Professional key person insurance products: Business Loan Insurance: Many businesses borrow to grow or invest in expensive machinery or premises. On the death of a director banks often get worried and cancel overdrafts or call in loans. Business loan insurance protects your business from this issue. Executive Income Protection Insurance: In the event of a long term or permanent illness where a director cannot work anymore then paying their wages can become a burden on the business. Executive income protection give the company the required funds to ensure the director can still be remunerated. Read additional information on Key person insurance.
Who can have Key Person Insurance: Any business looking to protect their business from, life cover, terminal illness, critical illness cover (covering illnesses such as heart attack, stroke, cancer). As will as the typical limited company businesses key person cover can benefit sole traders and partnerships. As mentioned above it is important to get the right level of cover, set up in the most tax efficient manner to give peace of mind, protect the business profits and reduce business risk from the loss of a valuable employee. It gives a much needed cash injection to give cash flow by means of a lump sum payment.
When a business loan is taken out, it must be done so with the understanding that there will be a responsible party for paying back the money borrowed. Business loan protection insurance is usually taken out on the individual or group of individuals responsible for repayment of the loan. The purpose of this type of insurance is to provide a level of security and assurance should something unexpected happen to one or more of the shareholders involved in the loan. This could include death, disability, or critical illness – all of which might otherwise leave the company in financial difficulty.
How the policies should be set up: There are various ways in which shareholder protection can be taken out and set up. We work closely with your accountant and other professional connections to ensure the cover is setup in the correct way for your business. In order to protect individual shareholders, it is recommended that each shareholder takes out a separate “own life” policy. This policy will insure them for a sum assured equivalent to the value of their company shares. By taking out this coverage, the shareholder can rest assured knowing that if something were to happen, their investment in the company would be protected. Additionally, if they choose to write this policy into trust, they can benefit their co-shareholders in case of unforeseeable events.
Also above we mentioned the spouse desperate to sell the shared might sell these to another competitor. Again the remaining shareholders would not want this to happen as again this is a major threat to their business and could lead to a competitor taking over the business. Therefore a shareholder protection policy taken out by each of the business partners giving the shareholders the funds required to by the spouses £1,000,000 worth of shares would stop the above and allow the shareholders to retain control of the business. it will also ultimately mean the value of the shares that they each own will now have gone up in both value and percentage.
Business loans can be critical for a business to function and grow, but without loan protection, borrowing money becomes a much riskier endeavor. Business loan protection insures the debt should an unforeseen event cause the illness or death of an owner or director who was personally responsible for it. By protecting their loan, business owners minimise their exposure and ensure that the lender is less likely to be left with unpaid debts in such scenarios.
Often called key-man insurance this type of policy is sometimes miss understood. It is important to ensure that the policy is set up in the correct manner using the right trusts or structure. There are also a lot of confusion and miss information on the tax treatment of these policies. The policy can be for life only or for life and critical illness cover . In another article we also explore key person income protection insurance. The death or illness of a key employee can have devastating consequences for a business and thus protecting a business from this should be an important part of protecting a business if the financial impact and help the business survive a difficult time. Read more information at Business Protection Insurance.
