You've built a business that generates reliable revenue, but two quiet liabilities likely keep you up at night: what happens if a partner unexpectedly passes away (or becomes permanently disabled), and how do you prevent your most critical executives from jumping ship to a competitor?
Consider Mark and Sarah, a composite of clients we see regularly. They are co-owners of a growing regional logistics firm, sitting at a conference table after hours, trying to map out a succession plan. If Sarah suffered a severe stroke and couldn't make it to work tomorrow, Mark knows the company's operating account couldn't comfortably absorb a multi-million-dollar buyout to her spouse. At the same time, they are agonizing over how to retain their brilliant VP of Operations, who is currently being courted by a larger firm offering equity—equity Mark and Sarah aren't willing to give up.
These are structural business problems. But because insurability is a financial asset, specialized insurance contracts often provide the exact structural solution required.
When you draft a buy-sell agreement with your attorney, you are creating a legally binding contract dictating what happens to the business if an owner dies, becomes disabled, or leaves. But the contract is just a piece of paper. The real question is: where does the money come from to execute it? That's ultimately a cash value question—if you haven't already, it's worth understanding how life insurance cash value actually works before you commit to a funding structure.
If you don't have the cash on hand, you either have to take out a massive commercial loan at the worst possible time, or you are forced into business with your deceased partner's spouse. Buy sell agreement life insurance solves this by delivering tax-free liquidity exactly when the contract demands it.
There are two primary ways to structure this funding:
1. The Cross-Purchase Plan
In a cross-purchase structure, the business owners buy life insurance policies on each other. If there are two partners, Mark buys a policy on Sarah, and Sarah buys a policy on Mark. When Sarah dies, Mark receives the death benefit tax-free and uses those funds to buy Sarah's shares from her estate.
Best for: Businesses with only two or three owners. If you have five partners, a cross-purchase requires 20 separate policies, which becomes an administrative nightmare.
2. The Entity Purchase (Stock Redemption) Plan
In an entity purchase, the business itself buys, owns, and is the beneficiary of a single policy on each owner. When an owner passes away, the business receives the death benefit and uses the cash to redeem the deceased owner's shares.
Best for: Businesses with multiple partners. However, it requires careful compliance. Under the Pension Protection Act of 2006, the business must satisfy specific notice and consent requirements before the policy is issued; otherwise, the death benefit may become taxable. You can verify these strict Employer-Owned Life Insurance (EOLI) requirements directly in IRC Section 101(j) of the tax code.
Now let's look at Mark and Sarah's second problem: the VP of Operations they can't afford to lose. They don't want to give up company stock, but they need to offer a robust, long-term incentive.
This is where an executive bonus plan (Section 162) shines. The product is not the plan; the plan is a compensation strategy utilizing the U.S. tax code.
Here is how it works: the executive applies for and owns a permanent life insurance policy on their own life. The business pays the premium on their behalf as a bonus. Because the employee owns the policy and has full access to the cash value, the premium is treated as taxable income to the employee. However, because it is considered compensation, the business can generally deduct the premium as an ordinary business expense under IRC Section 162.
Often, companies will do a "double bonus," paying slightly more to cover the executive's tax liability on the premium.
Why executives love it: They own a portable asset. The policy's cash value grows tax-deferred, providing a supplemental retirement bucket they control. If they pass away, their family gets the death benefit.
Why businesses love it: It requires no IRS approval, has zero administration costs compared to a qualified plan (like a 401(k)), and you can selectively choose which executives get the bonus. You aren't required to offer it to everyone.
For a deep dive into the specific tax mechanics of this arrangement, see our dedicated guide: Section 162 Executive Bonus Plans →
It is easy to confuse an executive bonus plan with key person insurance, but they serve opposite masters.
In an executive bonus plan, the employee owns the policy and reaps the cash value benefits.
With key person life insurance, the business owns the policy, pays the premium, and is the beneficiary. If your top salesperson generates 40% of your revenue and tragically dies, the death benefit buys the company time to recruit, hire, and train a replacement without facing bankruptcy. Furthermore, if you opted for permanent coverage, the key person life insurance cash value lives on the company's balance sheet. As outlined in my book, Unfurl the Retirement Pirate, this cash value becomes a blossoming corporate asset—a safe liquidity pool the business can borrow against for capital expenditures or emergencies.
To understand how these strategies fit together, you have to look at who owns the contract and who receives the ultimate benefit.
These strategies aren't mutually exclusive—many businesses run more than one at the same time, for different people and different risks, the way Mark and Sarah do. Never put yourself where the worst case can wipe you out. If the death or disability of your co-founder would result in a prolonged legal battle with their spouse over business valuation, you need a Buy-Sell Agreement funded by insurance today. If you need a mechanism to determine exactly how much life insurance that requires, spend five minutes calculating how much life insurance coverage you actually need based on your current exposure.
Conversely, if your immediate threat is losing your top developer or sales director to a competitor, an Executive Bonus Plan makes sense. It allows you to offer a highly visible, tax-advantaged perk that ties them to the company, knowing they are building cash value on your dime.
There's also a more advanced version of "combining" these strategies worth knowing about: an entity-purchase policy the business already owns on an owner can sometimes pull double duty. Because the company owns the policy and controls its cash value, that same contract can fund the buy-sell if the owner dies, while also serving as an informal financing source for a promised retirement benefit if they don't. This isn't the same thing as a Section 162 executive bonus—the company keeps ownership and control the entire time, and nothing is deductible to the business until a benefit is actually paid out—but it's a real, common way to make one policy do more than one job for a working owner. I covered this in full, including how to structure it correctly, in this article dedicated to nonqualified deferred compensation and SERPs.
Having structured these agreements for over two decades, I rarely see businesses fail because they lacked a legal document; they fail because the funding mechanics were flawed. Here are three critical considerations that separate standard plans from bulletproof succession strategies:
1. The "Step-Up in Basis" Tax Trap
The structure you choose dictates your future tax bill. In a Cross-Purchase plan, when surviving partners buy the deceased partner's shares, they receive a "step-up" in cost basis for those new shares. If they later sell the company, their capital gains taxes are significantly reduced. In an Entity Purchase (where the company absorbs the shares), the surviving partners do not get that basis step-up. If they sell the business down the road, that structural decision could cost them hundreds of thousands of dollars to the IRS.
One more wrinkle worth flagging in a cross-purchase structure: the policy you own on your partner's life is now an asset in your own estate. For most owners this is a non-issue, but if your estate is already approaching federal exemption thresholds, some advisors have cross-purchase policies held inside an irrevocable life insurance trust (ILIT) instead of owned personally, specifically to keep them out of each partner's taxable estate.
2. The Uninsurable Partner
What happens if you are perfectly healthy, but your partner had a heart attack two years ago and is uninsurable (or highly rated)? A buy-sell agreement can still be funded. Often, we structure the agreement so the healthy partner is covered by life insurance, while the uninsurable partner's buyout is funded through an aggressive corporate sinking fund or a pre-agreed installment note paid out of future company cash flows. Some businesses bridge this gap with a bank loan secured against the healthy partner's own policy cash value—if that route fits your situation, see how collateral assignment life insurance works before you approach a lender.
3. Advanced Funding: Leveraging Qualified Plans
If corporate cash flow is tight, business owners often overlook their existing qualified plans. Advanced planning concepts, such as utilizing a 401(k) profit-sharing plan to own life insurance, can be a highly effective funding source. This allows the business to leverage pre-tax corporate dollars to solve estate planning and succession needs, rather than using strictly after-tax cash flow. (Note: Utilizing qualified plan assets for insurance requires strict adherence to ERISA limits, typically restricting premiums to a specific percentage of the employer's contribution).
This isn't something you sort out alone. My role is to structure and fund the strategy; your attorney's role is to draft the actual agreement. Before signing anything or committing company cash flow, make sure the two of us are aligned on:
1. Do we have the right valuation formula? Your buy-sell agreement must clearly state how the business is valued. Avoid a static "Agreed Value" (e.g., "$2 Million") written into a contract that you forget to update for a decade while the business triples in size. Use a dynamic formula (like a specific multiple of EBITDA or Book Value) and ensure the insurance death benefit is reviewed every three years to keep pace with your growth.
2. Have we met the notice and consent rules? If you are doing an entity purchase, did the insured partners sign the EOLI consent forms before the policy was issued? If not, the death benefit could face severe tax penalties.
3. Are we using a Restrictive Endorsement? If you use an executive bonus plan, have you placed a Restrictive Endorsement Agreement (REA) on the policy? This prevents the executive from cashing out the policy and quitting the next day without your permission.
4. Does the payout need special handling? If your ownership interest would pass to, or buyout proceeds would benefit, a family member with a disability, a lump-sum payment can disqualify them from means-tested government benefits. In that scenario, coordinate with your estate attorney on funding a special needs trust with life insurance rather than leaving proceeds outright.
No. I'm a CFP® and CLU®, not an attorney, so I don't draft the legal agreement itself. What I do is quarterback the funding side of it: determining how much coverage is needed, which structure (cross-purchase or entity purchase) actually fits your ownership situation, and getting the policies in force. You'll still want your own attorney to draft or review the buy-sell contract—I work directly with them so the legal terms and the insurance funding match up instead of being designed in isolation from each other.
Generally, no. If the business is the owner and beneficiary (like in an entity buy-sell or key person policy), the premiums are not tax-deductible. However, the death benefit is usually received income-tax-free. The exception is a Section 162 Executive Bonus Plan: because the employee owns the policy and the premium is treated as compensation to them, the business can typically deduct the bonus.
In a cross-purchase plan, the departing partner owns the policy on the remaining partner. Usually, the buy-sell agreement dictates that the remaining partner has the right to buy that policy from the departing partner for its current cash value.
Because the executive owns the policy, they take it with them when they leave. The business simply stops paying the premium bonuses. If the company used a Restrictive Endorsement, the company can release the restriction upon termination, allowing the executive to assume full premium payments or surrender the cash value.
Yes. The guaranteed schedule of cash values in a permanent policy owned by the business must be accounted for on the corporate balance sheet. It is an accessible asset the business can use as collateral or borrow against via policy liens.
Mark and Sarah didn't just need a legal document; they needed liquidity that would materialize exactly when a crisis hit. By implementing an entity-purchase buy-sell agreement, they ensured their business would survive the loss of a founder. By deploying an executive bonus plan, they anchored their best talent to the firm's long-term success. The product is not the plan—but the right product makes the plan possible.
Disclaimer: I am a Certified Financial Planner™ (CFP®) and Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU®), but I am not your financial advisor, CPA, or attorney. Business succession and compensation strategies involve complex tax regulations that vary by state and corporate structure. Stormathrive Wealth Management may be able to provide advisory services, but all strategies must be reviewed by your independent tax and legal counsel prior to implementation.
Consider Mark and Sarah, a composite of clients we see regularly. They are co-owners of a growing regional logistics firm, sitting at a conference table after hours, trying to map out a succession plan. If Sarah suffered a severe stroke and couldn't make it to work tomorrow, Mark knows the company's operating account couldn't comfortably absorb a multi-million-dollar buyout to her spouse. At the same time, they are agonizing over how to retain their brilliant VP of Operations, who is currently being courted by a larger firm offering equity—equity Mark and Sarah aren't willing to give up.
These are structural business problems. But because insurability is a financial asset, specialized insurance contracts often provide the exact structural solution required.
The Short Answer: What Is Buy Sell Agreement Life Insurance?
Buy sell agreement life insurance is a policy (or set of policies) purchased specifically to fund a business's buy-sell agreement, so that cash is immediately available, tax-free, to buy out a deceased or disabled owner's share the moment the agreement is triggered.
It's a distinct strategy from an executive bonus plan (Section 162), which uses life insurance to retain a key employee rather than to fund an ownership transition—we cover both below, since business owners often have to weigh them side by side.
See the core mechanics: How Does Life Insurance Cash Value Work? →
Buy sell agreement life insurance is a policy (or set of policies) purchased specifically to fund a business's buy-sell agreement, so that cash is immediately available, tax-free, to buy out a deceased or disabled owner's share the moment the agreement is triggered.
It's a distinct strategy from an executive bonus plan (Section 162), which uses life insurance to retain a key employee rather than to fund an ownership transition—we cover both below, since business owners often have to weigh them side by side.
See the core mechanics: How Does Life Insurance Cash Value Work? →
Structuring Buy Sell Agreement Life Insurance
When you draft a buy-sell agreement with your attorney, you are creating a legally binding contract dictating what happens to the business if an owner dies, becomes disabled, or leaves. But the contract is just a piece of paper. The real question is: where does the money come from to execute it? That's ultimately a cash value question—if you haven't already, it's worth understanding how life insurance cash value actually works before you commit to a funding structure.
If you don't have the cash on hand, you either have to take out a massive commercial loan at the worst possible time, or you are forced into business with your deceased partner's spouse. Buy sell agreement life insurance solves this by delivering tax-free liquidity exactly when the contract demands it.
There are two primary ways to structure this funding:
1. The Cross-Purchase Plan
In a cross-purchase structure, the business owners buy life insurance policies on each other. If there are two partners, Mark buys a policy on Sarah, and Sarah buys a policy on Mark. When Sarah dies, Mark receives the death benefit tax-free and uses those funds to buy Sarah's shares from her estate.
Best for: Businesses with only two or three owners. If you have five partners, a cross-purchase requires 20 separate policies, which becomes an administrative nightmare.
2. The Entity Purchase (Stock Redemption) Plan
In an entity purchase, the business itself buys, owns, and is the beneficiary of a single policy on each owner. When an owner passes away, the business receives the death benefit and uses the cash to redeem the deceased owner's shares.
Best for: Businesses with multiple partners. However, it requires careful compliance. Under the Pension Protection Act of 2006, the business must satisfy specific notice and consent requirements before the policy is issued; otherwise, the death benefit may become taxable. You can verify these strict Employer-Owned Life Insurance (EOLI) requirements directly in IRC Section 101(j) of the tax code.
The Cash Flow Reality Check: Life vs. Disability
The standard insurance industry pitch is almost always: "Buy permanent life insurance so the buy-sell funding is guaranteed forever." But as a business owner, you have to weigh that against reality.
Permanent life insurance requires significant, ongoing cash flow. Unless your business has ample idle cash, tying up heavy capital in premium outlays comes with a massive opportunity cost—capital that could otherwise be deployed for inventory, acquisitions, or new hires.
Furthermore, death is only one peril. According to the Social Security Administration's Office of the Chief Actuary, a worker entering the workforce today faces roughly a 23% chance of becoming disabled before reaching normal retirement age, compared to only a 13% chance of dying in that same window (SSA Actuarial Note 2024.6). If your co-founder suffers a massive stroke and survives, life insurance pays nothing, but your buy-sell agreement is still triggered. For many growing businesses, a far more practical, cash-flow-friendly strategy is to allocate premium dollars toward a Disability Buy-Out (DBO) policy to cover the higher-probability risk, and pair it with less expensive term life insurance—you can check live pricing in minutes with our instant term quote tool—to cover the mortality risk.
The standard insurance industry pitch is almost always: "Buy permanent life insurance so the buy-sell funding is guaranteed forever." But as a business owner, you have to weigh that against reality.
Permanent life insurance requires significant, ongoing cash flow. Unless your business has ample idle cash, tying up heavy capital in premium outlays comes with a massive opportunity cost—capital that could otherwise be deployed for inventory, acquisitions, or new hires.
Furthermore, death is only one peril. According to the Social Security Administration's Office of the Chief Actuary, a worker entering the workforce today faces roughly a 23% chance of becoming disabled before reaching normal retirement age, compared to only a 13% chance of dying in that same window (SSA Actuarial Note 2024.6). If your co-founder suffers a massive stroke and survives, life insurance pays nothing, but your buy-sell agreement is still triggered. For many growing businesses, a far more practical, cash-flow-friendly strategy is to allocate premium dollars toward a Disability Buy-Out (DBO) policy to cover the higher-probability risk, and pair it with less expensive term life insurance—you can check live pricing in minutes with our instant term quote tool—to cover the mortality risk.
Executive Bonus Plan Section 162: Retaining Top Talent
Now let's look at Mark and Sarah's second problem: the VP of Operations they can't afford to lose. They don't want to give up company stock, but they need to offer a robust, long-term incentive.
This is where an executive bonus plan (Section 162) shines. The product is not the plan; the plan is a compensation strategy utilizing the U.S. tax code.
Here is how it works: the executive applies for and owns a permanent life insurance policy on their own life. The business pays the premium on their behalf as a bonus. Because the employee owns the policy and has full access to the cash value, the premium is treated as taxable income to the employee. However, because it is considered compensation, the business can generally deduct the premium as an ordinary business expense under IRC Section 162.
Often, companies will do a "double bonus," paying slightly more to cover the executive's tax liability on the premium.
Why executives love it: They own a portable asset. The policy's cash value grows tax-deferred, providing a supplemental retirement bucket they control. If they pass away, their family gets the death benefit.
Why businesses love it: It requires no IRS approval, has zero administration costs compared to a qualified plan (like a 401(k)), and you can selectively choose which executives get the bonus. You aren't required to offer it to everyone.
For a deep dive into the specific tax mechanics of this arrangement, see our dedicated guide: Section 162 Executive Bonus Plans →
What About Key Person Life Insurance Cash Value?
It is easy to confuse an executive bonus plan with key person insurance, but they serve opposite masters.
In an executive bonus plan, the employee owns the policy and reaps the cash value benefits.
With key person life insurance, the business owns the policy, pays the premium, and is the beneficiary. If your top salesperson generates 40% of your revenue and tragically dies, the death benefit buys the company time to recruit, hire, and train a replacement without facing bankruptcy. Furthermore, if you opted for permanent coverage, the key person life insurance cash value lives on the company's balance sheet. As outlined in my book, Unfurl the Retirement Pirate, this cash value becomes a blossoming corporate asset—a safe liquidity pool the business can borrow against for capital expenditures or emergencies.
Comparing the Business Structures
To understand how these strategies fit together, you have to look at who owns the contract and who receives the ultimate benefit.
| Strategy | Who Owns the Policy? | Who is the Beneficiary? | Primary Business Goal |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buy-Sell (Entity) | The Business | The Business | Funding partner succession and share redemption. |
| Exec Bonus (§162) | The Executive | Executive's Family | Retaining key talent without issuing equity. |
| Key Person | The Business | The Business | Protecting company revenue from the loss of a rainmaker. |
| Split-Dollar | Shared (varies) | Shared (Business & Family) | Advanced talent retention with cost-recovery for the business. |
| COLI | The Corporation | The Corporation | Funding deferred comp and benefit-plan liabilities for any corporation. |
| BOLI | The Bank | The Bank | Offsetting institutional benefit liabilities, specific to banks. |
When Does Each Strategy Make Sense?
These strategies aren't mutually exclusive—many businesses run more than one at the same time, for different people and different risks, the way Mark and Sarah do. Never put yourself where the worst case can wipe you out. If the death or disability of your co-founder would result in a prolonged legal battle with their spouse over business valuation, you need a Buy-Sell Agreement funded by insurance today. If you need a mechanism to determine exactly how much life insurance that requires, spend five minutes calculating how much life insurance coverage you actually need based on your current exposure.
Conversely, if your immediate threat is losing your top developer or sales director to a competitor, an Executive Bonus Plan makes sense. It allows you to offer a highly visible, tax-advantaged perk that ties them to the company, knowing they are building cash value on your dime.
There's also a more advanced version of "combining" these strategies worth knowing about: an entity-purchase policy the business already owns on an owner can sometimes pull double duty. Because the company owns the policy and controls its cash value, that same contract can fund the buy-sell if the owner dies, while also serving as an informal financing source for a promised retirement benefit if they don't. This isn't the same thing as a Section 162 executive bonus—the company keeps ownership and control the entire time, and nothing is deductible to the business until a benefit is actually paid out—but it's a real, common way to make one policy do more than one job for a working owner. I covered this in full, including how to structure it correctly, in this article dedicated to nonqualified deferred compensation and SERPs.
Real-World Traps & Advanced Funding Tactics
Having structured these agreements for over two decades, I rarely see businesses fail because they lacked a legal document; they fail because the funding mechanics were flawed. Here are three critical considerations that separate standard plans from bulletproof succession strategies:
1. The "Step-Up in Basis" Tax Trap
The structure you choose dictates your future tax bill. In a Cross-Purchase plan, when surviving partners buy the deceased partner's shares, they receive a "step-up" in cost basis for those new shares. If they later sell the company, their capital gains taxes are significantly reduced. In an Entity Purchase (where the company absorbs the shares), the surviving partners do not get that basis step-up. If they sell the business down the road, that structural decision could cost them hundreds of thousands of dollars to the IRS.
One more wrinkle worth flagging in a cross-purchase structure: the policy you own on your partner's life is now an asset in your own estate. For most owners this is a non-issue, but if your estate is already approaching federal exemption thresholds, some advisors have cross-purchase policies held inside an irrevocable life insurance trust (ILIT) instead of owned personally, specifically to keep them out of each partner's taxable estate.
2. The Uninsurable Partner
What happens if you are perfectly healthy, but your partner had a heart attack two years ago and is uninsurable (or highly rated)? A buy-sell agreement can still be funded. Often, we structure the agreement so the healthy partner is covered by life insurance, while the uninsurable partner's buyout is funded through an aggressive corporate sinking fund or a pre-agreed installment note paid out of future company cash flows. Some businesses bridge this gap with a bank loan secured against the healthy partner's own policy cash value—if that route fits your situation, see how collateral assignment life insurance works before you approach a lender.
3. Advanced Funding: Leveraging Qualified Plans
If corporate cash flow is tight, business owners often overlook their existing qualified plans. Advanced planning concepts, such as utilizing a 401(k) profit-sharing plan to own life insurance, can be a highly effective funding source. This allows the business to leverage pre-tax corporate dollars to solve estate planning and succession needs, rather than using strictly after-tax cash flow. (Note: Utilizing qualified plan assets for insurance requires strict adherence to ERISA limits, typically restricting premiums to a specific percentage of the employer's contribution).
Questions to Ask Before Implementing
This isn't something you sort out alone. My role is to structure and fund the strategy; your attorney's role is to draft the actual agreement. Before signing anything or committing company cash flow, make sure the two of us are aligned on:
1. Do we have the right valuation formula? Your buy-sell agreement must clearly state how the business is valued. Avoid a static "Agreed Value" (e.g., "$2 Million") written into a contract that you forget to update for a decade while the business triples in size. Use a dynamic formula (like a specific multiple of EBITDA or Book Value) and ensure the insurance death benefit is reviewed every three years to keep pace with your growth.
2. Have we met the notice and consent rules? If you are doing an entity purchase, did the insured partners sign the EOLI consent forms before the policy was issued? If not, the death benefit could face severe tax penalties.
3. Are we using a Restrictive Endorsement? If you use an executive bonus plan, have you placed a Restrictive Endorsement Agreement (REA) on the policy? This prevents the executive from cashing out the policy and quitting the next day without your permission.
4. Does the payout need special handling? If your ownership interest would pass to, or buyout proceeds would benefit, a family member with a disability, a lump-sum payment can disqualify them from means-tested government benefits. In that scenario, coordinate with your estate attorney on funding a special needs trust with life insurance rather than leaving proceeds outright.
FAQ: Business Life Insurance Strategies
Do you draft the buy-sell agreement itself?
No. I'm a CFP® and CLU®, not an attorney, so I don't draft the legal agreement itself. What I do is quarterback the funding side of it: determining how much coverage is needed, which structure (cross-purchase or entity purchase) actually fits your ownership situation, and getting the policies in force. You'll still want your own attorney to draft or review the buy-sell contract—I work directly with them so the legal terms and the insurance funding match up instead of being designed in isolation from each other.
Can a business deduct life insurance premiums?
Generally, no. If the business is the owner and beneficiary (like in an entity buy-sell or key person policy), the premiums are not tax-deductible. However, the death benefit is usually received income-tax-free. The exception is a Section 162 Executive Bonus Plan: because the employee owns the policy and the premium is treated as compensation to them, the business can typically deduct the bonus.
What happens to the policy if a partner leaves the business?
In a cross-purchase plan, the departing partner owns the policy on the remaining partner. Usually, the buy-sell agreement dictates that the remaining partner has the right to buy that policy from the departing partner for its current cash value.
What happens to an executive bonus policy if the employee quits?
Because the executive owns the policy, they take it with them when they leave. The business simply stops paying the premium bonuses. If the company used a Restrictive Endorsement, the company can release the restriction upon termination, allowing the executive to assume full premium payments or surrender the cash value.
Does key person cash value count as a business asset?
Yes. The guaranteed schedule of cash values in a permanent policy owned by the business must be accounted for on the corporate balance sheet. It is an accessible asset the business can use as collateral or borrow against via policy liens.
The Bottom Line
Mark and Sarah didn't just need a legal document; they needed liquidity that would materialize exactly when a crisis hit. By implementing an entity-purchase buy-sell agreement, they ensured their business would survive the loss of a founder. By deploying an executive bonus plan, they anchored their best talent to the firm's long-term success. The product is not the plan—but the right product makes the plan possible.
Disclaimer: I am a Certified Financial Planner™ (CFP®) and Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU®), but I am not your financial advisor, CPA, or attorney. Business succession and compensation strategies involve complex tax regulations that vary by state and corporate structure. Stormathrive Wealth Management may be able to provide advisory services, but all strategies must be reviewed by your independent tax and legal counsel prior to implementation.