Growing and Protecting Your Business
Growing and Protecting Your Business
We help clients fund their plans with:
Employee Insurance Benefit and Retirement Plans
Leveraging Gifts through Life Insurance
Reduce the effects of Estate Tax
A Business Succession Plan using a buy-sell agreement or trust can help avoid disruptions of a business in the event of a disability or death of a partner. In addition, it assists business operational continuity when the primary shareholder retires. A buy-sell agreement can also peg the value of the business for estate planning purposes (see IRC sec. 2703)*. We offer many choices to solve and fit into your succession and business owner retirement plans. If you need an insurance review; a policy rescue evaluation; trustee administrative support; a trust sinking fund or alternative solution; or an informal business valuation for insurance purposes; phone us. Don't let the business falter, for lack of planning.
A Succession Plan with an ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Plan) is a tax qualified trust that can prove to be a good fit for the right sized business. If your company has an ESOP, our funding sources offers unique opportunities for the sponsor. An ESOP retirement trust allows employees to purchase the stock of an employer with payroll deferral, matching and / or profit sharing contributions. A key benefit of setting up an ESOP is to help motivate managers to protect the business and behave in a manner more like business owners do.
A bank loan can help to expand the uses of an ESOP. A leveraged ESOP may help the trust buy stock from the owner(s) as a way of helping convert their equity into: new capital for expansion; retirement income; or simply to diversify an owner's asset holdings. If a partner is deceased, the owner's estate may find leverage for a profitable business through a tax qualified plan when valid outside buyers have not been identified. If a merger and acquisition plan fails, an ESOP can help find a ready buyer at a fair price. The consultation of an attorney is required for the trust. Additionally, an accountant is needed to file taxes and locate adequate annual business valuation services. This overhead makes an ESOP option less viable for smaller companies. Our services help the business fund an ESOP in the event of an owner's unfortunate events.
* Its terms are comparable to similar arrangements entered into by persons in an arm's length transaction.
Goodman Rule
An understanding of the Goodman Rule is helpful in ownership and beneficiary changes. The result of the Goodman Rule is that for life insurance and annuities, the owner must also be either the insured (annuitant) or the beneficiary. If the owner, insured and beneficiary are three different persons, then the death of the insured results in the owner making a taxable gift to the beneficiary.