trillion by 2020!

While in-store and desktop purchases are certainly helping the retail industry boom, the biggest factor for this incredible growth is in your pocket.

Find out why the smartphone will be crucial for retailers in 2018 and beyond with the first part of a brand new slide deck from Business Insider Intelligence called The Future of Retail: Mobile Commerce.

Here are some of the key takeaways:

• US retail is growing $200 billion year-over-year
• In-store retail is still dwarfing e-commerce
• But e-commerce is growing almost 4x faster than in-store
• Mobile commerce is driving most of that growth
• And much more

To get your copy of the first part of this FREE slide deck, simply click here.

Join the conversation about this story »

• Warren Buffett released his annual letter on Saturday.
• In it he warned about the prospect of 'The Big One' — a major hurricane, earthquake, or cyber attack that will 'dwarf hurricanes Katrina and Michael.'
• Although he said such a disaster could occur tomorrow or in decades, he warned that it was inevitable and losses would be 'very big.'
• Watch Berkshire Hathaway trade live.

Record-breaking investor and Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett released his yearly letter on Saturday, and in it he warned about the prospect of "The Big One"— a major hurricane, earthquake, or cyber attack that he said "will dwarf hurricanes Katrina and Michael."

"When such a megacatastrophe strikes, we will get our share of the losses and they will be big — very big," Buffett wrote.

Although such a disaster could happen tomorrow or decades from now, one thing is sure, he said: the catastrophe is inevitable. Yet Buffett said he had a plan for such an outcome.

"Unlike many other insurers," he wrote, "we will be looking to add business the next day." That funding, he said, will come from deferred income taxes, liabilities that Berkshire Hathaway will eventually pay but are currently interest-free.

'The Big One:' a matter of when, not if

Although Buffett says the catastrophe may take the form of a natural disaster or could be something more surprising, like a cyber attack, experts have warned about the impending nature of the former for decades.

In recent years, concerns about 'The Big One" from geologists, seismologists, and other scientists have mounted as two things have: First, evidence of our role in a steady shift in climate has mushroomed as we observe more frequent and extreme fires, droughts, hurricanes, and tsunamis. Second, our ability to predict and model the risk of oncoming natural disasters is improving at a steady clip.

Science writer Kathryn Shultz galvanized public attention to the threat in 2015 with the New Yorker essay "The Really Big One," in which she describes how an earthquake could destroy a large chunk of North America's coastal Northwest.

"The hand of a geological clock is somewhere in its slow sweep," she wrote. "All across the region, seismologists are looking at their watches, wondering how long we have, and what we will do, before geological time catches up to our own."

While some natural disasters are no fault of our own, they are in general being actively exacerbated by issues like hasty building, poor planning, a failure to invest in healthcare infrastructure and environmental protection, and an over-reliance on dirty fossil fuels, according to experts. And the outcomes — which include roof-toppling hurricanes, ground-rumbling earthquakes, and flooding and sea-level rise — will eventually affect everyone.

"The bottom line is it's going to be bad everywhere," Bruce Riordan, the director of the Climate Readiness Institute at the University of California, Berkeley, told Business Insider two years ago.

"It's a matter of who gets organized around this," Riordan said.

SEE ALSO: After you spit into a tube for a DNA test like 23andMe, experts say you shouldn't assume your data will stay private forever

DON'T MISS: A top psychedelic scientist says 'the climate's looking good' for magic mushrooms and MDMA to turn into medicines at a gathering of the world's billionaires

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Bud Light's 'Dilly Dilly' just made a comeback at the Super Bowl with a weird crossover ad with Game of Thrones — here's what the phrase means

• Warren Buffett, the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, released his annual letter to shareholders on Saturday.
• Buffett discussed items like his plans to repurchase the company's stock and how a new accounting rule impacts Berkshire Hathaway's bottom line.
• The 88-year old investor made no explicit statements about plans for succession at the company.

Each year, Berkshire Hathaway investors and the broader investment community look to chairman and CEO Warren Buffett's annual letter for company updates and his thoughts on the broader investment landscape. 

This year's letter was notable for what it did — and did not — include. 

In the 13-page letter, Buffett lamented the new Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) policy that slammed Berkshire's bottom line in 2018, particularly during the volatile fourth-quarter.

The policy, as he warned investors about in last year's letter, says the total change in unrealized investment gains and losses in stock investments must be included in all net income figures the company reports.

He also discussed share buybacks, something that's recently drawn political condemnation, at length.

However, the 88-year old Buffett, who leads the company alongside his 95-year old vice chairman, Charlie Munger, did not explicitly make any statements about plans for succession.

Here's a summary of the biggest themes from Buffett's letter:

Stock buybacks

Buffett said that, over time, Berkshire will become a "significant"repurchaser of its own shares.

The CEO's methodology for buying back stock is notable given his value-investing philosophy; he's known for making investments in companies which are considered inexpensive by various valuations measures.

Buffett said Berkshire would buy back stock "at prices above book value but below our estimate of intrinsic value."

The company said last year it would loosen its share repurchase policy when it came to the valuation at which it would consider buying back stock. 

"My expectation of more stock purchases is not a market call," Buffett wrote.

"Charlie and I have no idea as to how stocks will behave next week or next year. Predictions of that sort have never been a part of our activities. Our thinking, rather, is focused on calculating whether a portion of an attractive business is worth more than its market price."

Acquisition plans

For a second year, Buffett said he and Munger would like to make a large acquisition, but valuations are too high.

In the coming years, they'd like to move much of their excess cash into businesses to "permanently own," Buffett wrote. But that probably won't happen, at least not in the short-term. 

"Prices are sky-high for businesses possessing decent long-term prospects," he wrote. "That disappointing reality means that 2019 will likely see us again expanding our holdings of marketable equities. We continue, nevertheless, to hope for an elephant-sized acquisition." 

He added: "Even at our ages of 88 and 95 – I’m the young one – that prospect is what causes my heart and Charlie’s to beat faster. (Just writing about the possibility of a huge purchase has caused my pulse rate to soar.)"

Accounting rules

The impact the new accounting rules had on Berkshire's bottom line dominated the first page of Buffett's letter.

The company in the first- and fourth-quarters recorded losses of $1.1 billion and $25.4 billion, respectively. Its full-year profit took a hit that resulted from the new policy.

"As I emphasized in the 2017 annual report, neither Berkshire's Vice Chairman, Charlie Munger, nor I believe that rule to be sensible," Buffett wrote. "Rather, both of us have consistently thought that at Berkshire this mark-to-market change would produce what I described as 'wild and capricious swings in our bottom line.'" 

Buffett also wrote that these swings in the company's quarterly GAAP earnings would "inevitably continue" due to the large price fluctuations its $173 equity portfolio sees on a daily basis. 

• Warren Buffett isn't a fan of gold. 
• In his annual letter out Saturday, Buffett gave an example showing why stocks are a better investment than gold over the long run.
• This wasn't the first time that Buffett has bashed the precious metal.

It's no secret that Warren Buffett doesn't like gold as an investment.

The legendary investor used an example in his 2018 letter to drive home his point about the importance of not panicking and investing in stocks over gold for the long run. 

Buffett highlighted the 40,000% surge in the US's national debt over the last 77 years, and said if you "panicked at the prospects of runaway deficits and a worthless currency" and bought 3.25 ounces of gold with your $114.75 (the amount Buffett invested when he purchased his first shares of stock in 1942) it would be worth about $4,200, or "less than 1% of what would have been realized from a simple unmanaged investment in American business."

He added: "The magical metal was no match for the American mettle."

Over the years, Buffet has taken his fair share of swipes at the precious metal.  

At Berkshire's 2018 annual meeting, Buffett compared $10,000 invested in stocks and gold in 1942 (the first year he invested in stocks). That money invested in an S&P 500 index fund (there were none at the time, he noted) would've been worth $51 million in 2018 while a gold investment would've been worth only $400,000.

"In other words, for every dollar you could have made in American business, you'd have less than a penny of gain by buying into a store of value which people tell you to run to every time you get scared by the headlines," he said.

And in his 2011 letter, Buffett noted that for $9.6 trillion you could buy "pile a"— all of the gold in the world, or "pile b"— the entire US cropland (400 million acres) plus 16 ExxonMobils and still have another $1 trillion left over.

"Admittedly, when people a century from now are fearful, it's likely many will still rush to gold," he wrote. "I'm confident, however, that the $9.6 trillion current valuation of pile A will compound over the century at a rate far inferior to that achieved by pile B." 

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: We compared Apple's $159 AirPods to Xiaomi's $30 AirDots and the winner was clear

This is a preview of a research report from BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service. To learn more about BI Intelligence, click here.

Social media is becoming increasingly influential in shoppers' purchasing decisions. In fact, the top 500 retailers earned an estimated $6.5 billion from social shopping in 2017, up 24% from 2016, according to BI Intelligence estimates.

In addition to influencing purchase decisions, social media is a large part of the product discovery and research phase of the shopping journey. And with more and more retailers offering quick access to their sites via social media pages, and shoppable content becoming more popular, it's likely that social media will play an even larger role in e-commerce. 

In this report, BI Intelligence examines the advantages and disadvantages of each platform, and reviews case studies of successful campaigns that helped boost conversion and increase brand awareness. Additionally, we explore how retailers can bring social aspects into their own sites and apps to capitalize on consumers' desire for social shopping experiences.

Here are some key takeaways from the report:

• Social media is becoming more influential in all aspects of the purchasing journey.
• Facebook is the clear winner in social commerce, with its huge user base and wide-ranging demographics.
• However, retailers should have a presence on every platform their target market is on. Each platform will require a different strategy for retailers to resonate with its users.
• Retailers can also benefit from bringing social aspects in-house. They can do this by building their own in-house social networks, or by embedding social media posts into their sites.

In full, the report: 

• Provides an overview of the top social media platforms — Facebook, YouTube, Instagram — that retailers should be using, the demographics of each platform, as well as their individual advantages and disadvantages. 
• Reviews tools recently developed by these platforms that help retailers create engaging content.
• Outlines case studies and specific strategies to use on each platform.
• Examines how retailers like Sephora, Amazon, and Poshmark are capitalizing on consumers' affinity for social shopping by creating their own in-house social networks.

Interested in getting the full report? Here are two ways to access it:

1. Subscribe to an All-Access pass to BI Intelligence and gain immediate access to this report and over 100 other expertly researched reports. As an added bonus, you'll also gain access to all future reports and daily newsletters to ensure you stay ahead of the curve and benefit personally and professionally. >>Learn More Now
2. Purchase & download the full report from our research store. >> Purchase & Download Now

Join the conversation about this story »

This is a preview of the “Global Fintech Landscape” premium research report from Business Insider Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service. To learn more about Business Insider Intelligence,  click here.

Since sprouting in the US and UK around 10 years ago, fintech has spread globally. Now, after years of proliferation, countries around the world are starting to see their fintech industries mature. Additionally, we continue to see the emergence of new hotbeds for fintech. This indicates that the space is still far from being fully developed, and that there are many new ways in which startups and their technologies continue to change financial services.

The fact that many new players are emerging in the space also suggests that attention is shifting away from the main countries where fintech is prevalent, and that investors are seeing the potential of newer, conventionally untapped markets.

The spread of fintech can be largely seen in the emergence of fintech hubs — cities where startups, talent, and funding congregate — which are proliferating globally in tandem with ongoing disruption in financial services. These hubs are all vying to become established fintech centers in their own right, and want to contribute to the broader financial services ecosystem of the future. Their success depends on a variety of factors, including access to funding and talent, as well as the approach of relevant regulators.

In this report, Business Insider Intelligence compiles various fintech snapshots, which together show the global proliferation of fintech, and illustrate where fintech is starting to mature and where it is just breaking onto the scene. Each snapshot provides an overview of the fintech industry in a particular country, and details what is contributing to or hindering its further development. We also include notable fintechs in each geography, and discuss what the opportunities or challenges are for that particular domestic industry.

Here are some of the key takeaways from the report:

• Besides the US and UK, there are plenty of other countries developing strong fintech hubs. Australia, Switzerland, and China, which are profiled in this report, have managed to leverage their stable financial centers of Sydney, Zurich, and Shanghai, respectively, to spur fintech development and attract funding.
• There are also a number of emerging fintech markets, including Brazil, Israel, and Canada, that are likely to play a big part in the global fintech ecosystem in the future. These countries have nascent but rapidly developing fintech hubs, as well as supportive regulatory environments, that could help them cement strong positions in the broader fintech scene.
• Many more fintech hubs will likely morph into big fintech players. This could push investors to increasingly wake up to the opportunities in new markets, leading fintech funding to become more diversified in the future, particularly outside of the UK and US.

 In full, the report:

• Outlines how the fintech industry has changed over the past 10 years.
• Details which cities are the most likely to succeed as fintech hubs at present and going forward.
• Highlights notable fintech startups in each of these markets.
• Discusses the potential opportunities and challenges these countries are facing today and in the future.

Interested in getting the full report? Here are two ways to access it:

1. Purchase & download the full report from our research store. >>Purchase & Download Now
2. Subscribe to a Premium pass to Business Insider Intelligence and gain immediate access to this report and over 100 other expertly researched reports. As an added bonus, you'll also gain access to all future reports and daily newsletters to ensure you stay ahead of the curve and benefit personally and professionally. >> Learn More Now

The choice is yours. But however you decide to acquire this report, you've given yourself a powerful advantage in your understanding of the fast-moving world of Fintech.

SEE ALSO: Latest fintech industry trends, technologies and research from our ecosystem report

Join the conversation about this story »

This is a preview of a research report from Business Insider Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service. To learn more about Business Insider Intelligence, click here.

The virtual reality (VR) market is expected to rally in 2018 after seeing slow growth from 2016 to 2017. The uptick will be largely catalyzed by the emergence of the newest headset form factor, stand-alone VR headsets, which address some of the biggest pain points that have prohibited mainstream consumers from adopting VR.

This new form factor is more affordable than cost-prohibitive high-end headsets and more capable than its smartphone-powered counterparts. Additionally, it features in-unit processing that frees the VR headset from wires. The first major stand-alone headset, the Vive Focus from HTC, was launched in January of this year, and more from other major companies like Oculus and Google are expected to follow over the next six months. 

In a new report, Business Insider Intelligence lays out where the VR market is and forecasts how it will grow over the next five years. We dissect the various hardware categories and the unique strengths and opportunities of each, and identify how they will gain traction at different points of the market’s evolution. Finally, we examine various components impacting consumer adoption.

Here are some of the key takeaways:

• Business Insider Intelligence forecasts shipments of all VR headsets to grow 69% year-over-year (YoY) to reach 13.5 million in 2018. Powering that growth is the stand-alone VR headset category, which is expected to account for 30% of total headsets shipped in the year ahead. 
• The VR hardware market is volatile because getting a device right is a balancing act. On one hand, the price point needs to be affordable for most consumers, and on the other, the experience has to be distinctive and immersive enough to convince a consumer to strap a visor to their face on a regular basis. 
• While only a handful of stand-alone VR headsets will hit the market in 2018, they mark the biggest step toward mainstream adoption of consumer-oriented VR headsets by making the technology more accessible for the average consumer. 
• Declining price points, coupled with high-quality headsets and the introduction of a game-changing app, are crucial for the VR industry to achieve before VR can really gain traction on a global scale.

In full, the report:

• Forecasts the growth projections and shipment expectations of the global VR headset market, and breaks it up by the major headset categories.
• Explores the four major segments in the current VR hardware market, defined by the hardware needed to power the experience — stand-alone, smartphone-powered, PC-powered, and game console-powered VR.
• Identifies the key players shaping the burgeoning stand-alone VR headset segment.
• Discusses the biggest challenges to VR development and adoption.

Subscribe to an All-Access pass to Business Insider Intelligence and gain immediate access to:

	This report and more than 250 other expertly researched reports
	Access to all future reports and daily newsletters
	Forecasts of new and emerging technologies in your industry
	And more!

Learn More

Purchase & download the full report from our research store

Join the conversation about this story »

• Violence erupted between protesters and National Guardsmen at Venezuela's borders on Saturday. 
• The opposition to President Nicolas Maduro had organized deliveries of humanitarian aid, which soldiers were ordered to turn away at the border.
• But Venezuelans desperate for food and medicine showed up and clashed with the soldiers in an attempt to get the aid through. 

Political and economic crisis have brought Venezuela to the brink of chaos.

Violence and protests have erupted in the country over shipments of humanitarian aid that have been stopped at the border. 

As tensions reach a fever pitch over basic resources such as food and medicine, it appears like the country is teetering on the edge of crisis. 

Here's what you need to know.

Violence erupted in Venezuela on Saturday as citizens clashed with National Guardsmen over shipments of humanitarian aid.

Source: AP

The 200 metric tons of emergency food and medicine was organized by opposition leader Juan Guaidó who has questioned the legitimacy of President Nicolas Maduro's second term in office.

Source: AP

The chaos in Venezuela stems from the 2018 presidential election, in which incumbent Nicolas Maduro was elected to a second six-year term.

Maduro's rivals claim that the election was a sham, and last month opposition leader Juan Guaidó declared himself the real president. Nevertheless, Maduro has refused to step down and has maintained control of the country in part thanks to the military, which continues to support him.  

Source: PBS News Hour

The healthcare industry is in a state of disruption. Digital solutions are becoming a necessary part of the new global standard of care for patients and regulation is being fast-tracked to catch up to digital health innovation.

These rapid changes will have ripple effects across the entire healthcare system, impacting incumbents and new entrants alike.

Based on our ongoing analysis, understanding of industry trends, and conversations with industry executives, Business Insider Intelligence, Business Insider’s premium research service, has put together The Top Five Trends Shaping The Future of Digital Health.

To get your copy of this free report, click here.

Join the conversation about this story »

• R. Kelly's bail has been set at $1 million in his sexual abuse case.
• He will need to pay $100,000 to be released from jail ahead of trial.
• Judge John Lyke Jr., who is also presiding over the case of 'Empire' actor Jussie Smollett, said that if Kelly was freed he would need to surrender his passport. 
• Kelly is being jailed on 10 counts of sexual abuse against three minors and one adult. 

Appearing in court on Saturday facing new sexual abuse charges for the first time, R. Kelly was told that his bail would be set at $1 million. The decision means that Kelly will need to pay $100,000 to be released from jail ahead of his trial, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

Judge John Lyke Jr., who is also presiding over the case of 'Empire' actor Jussie Smollett, reportedly said that if Kelly produced the money, he would need to surrender his passport to prevent him from fleeing the country, and forbade him from communicating with minors. Kelly is accused of the sexual abuse of three individuals who were under the age of 17. 

Kelly reportedly frowned at the judgment and was ordered to next appear in court on Monday. He's been housed in the Cook County Jail since Friday night, where he surrendered himself for arrest following the announcement of the 10 charges against him.

Read more: R. Kelly is reportedly under federal investigation by numerous agencies, including ICE, DHS, the FBI, and the IRS, for child trafficking and other crimes

Kelly was charged with 10 counts of aggravated sexual abuse against four individuals following the submission of new evidence to the Cook County attorney's office. A video submitted to the county by Michael Avenatti and his client reportedly shows Kelly engaging in sex acts with a minor, who acknowledged her age on tape. Kelly reportedly acknowledged that she is a minor on film as well. Avenatti says that there are other incriminating tapes Kelly as well.

The new developments in Kelly's case follow the release of the Lifetime documentary "Surviving R. Kelly," which documents numerous allegations of sexual abuse against the artist. 

Following the release of the documentary, the Cook County attorney Kim Foxx made an open call for new evidence against Kelly, who was previously exonerated of child pornography charges after another tape that appeared to show him engaged in sex acts with a minor went public. 

Besides the charges he faced Saturday, Kelly is also reportedly under numerous federal investigations from the FBI, IRS, DHS, and ICE.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un is 35 — here's how he became one of the world's scariest dictators

• Life insurance is fundamentally hard to sell; it’s morbid to think about, promises no immediate rewards, and often requires a lengthy paper application with minimal guidance.
• Despite the popularity of personalized products in other areas of finance and fintech, life insurance largely remains unchanged.
• A small, but growing pocket of insurtech startups are shaking up the status quo by finding ways to digitize life insurance and increase its appeal.

Life insurance is a fundamentally difficult product to sell; it requires people to think about their deaths without promising any immediate returns.

And, despite tech innovations and the development of personalized services in other areas of finance, life insurance remains largely unchanged.

Luckily, there is a small but growing pocket of insurtech startups looking to modernize it. These companies are finding ways to digitize life insurance to  appeal to consumers — and they’re giving incumbents the opportunity to revamp traditional offerings, either by partnering with them or using their technology.

Business Insider Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, has forecasted the shifting landscape of life insurance in the The Future of Life Insurance report. Here are the key problems insurtechs are tackling:

• Lack of education: Forty percent of US consumers told the Life Insurance and Market Research Association (LIMRA) that they feel intimidated by the life insurance application process, often drastically overestimating its cost and facing uncertainty about how much or which type of coverage to buy.
• Inconvenient application process: It can take weeks or months for coverage to take effect because of the sheer number of meetings and parties combing through paperwork in each round of the application process. The risk for the insurer often warrants reviews from the carrier, a team of underwriters, a broker, and even a medical examiner.
• Low customer loyalty: Life insurance tends to be a “set it and forget it” type of purchase, with very few people revisiting it after buying. Insurers and consumers therefore have limited contact for most of the relationship — with the exception of an annual bill, of course.
• Inefficient data management and processing: The aggregate data life insurers rely on is typically fed into algorithms that make broad assumptions about particular populations, and often incorporate outdated medical documentation — all of which can delay applications and result in unnecessary rejections.

Want to learn more?

The need for modernization in life insurance is clear: Overall sales are slowing and policy ownership is hitting record lows. And because it’s such a tightly-regulated space, innovation from incumbents has stagnated — but they’re not helpless. Consumer-focused and insurer-focused startups have emerged to offer new technologies and process improvements.

The Future of Life Insurance report from Business Insider Intelligence looks at the two main strategies life insurtechs are adopting to drive change in this market, for the benefit of both buyers and sellers. In full, the report discusses best practices incumbents and startups should adopt to steer clear of the risks attached to applying emerging technologies to such a tightly regulated product.

Insurtech startups will soon set new industry standards and consumer expectations around this complex product. That, in turn will serve as a catalyst for innovation among legacy players.

Companies included in this report: Ladder, Haven Life, Getsurance, Tomorrow, Fabric, Atidot, AllLife, Royal London, Polly, Life.io, Legal & General, Vitality, Discovery, John Hancock, Dai-ichi Life.

Join the conversation about this story »

This is a preview of a research report fromBusiness Insider Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service. To learn more about Business Insider Intelligence,click here. Current subscribers can read the reporthere.

Virtual reality (VR) offers immersive experiences in which users can hear, see, and interact with 360-degree digital environments using head-mounted displays (HMDs) and handheld motion devices. The technology has been historically associated with consumer-facing gaming, but it’s been gaining traction in the enterprise over the past year.

In fact, companies such as Macy’s, Lowe’s, Walmart, and UPS, among others, have all launched new VR programs since 2017. And as more businesses look to tap the technology, this will drive enterprise VR hardware and software revenue to jump 587% to $5.5 billion in 2023, up from an estimated $800 million in 2018, according to Business Insider Intelligence estimates.

This shows that retailers and brands should look into implementing VR as early as possible to better compete with other industry players who’ve started to use the tech, especially in three key areas: sales, employee training, and product development. All of the companies mentioned above are using VR to in at least one of these areas, enabling them to increase product sales, reduce product design costs, or speed up employee training processes, for instance.

In the VR In The Enterprise report, Business Insider Intelligence explores how VR can provide value to retailers and brands in three areas: sales, employee training, and product development.

The report begins by discussing potential pain points the technology addresses for each use case, examining in-depth case studies to illustrate how companies have implemented the technology, and outlining the broader takeaways each use case presents for brands and retailers.

Finally, it looks at some of the potential barriers to further enterprise adoption and how both companies and VR incumbents are actively addressing those obstacles.

The companies mentioned in the report are: Audi, Lowe's, Macy's, McLaren Automotive, Walmart, and UPS, among others.

Here are some key takeaways from the report:

• VR enables consumers in brick-and-mortar stores to make more informed purchases, which could increase sales conversion rates.
• Brands and retailers looking to ramp up their employees quicker should consider bringing VR into their training processes.
• The tech can shorten brands' and retailers' product development life cycles by cutting down on the time associated with building expensive physical prototypes.

In full, the report:

• Identifies key VR vendors and device form factors for businesses to consider.
• Discusses key benefits the tech brings businesses for their sales, training, and product development processes.
• Illustrates those key benefits by discussing real-world case studies from companies and the takeaways from those implementations.

SEE ALSO: When it comes to VR hardware, consumers are balancing price point and experience

Join the conversation about this story »