BUSINESS OWNERS

Are you a Business Owner?

Whether your business is big or small, you can face challenges and unexpected financial hurdles that need to be anticipated and overcome effectively. Well planned insurance and financial solutions can bring you long-term security and stability both professionally and personally. It helps to plan for these unfortunate events that can affect you at any time:

Business and family protection on your disability or death

Business and family coverage on the disability or death of a key employee or employees

Insurance benefits to attract and retain good employees

Ensure smooth operations in unexpected financial crises such as burglary or theft

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The Ideal Business Financial Security Protection Portfolio

Protecting your business’s financial security and its value to the next generation is easier than you may think. Compare your financial security plans with this Ideal Portfolio, if money were no object, to see how it compares.

1. A Will, Powers of Attorney and Shareholder Agreement

Know a dysfunctional family? Staff? Sadly, these may be the people who will be fighting over your business one day unless you make your choices legal today. (Check out the Un-Will) Decide in advance how your employees and shareholders are treated and be sure your wishes are respected and everyone knows the ground rules. Keep peace in the family for generations and keep your business growing when you decide in writing.

2. Business Life Insurance Protection

Your business future and your family’s financial security can change drastically in a heartbeat unless you’ve protected them both. Life insurance totalling ten to twelve times your income plus your debts from the business often does the job. Your price depends on the length of time you need it. Insure your key people and business loans too. I well planned corporate life insurance can also provide tax free retirement income.

3. Key Employee Critical Illness Protection

When you, or a key employee gets a tough health diagnosis, you’ll be relieved you have CI. Protect your hard-earned assets and business plus have the money you want to convalesce in peace. Covering three year’s worth of your gross business expenses plus a staff replacement is a great start.

4. Shareholder Disability Buy/Sell Funding

When you are sick or injured and can’t drive company revenue, how will family & business survive? Insure that unexpected moment and have more peace of mind.

5. Business/Professional Overhead Protection

You may have the government help keep the lights on at your business if you are unable to work because of sickness or injury. All it takes is a tax-deductible company check… and you might be able to get half your money back if you don’t use it.

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6. Group Health Benefits

A well priced, properly designed group benefits plan helps attract and keep key employees. When you protect their families with valuable benefits, you create a level of loyalty like nothing else.

7. Protecting Personal Assets from Creditors

Creditor protection is a benefit that makes segregated fund (seg funds) products particularly valuable for business owners. A segregated fund can protect investors’ personal assets from seizure by creditors, while providing growth potential similar to mutual funds. Asking your legal advisor if having a holding company is right for you.

“Protecting Business Financial Security for Owners who Care”

RELATED SERVICES

LIFE INSURANCE

CRITICAL ILLNESS INS.

RESP

KEY CONSIDERATIONS

Business Continuation

Concern:

How do you cope in the event of your business partner’s sudden death? How do you work around the sudden disability of a proprietor, partner or key employee? Your future could look bleak if you are not well covered by a buy-sell agreement.

The Buy-Sell agreement allows the surviving partners to decide the continuation of the business.

Solution:

If you are faced with the above situations, you have a choice – four options:

Terminate the business
Continue the business with new owners
Sell your shares
Purchase shares from the deceased owner’s estate

Each of these comes with their own conditions. The first option would mean dissolving years of hard work. The second may be a solution only if the new owner is experienced and co-operates well with you. Selling shares work as a good option, provided you find the right buyer at the right price. This is where a Buy-Sell agreement comes into effect. Buy-Sell Agreement Option: A buy-sell agreement is between co-owners of a business that outlines legal procedures governing the situation in the event of untimely death, disability, retirement of one of the owners or disagreement between them.

The agreement outlines the following:

Terms of sale
Time of sale
Sales price
Buying price of shares
Proper financing to ensure the agreement is viable

To fund a Buy-Sell agreement, consider these options:

Save early
Arrange financing from a bank
Get funds from current savings
Sell assets
Purchase life and disability insurance to have money on hand when needed.

It is important to ensure proper funding in order to make sure the agreement is viable. Agreements can fall apart without proper funding because the surviving owners may not have enough finances to purchase the departed owner’s shares. How do you fund a buy-sell agreement? It helps to save early, borrow funds from a bank, sell assets or get funds from current savings. Alternately, you can invest in life or disability insurance policies and have ready money for the funds when needed without any hassle at all.

Products to consider:

Buy Sell Agreements

Disability Insurance

Life Insurance

Employee Benefits

Concern:

The key to business success is to understand how to attract and retain quality workforce. Small business owners often make the mistake of not investing in enough employee benefits to cut down on extra expenses. However, this could greatly affect the business’s long-term prosperity.

To attract and retain worthy skills, it is important to protect and reassure employees of their worth with decisive insurance benefits. Medical benefits, retirement plans, disability insurance go a long way to add value to their package and keep them motivated to be company loyal.

Solution:

A survey says most workers take company benefits into account while weighing new job opportunities. Insurance plans can be attractive for considering a job however they can weigh heavy on the employers.

To ease this out, voluntary benefit programs have been designed to allow employees to enjoy customized benefits.

Products to consider:

Group Health Insurance

Group Retirement Saving

Individual Pension Plan

Executive Benefits

Concern:	If you are looking for insurance plans that are customized for individual employees instead of general group benefits that may not be suited to all, Executive Benefits can meet your company needs. Executive benefits can attract, retain and motivate quality employees.
Solution:	With Executive benefits, employees are offered a higher level of incentives that are more aligned to their personal needs. Benefits have tax advantages and can provide extra privileges beyond RRSP and pension investments which can significantly improve their retirement life.
Products to consider: Disability Insurance Individual Pension Plan Retirement Compensation

Protect your registered & non registered investments

Concern:

Sometimes small business owners take risks that may jeopordize their future in the face of losses.

They may pledge some or part of their personal assets to secure a loan for their business. Many refrain from taking necessary steps to protect their property. If the business suffers losses, small business owners have to deal with losing personal assets, property and may also suffer bankruptcy. In extreme cases, they may be sued.

Solution:

Segregated funds are an alternative to mutual funds offered by insurance companies to protect the interests of self-employed small business owners. They have several advantages over mutual funds. You can enjoy a maturity guarantee of 75% to 100% on your principal investment, protect your assets from seizure by creditors and safeguard money for retirement. Sometimes, insurance companies can also allow you to invest your segregated funds into RRSP or TFSA.

Segregated funds are invaluable in securing your future after retirement in the event of unforeseen financial losses.

Products to consider:

Segregated Funds

Retirement Planning for Business Owners & Professionals

Concern:	Retirement planning is confusing if you own a business, or have multiple businesses.
Solution:	Specific retirement planning options are available to businesses owners above and beyond traditional options. These options can be examined to see which ones would work best for you.
Products to consider: Individual Pension Plan Insured Retirement Plan Retirement Compensation

Get Professional Help

Professional financial advisors have years of training, tools, and experience working with many different clients and situations. Because of their broad experience, professional advisors can quickly assess your needs and offer advice that reflects the best practices of the financial industry and is appropriate for your particular needs. In addition, and probably most importantly, a financial advisor can help you avoid mistakes. Mistakes can be incredibly destructive to your financial health. Not having a long-term investment strategy, not having adequate insurance protection, paying too much in fees or taxes unnecessarily, having the wrong beneficiary on retirement accounts, failure to set up a will; the list goes on and on. What they all have in common is that they are all very costly and all very avoidable. A professional advisor will look for gaps in your financial strategy and help you correct them. Professional advice helps you plot a financial course with the confidence that you are using your resources wisely while avoiding the common pitfalls that so many fall prey to.
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