Continuity and Continuation Planning

Protect and grow your business

Build a solid business transition plan

Buy-sell agreement

Succession planning is important to every business because it helps ensure an orderly transition if a shareholder, owner or business partner would retire, become disabled or pass away. If one of these triggering events occurs, a buy-sell agreement is a binding contract governing what happens to an owner’s or shareholder’s business interest. It can have the terms and valuation methodology for a buyout of their business interest. And because life insurance has unique advantages, such as immediate cash available to purchase a deceased owner’s interest, it’s an excellent choice for funding a buy-sell agreement.

Ensure business continuity by protecting your business from the loss of a valuable employee

Key person coverage

You carry insurance coverage to protect your business from the loss of property and equipment, but what about your most valuable asset — your key employees? A key employee may be a co-owner or partner, top executive or important member of your organization with unique talents, experience or skills critical to the prosperity of your business. Key person life insurance protects your business from the financial impact of the loss of an essential employee.

Retain, reward, and recruit top talent

Executive bonus plan (I.R.C. 162 bonus)

An executive bonus plan using life insurance can provide a simple yet powerful addition to your total executive compensation benefits package for your top performers. You maintain control of who will participate and can choose to provide a single bonus to your employee or “gross” the bonus up. There’s little to no out-of-pocket expense to your employee. And if you’re concerned about employee retention, you could restrict your employee’s access to the policy’s cash value for a period of time, such as until retirement.

Supplemental Executive Retirement Plan (SERP)

An attractive compensation tool designed to help top executives and certain owners supplement their retirement income. Because traditional retirement plans have contribution limits, high-income earners could face a retirement income gap if they solely relied on qualified plans. A SERP is an employer-paid deferred compensation agreement that provides supplemental retirement income to your key employee, based on the employee meeting certain vesting or other specific conditions.