Things To Do In SW Florida

Banking

Caitlin Bower was hired by Intracoastal Bank as assistant vice president/assistant manager in the Volusia Banking Center.

Doug Reece was hired as senior business relationship manager at Intracoastal Bank, Daytona Beach.

Health care

Cullen Brown was appointed chief executive officer at HCA Florida Poinciana Hospital.

Law

Patricia M. Montes de Oca has joined ShuffieldLowman as senior counsel in the firm’s Orlando office.

Devon S. Richards has joined ShuffieldLowman as a senior associate in the firm’s Orlando office.

Jack Boudet has joined GrayRobinson as an associate in the firm’s Orlando office.

Peggy Smith Bush was promoted to shareholder at Marshall Dennehey, Orlando.

Submit professional appointments, management-level promotions and significant awards for individuals, along with photos as .jpg attachments, to peopleonmove@orlandosentinel.com.

Private rocket company SpaceX has switched where it is incorporated to Texas from Delaware, its founder, Elon Musk, said Wednesday, weeks after a Delaware judge voided his pay package at Tesla, another company he owns.

Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson issued a certificate Wednesday confirming that the state has accepted the company’s filing to relocate its incorporation, according to a copy of the document that was posted on her office’s website. A spokesperson for Nelson’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Musk, a billionaire who lives in Texas and also runs the carmaker Tesla, has had issues with Delaware. Last month, a judge there voided the pay package that had helped to make him the world’s wealthiest person.

That case was brought by a group of Tesla shareholders who were challenging a stock options package that allowed Musk to acquire about 304 million Tesla shares at a preset price — $23.34 a share — if the company achieved certain goals. The judge ultimately ruled that Musk had effectively overseen his own compensation plan, valued at more than $50 billion last month, with the help of compliant board members. read more

James Royal, Ph.D. | (TNS) Bankrate.com

Social Security provides a significant number of retirement benefits, the biggest being a growing income stream that you can’t outlive. So you won’t face the danger that you’ll run out of money in your golden years when you aren’t working for a living. The downside is that for all but the most frugal Americans Social Security alone simply won’t be enough to retire on comfortably.

The Social Security Administration says the program should replace about 40% of your pre-retirement income. In short, you’ll need more income to maintain your standard of living. That’s why it’s absolutely vital to set up alternative income streams for retirement — here’s how.

Social Security won’t be enough — What to do instead

Despite such warnings, many Americans are woefully underprepared for retirement. According to various studies conducted by the Social Security Administration, between 20% and 25% of Americans aged 65 or older received at least 90% of their income from Social Security. With the average Social Security retirement check in December 2023 of $1,905, retirees have to pay Medicare premiums as well as other living expenses, which have been soaring in the last few years. It’s a tough road, even if you’re able to avoid taxes on your benefit. read more

By KEN SWEET (AP Business Writer)

NEW YORK (AP) — The Biden administration eased some of the restrictions on banking giant Wells Fargo, saying the bank has sufficiently fixed its toxic culture after years of scandals.

The news sent Wells Fargo’s stock up sharply Thursday as investors speculated that the bank, which has been kept under a tight leash by regulators for years, may be able to rebuild its reputation and start growing again. The bank’s shares closed up 7.2% to $52.04, its highest level since March 2022, in extremely active trading.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the regulator of big national banks like Wells Fargo, on Thursday terminated a consent order that had been in place since September 2016. The order required the bank to overhaul how it sold financial products to customers and provide additional consumer protections, as well as employee protections for whistleblowers.

That consent order was put into place after a series of newspaper and government investigations in 2016 found Wells Fargo to have a poisonous sales culture that pressured employees into selling multiple products to customers even though the products were not needed. Employees — who worked at “stores” not bank branches — were forced to open millions of unauthorized accounts. Customers had their identities stolen and their credit scores impacted. Of the millions of customers effected, a disproportionate number were non-English speaking Americans. read more