Interview: Paul Ritter, President CEO, Cumberland Mutual

to provide sophisticated, COVID-19-resistant business strategies to ensure both short-term business viability and long-term resilience.

On the tax front, CPAs have had to help their clients navigate a wide array of financial aid programs, both at the federal and state level. Such liquidity-injecting tools include the employee retention tax credit. It allowed eligible businesses that were either required to close, partially suspend operations or saw business fall by 50% or more throughout the pandemic to get credit for up to 50% of qualifying employee wages, or as much as $5,000 per employee in 2020. Congress in December 2020 passed legislation that boosted that credit to 70% of qualifying wages, or as much as $14,000 per employee through June 30, 2021. Businesses were able to get this aid even if they had been recipients of a PPP loan, unlocking the tax credit for more than 5.2 million businesses otherwise barred from it.

However, businesses will have to tread lightly and have their CPAs close by because as these newly eligible businesses amended their quarterly payroll tax returns to claim the credit, that will prevent them from deducting those expenses from the annual taxes they file.

Even working from home posed considerable questions and challenges for businesses. While there is extensive literature on the proven benefits of remote work, accessing the virtual world from a residential setting poses a series of security threats that could jeopardize a company’s confidential business information. Some home routers, for example, were found to present vulnerabilities when either using default settings or improper configurations, both of which make it easy to breach for ransomware attackers. This led CPAs to diversify their portfolio of specialized services through the integration of cybersecurity consulting services to help their clients tackle the dangers of the remote work environment. Today, CPAs are encouraging businesses to both implement a written policy on the use of personal devices when conducting company business and establish systems to enforce security measures.

The issue has reached such a proportion that the Jersey Office of the Information Commissioner (JOIC) put in place a program of data protection audits to assist businesses in pinpointing the strengths and weaknesses of their respective data protection management programs, as well as zeroing in on security gaps to dampen the risk of data breaches.

Technology is also impacting the professional services sector in positive ways. Between blockchain, artificial intelligence (AI), robotic process automation and data analytics, CPAs and others in the industry have a wide menu of technological options for leaner, more efficient ( ) Paul Ritter

President & CEO Cumberland Mutual

What major changes do you forecast for the insurance industry?

I think the insurance industry itself is moving from just insurance into a risk management direction, whereby you’re preventing claims and damages before they happen. Some examples of these claims include when someone’s house burns down, or somebody is injured in an accident; having those conversations and trying to put their lives back together as best as one can. Now, we can try to prevent that from happening. It’s a win-win for everyone. The way we’re going to do it is with the technology that’s coming down the line. It’s incredible. You see it in the safety features that are in some of the cars now. It’s an exciting time in the industry.

What technological innovations has the company rolled out?

It hasn’t been one big one but a lot of small ones. When we look at the industry of insurance going forward, it’s important to think of the vast amount of technology that is out there. There are sensors now that you can put in your home, near your water heater or under the sink, so that if you have a leak, it will send a message to your cellphone. If you’re away, you’re not going to have a big claim that causes a lot of damage. We can do similar things with car insurance: there are programs that can monitor your driving, so that we’re able to price your insurance more accurately.

What is your outlook for the next 12 to 18 months?

I think the next 18 months are going to be very exciting. As we come out of this pandemic, which ended up causing a V-shape recession, I think there is a lot of fuel with the government stimulus, the savings that took place during the pandemic, and now people are feeling the freedom from the elimination of anxiety because of the immunizations. People are now going to go out and do business, and that’s going to be a positive thing for the businesses located in South Jersey.