BUSINESS FINANCIAL PLANNING

As job creators, idea innovators, wealth builders, and taxpayers, business owners are by nature self-driven, responsible, take charge, make-it-happen people. Yet, in the rush of day-to-day business activities, many business owners become so engrossed in running their companies, they inadvertently put their personal finances on the back burner.

With much of their wealth locked into business assets, business owners need financial planning that understands and respects this reality. Wealth Impact Partners’ specialized tools and plan design expertise can incorporate buy-sell contingencies, business continuity issues, and exit/succession planning into a comprehensive LifePrint™ plan that protects both family and business interests.

SUCCESSION PLANNING

Growing your business is hard work. Passing it on shouldn’t be. You owe it to yourself to ensure that your business will continue to flourish after you leave. Proper planning can help provide long-term security for your retirement, your company’s future, and your family.

Laying The Groundwork
It is never too early to begin planning for succession. An early start can help you develop an appropriate exit strategy and allow you the time to choose the right person(s) to eventually run your business. A business succession plan can maximize your business’s value and secure your own financial future when the time comes to sell, transfer or wrap things up. When planned properly, your transition should be smooth both emotionally and financially, not just for you and your family, but your employees and your successor as well.

Professional Guidance For Your Journey
Drawing upon our years of experience guiding business owners through the journey of succession planning, Wealth Impact Partners serve as your financial advocate to assure that your experience is as simple and smooth as possible.

In addition to offering you solutions that range from estate and tax planning to business advisory and wealth management, as well as looking after all aspects of the sale of your business, we serve as your central facilitator to ensure that all necessary details are properly coordinated with your other advisors, including your accountant and attorney.

KEY PERSON INSURANCE

Protecting Your Business against Loss of Key Employees
The death of a key person can result in serious consequences for the business. Credit could be substantially impaired, or even worse, loans would be called if the key person was a co-signer. The loss of that “intangible asset value” represented by the key person may be greater than that caused by a fire, flood, or other catastrophe. When insuring a loss through death, Key Person Life Insurance can provide an important source of revenue replacement. Further, the insurance can be designed to accumulate reserves that may be used ultimately for retirement, a termination replacement, or the retraining of successors.

Split Dollar Plans
Many companies design their Key Person coverage as a Split Dollar Plan. This is an arrangement between an employer and an employee to share the costs and benefits of a life insurance policy. These plans are widely used in gift and estate planning and can be an important part of the compensation package for key executives.

BUY-SELL AGREEMENTS

Protecting a Business Partnership
If a business partner dies, a Buy-Sell Agreement protects the business and remaining owners from inactive, uninformed, and potentially dissident shareholders and helps consolidate control in the hands of the agreed upon group. Additionally, it helps fix the value of each owner’s business interest. From the viewpoint of the heirs of a deceased business owner, a buy-sell severs their dependency on the surviving owners and the economic fortunes of a business that has lost a key person.

Proper Funding Is Essential to the Agreement’s Effectiveness
It’s important to note that a buy-sell agreement is useful only to the extent it is adequately funded on the date of the “triggering event.” Wealth Impact Partners can guide you in the process of developing and funding a buy-sell agreement suited to the needs of your business. The ideal buy-sell agreement is funded and prepared in a manner that is easy for the parties to understand, is reasonably priced, is easily administered, and will not adversely affect the working capital or credit position of the business or professional practice.

CORPORATE EXECUTIVE BENEFITS

TO RECRUIT, RETAIN AND REWARD KEY EXECUTIVES
Business owners and key executives face tax issues and retirement saving challenges due to restrictive legislation that dramatically limits the amount of income that can be deferred or contributed to the company’s qualified retirement plan. For this reason, a growing number of companies are turning to nonqualified deferred compensation plans to augment owners’ and key executives’ retirement benefits and overcome many of the regulatory restrictions that apply to qualified retirement plans.

If you would like to learn more about Corporate Executive Benefits, contact Bob MacArthur or visit our partner site at MacArthur Financial.