An often overlooked but important aspect of Executive Planning is the Buy/Sell Agreement. No one wants to think about the death of one of their business partners, it’s painful on both a personal and financial level. But it’s important to plan for the worst so that if that day comes, both their family members and your business remain protected and secure.
What is a Buy/Sell Agreement?
A Buy/Sell Agreement is basically a business prenup: it’s a legally binding contract that stipulates how a partner’s share of a business may be reassigned if that partner dies, divorces, or faces bankruptcy. Often the agreement stipulates that, in the event of a business partner’s death, their shares be sold to the remaining partners or to the partnership. As part of the agreement, business partners can buy life insurance policies on each of the owners. This way, if one of the owners dies, the remaining owners can use the payout from the life insurance policy to buy the deceased owner’s share of the business and make sure the deceased’s families are taken care of.
Top 5 Benefits of Setting up a Buy/Sell Agreement:
1. Peace of Mind
A Buy/Sell Agreement is great because it’s a simple way to secure the future of your business. It protects all partners in a business, whether they decide to leave the business or can no longer partake in the business.
2. An Easier Transition
In addition to offering business owners and partners peace of mind, a Buy/Sell Agreement also assures continuity for customers, creditors, and employees. Loosing a partner can be difficult enough, the last thing you want is to lose customers or assets in the transition process.
3. Promotes Equitable and Orderly Transfer of Wealth and Ownership
Having an effective Buy/Sell Agreement will help your company avoid messy inheritance issues or having an unexpected family member become a partner. It also guarantees the family a buyer for the assets which really help ensure the family is taken care in paying estate debts, expenses, and taxes.
4. Inexpensive Way to Protect your Company
Setting up a Buy-Sell Agreement is affordable and simple. Even if everything goes great and there are no unexpected deaths, you’re not losing money by setting one up and it can even offer tax advantages. However, if the worst does happens, having one can save everyone involved a great deal of time, money, and emotional heartache. To us, it’s a no-brainer to set one up.
5. Easy to Do When All Partners Are Healthy
Since a Buy/Sell Agreement involves taking out life insurance plans, the younger and healthier every partner is, the easier it will be to get an affordable life insurance policy. If you try to procure a plan after one of your partners is diagnosed with a terminal illness, you may not be able to get a plan at all.
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Need help setting up a Buy/Sell Agreement? We can help you with that. Contact us at marketing@corpstrat.com today!