Life Insurance Strategies for Small Business Owners

[scagnt83]

All of them or none of them.

You are approaching this from the wrong perspective,


Find the problem and then the solution.


Focus on having conversations with business owners and getting them to share what worries them. Is it if they don't come home, is it if they are disabled, retaining key employees, how to fund retirement, what happens when they retire, what? Of course a lot will want to talk about keeping the doors open. Either because staying open is a challenge or you aren't able to get them to talk about other fears.
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I agree mostly.
But it can help to define what areas you can help with so the owner knows what exactly you do. But I also wouldnt lay out a list of exact specifics either. You want to be able to generally explain what you can help with, but you also dont want to box yourself in too much.
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Also have you ever combined uses for a plan, like a key man policy that doubles as a golden handcuff type of plan?

I have been seeing these plans pop up alot and trying to figure out what the pros use out there for the small business owner.
Thanks!

I really like SERPS funded with a Key Man Life Policy. Which is basically what your talking about.
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asking which of these is NOT suited towards small business owners.

It just depends. Some 5 man shops net a half mill, some might net $50k. The one that nets $500k will have a need for more of those solutions than the one that nets $50k.

Same thing is true for a 10 or 20 man shop.


All of those things you listed take money, so it depends on how much money they are pulling in and can spread around.


It also depends on the structure of the business. Some revolve around the owner, some rely on key employees to make day to day operations successful. Each of those scenarios will need different things.

It all just depends on the cash flow and operational structure.
Your question is like asking "which life policy is right for a 50 year old?" You cant answer it without more specific info. The short answer to your question is that all of them could be or none of them could be....

 

[KenK]

So true, with me it's aliens (and my Ex). But how do you start the conversation to get a client to talk about their fears?

A very simple question - "Mr. Prospect, what concerns you the most?"

As to what to offer a business owner, I usually ask them "when is the last time you updated or reviewed your buy-sell agreement?" Just about every response is that they haven't, or they've been meaning to set it up since forming the company (even if it's been years) and this leads into a good discussion of business valuation, the other partners, key people, etc.
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[skt1234]

Try out some most popular insurance website to better understand all those points.

 

[Justin Bilyj]

two decent pieces of advice outa the whole thread.
Pacific Life, Principal, and Aviva have a ton of resources for business insurance, and I have been studying those a ton lately, in fact all I could think about in my dreams last night are the different types of buy-sell agreements and approaching other biz owners for keyman and nqdc.

For scagnt and ken k, I have been looking to get another data list, how do you look for businesses, +500k in sales annually?employee size 1-9?
There are so many filters and not sure how I should utilize them so I can put a list of businesses together that are ripe for business insurance solutions.
Appreciate any response!