Our financial planners have extensive experience of advising business owners. They are fully aware of the planning issues they need to consider including business protection.
Shareholder/Partnership protection
If a shareholder in your private limited company were to die would you be able to buy their share of the business? If you were unable to, there would be significant implications for the future of your business. Would you want your next business partner to be your current business partner’s widow/widower, or their children, following their death? By taking out shareholder protection it would allow the remaining partners or directors to keep control of the business following the death of a business owner.
In the event of a business owner dying or being diagnosed with a terminal or critical illness shareholder, protection could provide a lump sum to the other owners. This lump sum could be used to help buy the deceased partners or directors’ share in the business. If a company does not have shareholder protection and the business owner were to die, their share of the business would be passed to their family. This could cause several problems – the other owners would have less control on the running of the business, or the family member could sell the share to a competitor.
Key Person
Key Person insurance is an insurance policy taken out by a business to compensate the business from monetary losses that would result from the death or incapacity of an important member of the business.
Most companies have a ‘key person’ who is responsible for most of the profits or someone who has a skill that would be hard to replace. An example would be directors, sales directors, IT specialists, managing directors.
When deciding on the sum to be insured it is worth considering potential loss of profits, the cost of replacement and any costs that would need covering without the key person.
The loss to the business could be loss of company reputation, the decline in sales from the loss of a sales manager, the cost of hiring and training a replacement.
Although it is written on the life of a key business person, the policy is owned by the business. The policy is paid out directly to the business and therefore the premium is paid for by the business.
This can be a complex area where good quality legal advice is also required to ensure cross option agreements are handled correctly.
The Financial Conduct Authority does not regulate legal advice.
Where a client’s circumstances require specialist advice, and the local office does not hold the necessary permission from the Financial Conduct Authority, we can draw on the wider specialist expertise available within Perspective Financial Group Ltd nationally. Many of our financial planners hold advanced qualifications in specialist areas of advice, as well as having decades of experience in solving almost all financial planning related issues.
