Business Protection - 1st Call 4 Protection

Protect your business

It doesn’t matter what industry you work in, your business is one of your most important assets – and its important to protect it. Its not just your employees and other stakeholders, but also the livelyhood of you and your family.

Protect your shareholders

When a shareholder dies, its a major blow to a business and those close to it. Will the shareholders family want to cash in the shares? Would the remaining shareholders want to buy those shares. This is where shareholder protection comes into its own.

Protect Your Staff

Its not just the business owners that can benefit from a business insurance policy. The staff can too. Having a group private medical policy or life insurance for your collegues can be a great way to enhance morale with your valued collegues.

What cover do you need?

Let our expert advisers review your circumstances, and we will advise you what risks your business may face.

It it critical to your business to get the right advise and get the policies set up correctly.

Let’s get started

Relevant Life Insurance.

Relevant Life Insurance is a policy your company takes out on your behalf as an employee or a director.

If you die during the tem of the policy, the insurer pays out a tax-free lump sum direct to your chosen beneficiaries (typically your family or civil partnership partner).

And, because the policy is paid by for your employer, it is treated as a business expense as long as it is written in trust correctly at the start.

For You…

You wont pay National Insurance or Income Tax on the premiums as the insurance is not classed as a benefit in kind.

For Your Employer

Its a tax efficient way to provide life cover for key people, without the complication (and tax implications) of personal life insurance paid through the company.

What about Tax?

As the policy should be written in a trust, it wont be part of your estate, therefore not liable for inheritance tax.

What if I leave?

If you ever leave your employer, you have the option of transferring the policy to your new employer (if they agree), or continue to pay the premiums yourself..

Benefits of Business Protection Insurance

A safe and stable business plan

In today’s cutthroat world of business, it’s crucial to underpin an enterprise with a safe and stable business plan. The death of shareholders can seriously jeopardize the strength and unity of a business if a key part of the origanisation is no longer part of it.

By taking out Shareholder Protection Insurance written in a suitable trust, shareholders enjoy total peace of mind knowing that if a fellow shareholder passes away, surviving shareholders will not have to worry about finding the money to purchase assets.

Instead, they will receive payout funds that allow them to buy the deceased’s shares quickly and efficiently, ensuring business can return to normal as quickly as possible.

Support for Family Members

Although shareholders generally have an in-depth understanding of how to leverage their assets, inheriting family members often have no idea how to manage a portfolio.

Most would rather receive money, as this is far more useful to them. Cash payments can also help relieve the stress that families face when losing a key breadwinner.

With shareholder protection insurance, company stakeholders can rest easy knowing that their families will receive financial compensation in the case of their death. The policies guarantee a fair buyout price, as well as a quick, easy, and stress-free process.

A cross option agreement, set up by the shareholders, ensures that any tricky scenarios that may be encountered by the remaining shareholders and the deceased family are dealt with in advance by allowing a pre-determined price to set and covered by the policy.

Illness and Disability

Should a shareholder fall ill, knowing they have shareholder protection insurance in place will be a big weight off their minds, allowing the buisness to continue in their absence.

There are a multitude of options available, including executive income protection (where the company can receive a large proportion of the shareholders salary and national insurance contributions) that can help towards keeping the busiess afloat during these difficult times.

And it’s not just shareholders – Key members of staff who are central to the operation and continued benefit of the business can be covered to provide income to support them when they encounter illness – both by supporting the individual’s income, and also the additional costs of running the business whilst they are out of the frame.

Types of Business Protection Insurance

In the UK, business protection insurance can be written in a number of different forms. The types of policies that shareholders and companies can take out will depend on the exact nature of what need to cover for continued business stability.

Whether it is a director, employee, business loan or directors guarentee, its key to get the right advice from one of our experts to make sure you are covered for the correct risks, properly.

Company Share Purchase

Under this method of relevant life insurance, the company itself (as opposed to the surviving shareholders) purchases shares back from a deceased shareholder.

The company takes out policies on all the shareholders, matching the value of each investor’s shares. As the company pays for the premiums, it receives any funds in the event of a shareholder death.

Due to company law and tax procedures, it is generally a complex and lengthy process, so it is advisable to engage corporate lawyers and tax advisers to ensure that policies are watertight and compliant.

Protecting Individuals

This method sees each individual shareholder take out their own policy held under a business trust, equal to the value of their shares and can be drawn up on a fixed term or until retirement.

Should a shareholder die, other shareholders can use policy payout funds to purchase their shares, dividing shares equally among surviving shareholders.

Business Loan Protection

Raising finance, whether it be for cashflow, finances or any number of reasons, brings it’s own risk to a business.

It is important that the company is aware of the options they have for insuring the key individuals in the company.

Many businesses fail beacuse a director, shareholder or key individual either die, become seriously ill, or become injured – leaving the company exposed to financial failure.

Often directors sign personal guarentees for finance arranged within the company, and our advisers can steer you in the right direction of the protection options available to cover you and your business.

Why consider Business Protection Insurances?

From small-scale two-person enterprises to multinational corporations, relevant life insurance is a must-have policy for any savvy company.

Besides ensuring the stability and longevity of the business, policies also offer the peace of mind that fellow stakeholders and family members will be looked after if the worst happens.