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Funding a Buy Sell Agreement
QUESTIONS OF THE MONTH...
Is It A Good Time To Purchase Insurance During The COVID-19 Pandemic?
How Do I Fund My Partners Part Of Our Business If My Partner Were To Pass Away?

East Coast Financial is aware of the impact the Coronavirus (COVID-19) is having on not only families and businesses, but business partners too, as the number of terminally ill patients have and will continue to increase.  If a business partner were to pass without a buy-sell agreement in place funded with life insurance, then you may not have the available funds to cover the purchase of your partners portion of the business. This means a part of your business may go to your partners spouse or children.Insurance coverage is always important to have, whether it’s for your family or your business, not before things go bad, such as a pandemic.

Our process is streamlined to be pandemic-friendly, with technology, virtual meetings, and electronic applications. East Coast Financial makes funding buy/sell agreements and insurance for families super simple. Leveraging experience, a 60+ carrier network of resources and technology, we can fund even the most complex buy/sell agreements without requiring business owners to leave their homes or offices.

Funding A Buy-Sell Agreement with Life Insurance

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We source the best policies and coverage from A-rated companies, then we handpick the perfect policy that fits your needs. As your nationwide-online business and family insurance provider, our volume allows us to provide the best rates on insurance policies for businesses and families based on your individual needs; opposed to using companies with high-commission incentive programs.

At East Coast Financial of Central Florida, we ensure you and your partners have the absolute best plan in place, so if a triggering event occurs, your family, business partner's family and your business interests are covered!
With a buy–sell agreement that is funded by life insurance, the company or the individual co-owners buy life insurance policies on the lives of each co-owner. Thus, if a partner dies, the company or the co-owners would receive the death benefits from the insurance policies on this partners life. These funds would then be directed by the language of the ‘buy sell agreement’ that we have our estate planning attorney partners create for you and your partners. There is not a one size fits all as each business has its own specifics and state specific regulations to consider. Many times a buy sell agreement would direct death benefit proceeds to be used to buyout the deceased partners business interests from the heirs. Reach out today and we will put together a solid plan for you.
Funding a Buy Sell Agreement
It is important to choose the correct funding vehicle too, for instance if the partners of the business want to ensure that the death benefit of each funding policy grows at an indexed rate relative to the businesses projected valuation, we may recommend an Indexed Universal Life Policy. This is why it is important to speak with a professional and to have your plan and funding vehicle in place, correctly, the first time. Our experienced life insurance protection agents will walk you through the process, step-by-step, so you have a buy-sell agreement drafted and funded for a solid foundation for your business and business partners. A properly funded buy-sell agreement is what we deliver. 

Buy-Sell Funding Made Easy!

Funding a Buy Sell Agreement
Let Us Fund Your Buy-Sell Agreement For Your Business!
We Help Leverage Your Business Funds Today To Cover Buy-Sell Triggers Tomorrow
Funding a Buy Sell Agreement
Call Us Today or Fill Out A Form to Get Your Buy-Sell Agreement Funded Properly And To Your Advantage!
A buy-sell agreement funded with life insurance or disability insurance will give you the confidence that your business and your family will be taken care of in your or your business partners disability or death. Plus, the cost is small compared to the benefits, so we find that most of the time it is much better to leverage your cash through premium payments today, rather than coming up with the total cash amount tomorrow!

 

Even if you do not qualify for life insurance, our experience agents can show you ways to use indexed solutions to achieve your buy-sell funding needs. Our experienced life insurance agents can walk you step-by-step through the process of setting up a buy-sell agreement for your business and properly funding it.

WHAT IS A BUY-SELL AGREEMENT & WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?

A buy-sell agreement is a legal document designed to ensure that the ownership of a company will continue to be held by the surviving owners if one of them passes away, retires, or becomes disabled. All of the members sign off on this agreement – so if such a triggering event occurs – they will sell their ownership interest to the other members or back to the company.

When you form a business with someone—regardless of the tax structure of the business—you are investing valuable time and money into a joint venture. Obviously as business owners, you are (or should be) loyal to each other and the business. Now, imagine one of your partners passes away and his ownership interest passes to his estate. In this example his will may pass his entire estate to his wife.  Whether or not you got along with your partners wife, an event like this will force you to go into business with her.  A buy-sell agreement helps prevent this scenario from happening.Buy-sell agreements are also known as “Business Continuity” agreements as they help ensure stable ownership of the company, keeping the surviving owners in charge if something happens to one owner.

WHAT'S THE BEST WAY TO FUND YOUR BUY-SELL AGREEMENT?
The Basic Plan

With a buy–sell agreement that is funded by life insurance, the company or the individual co-owners buy life insurance policies on the lives of each co-owner.

At the most basic level, if a co-owner dies, the other co-owners or the business entity itself will use the insurance death benefit proceeds to buyout the families inherited business interest.

Funding a Buy Sell Agreement
Cross-Purchase Plan

In a cross purchase plan, each co-owner purchases life insurance on the other co-owner(s). Each owner pays the annual premiums on the policy they own and each is the beneficiary of the policy. When the owner passes, the surviving owners use the death benefit proceeds to buy the business interest lost by the owner that passes. If there are many owners within the business, multiple policies must be purchased by each owner. In the following Cross Purchase Plan example, the business is valued at 2 million dollars, and has 2 owners, Angelica and Mark. Each owner holds 50% of the company.

Funding a Buy Sell Agreement
Entity Redemption Plan

In an entity redemption plan, each owner has an arrangement with the business for the sale of their interests to the business. The business entity purchases separate life insurance policies on the co-owners. The business pays the premiums. And the business is the owner and beneficiary of the policy. When an owner dies, his or her share of company stock will pass to his or her heirs or estate, and the company may purchase them with the proceeds from the life insurance policy. In the following Entity Redemption Plan example, the business is valued at 3 million dollars, and has 3 owners, Michael, John and Mary. Each owner holds 33% of the company.

Funding a Buy Sell Agreement
Hybrid Plan

A hybrid plan combines the cross purchase and entity redemption. Typically, the owner is required to offer his or her interest to the entity. If the entity declines or cannot make the purchase, however, other co-owners or partners can purchase the shares. This type of arrangement may also allow certain employees, like longtime company officials, to purchase the interest. In the following Hybrid Plan example, the business is valued at 1 million dollars, and has 2 owners, Lauran and Ted. Each owner holds 50% of the company.

Funding a Buy Sell Agreement
One Way Buy-Sell

In this type of agreement, you find a buyer for your business and agree that the buyer will have right of first refusal (ROFR) on the sale of the business. What does this mean? Well, it gives the buyer in the agreement priority or ‘first dibs’. The ROFR is what provides the ‘insurable interest’ that allows the buyer to take life insurance out on the seller. It gives the buyer in the agreement priority or ‘first dibs’.

The sale will become available when a specific event occurs, such as death, becoming disabled, or retirement. Usually the assets of the business are used to pay down outstanding debts of the business and the buyer then is purchasing the remaining value. The buyer often pays for a life insurance or disability insurance on the life of the business owner, with the policy proceeds payable to the buyer. If the owner dies or becomes disabled, the policy pays the buyer, who uses the life insurance funds to purchase the business.

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Whether you have a corporation, partnership, LLC, or even a proprietorship — you should strongly consider funding a buy-sell agreement.
Normally it is best to use some form of life insurance to ensure that a buy–sell agreement is funded properly, guaranteeing that there will be money available should the buy–sell event become a reality. Any successful business owner will understand the importance of leveraging other peoples money as part of general strategy. Why worry about coming up with 100% cash to fund a probable event rather than paying relatively small premiums to transfer this risk to another? Well we are here to tell you note to worry, we have you covered!

 

Plus, the proceeds are usually paid quickly after your death. And if sufficient cash values are available within the policies, the funds can be accessed to purchase your interest in the business if you retire or become disabled. Additionally, the life insurance policy proceeds are typically free from income tax regardless of who owns the policy.

We Don’t Over Quote, Our Volume Allows Us to Provide the Best Rates and Service!

The Gist Of Our Buy-Sell Process

We give you the simple and straightforward details because we take all the nuances out of insurance! Contact us today!

Phone Consultation
The first step is for you to click the "Book a Call" button at the top of the page or too fill out a form inquiry below. One of our agents will reach out to confirm the time within 24 to 48 hours of your submission.

Needs Based Analysis
After our phone consultation, we will take the information we learn and formulate a strategy. We will consider yours and your partners needs and specifics related to each partners' health, ownership interests, goals, etc. We will use this 'needs based analysis' to formulate a buy/sell strategy and eventually our recommendation. At this point we will set a follow up call with you and if applicable, your partners, to review the our strategy recommendation.

Recommendation
After considering the business structure, funding source, direction, company liquidity and financials, among other details from our 'Needs Analysis', we will formulate our recommendation. Our recommendation will include details relating to the buy-sell agreement specifics along with the best funding source to use.

Buy-Sell Agreement Document
After you commit to our recommendation, we will work with our trusted legal partners to have your buy/sell legal agreement created and begin the electronic application process for the insurance based funding aspect of our recommendation.

Funding Source
During our recommendation, we will detail the specifics as to which funding source, insurance company and other details are best for you and your businesses specific needs. Even though we have our life and disability applications down to an electronic application science, there's still a little legwork to be done. But we take the nuance out of insurance and make it super simple!
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ARE YOU READY FOR YOUR PARTNER'S SPOUSE TO BE A CONTROLLING OWNER?
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