How To Use Life Insurance To Benefit Your Business

When most people think about life insurance, they often associate it with protecting their family in the event of their death. Usually, it’s with a term or permanent, “whole life”, policy. It protects the future of their loved ones by providing peace of mind and stability during a trying time. While that is the most common and practical use, there are more! You can use life insurance for business as well.

What if you could provide that same stability and peace of mind to your business in the event of a death? 

In this blog, we will explore three different uses for life insurance for business and how it can provide value to your company – and your employees. 

Key Employee Life Insurance 

What would happen to your business if you lost one of your top sales reps? Or what if you lost someone else critical to the success of your organization? Top employees are rarely a dime-a-dozen. Replacing their productivity and value to the organization cannot be done overnight. Replacing their relationship – with your team and with your clients – will certainly take time. 

Key employee life insurance policies protect your business in the event something happens to a key person within the organization. This is a life insurance policy the organization takes out on an individual employee (the insured). The organization pays the premiums each month. Additionally, the organization receives the benefits in the event of a loss (beneficiary).  

When considering how much insurance to get for a key person, the company should consider the estimated cost of finding, hiring, and training a replacement, as well as how long it might take this person to begin producing and creating value for the organization. 

Key employee life insurance provides critical financial support at that time. Furthermore, it allows your company time, or breathing room, in the event of such a loss that could potentially be devastating to your profitability. 

Executive Bonus Arrangements 

Similar to Key Employee Life Insurance, an Executive Bonus Arrangement is a life insurance policy. An organization can take out a policy on one of its employees and pay the premium. However, with this option, the employee gets to name their own beneficiary as opposed to the company being the beneficiary. 

In the event that your employee dies, their beneficiary would be the recipient of this policy without ever having to pay into it. This is not only a way to reward and care for your employee and their family, but it’s an attractive bonus to offer prospective employees. By using life insurance for business in this way, your employee benefits program will certainly help you attract and retain great talent.

Organizations can offer this life insurance option to any of their employees as a way to recognize and reward their value. It’s an employer-financed, personal life insurance policy. This policy offers the selected employees additional security for their families without the additional cost of higher face value policies. 

Buy-Sell Agreements 

What happens to your business when you are gone? What happens to the company if something happens to your business partner? Is their family or spouse suited to step in and fill their shoes?  

Buy-sell agreements establish a plan should one of the business owners die. There are a couple of different ways to do this. We won’t get too in the weeds with this, but the agreements stipulate that the owner(s) can purchase the deceased owner’s interest. It also obligates the deceased owner’s heirs to sell their interest in the company to the other owner(s).

This agreement creates a plan for a business to survive in the event of the death of one of the owners.  

In many cases, this policy simply provides the funding needed for a surviving partner to purchase the deceased owner’s interest in the company without financial stress at such a pivotal time. In other cases, it could also be an agreement made to protect each partner. More importantly, it can protect the business from unforeseen or unwanted influences from heirs. This form of life insurance enables partners to continue building their culture and future just as they would without the loss.

Yes, life insurance is an important tool for individuals to create estates for their families and make sure they are protected if they die. However, businesses can also use this type of insurance to protect their company and provide additional comfort and support to key employees. 

Is your business taking advantage of life insurance in one of these three ways? 

All in all, Key Employee Life Insurance, Executive Bonus Agreements, and Buy-Sell Agreements provide added value to both your company and your employees. In their own unique ways, these three uses of life insurance protect your culture as well – something that we highly value at Byars|Wright. 

While we hope that you don’t have to use it, protection and risk management are key. If you consider these strategies, you’re planning for a strong and secure future! 

An experienced independent insurance agent can help your business this way. By taking the time to understand your organization and goals, I can provide you with the best options and uses for life insurance. 

Reach out to CJ by clicking HERE or get to know him via LinkedIn HERE.

Are you considering all of your Employee Benefits? Need a refresh? Take a look at CJ’s blog on Employee Benefit Changes You Should Make Going Into 2021.