Have you saved enough to maintain your lifestyle and become independent of the business?
People think preparing for retirement involves saving as much money as possible and investing it wisely by diversifying. But in addition to diversifying investments, smart retirement savers also consider how taxes will affect their retirement dollars. There are a number of ways to save for retirement and withdraw income once retirement arrives. It’s important to consider the contribution, accumulation and distribution tax characteristics of these options.
Can you successfully transfer the assets you’ve worked a lifetime to accumulate?
You’ve worked hard to build and maintain a legacy, and you deserve to pass it on to your children and grandchildren. But when the time comes, estate or income taxes and other costs can erode the assets you’ve spent a lifetime accumulating. A life insurance solution can help protect those assets by providing a tax-free death benefit to help alleviate these costs and provide a legacy to your beneficiaries. It also plays an important role in many estate planning strategies.
Does your retirement strategy compliment your business objectives?
We provide a highly flexible approach to retirement plans that allows you to provide customized solutions designed around your goals, budgets and employee demographics.
Have you created programs to recruit, reward and retain key employees?
Key employees make an important contribution to your company’s profitability. It is in your best interest to recognize their contribution. Selective executive compensation benefits reward those employees whose achievements are most responsible for the business’s success and allow key employees to share in the accomplishments of the business.
If a key employee dies, will your business suffer financially?
Key employee life insurance is owned by a company on the life of one of its important employees. The death of one of your key employees could cause serious problems to your company, such as lost sales, lower earnings and added costs for hiring and training a replacement. Key employee life insurance provides a death benefit that helps you replace these costs and operate smoothly after losing a key employee.
Have you identified steps to transfer the business to others at a fair price?
Having a business succession strategy in place is a key to success and survival of your company. Strategies such as buy-sell arrangements can facilitate the transfer of a business interest upon a certain event (death, disability or retirement).
What advisor(s) do you need?
Planning an exit is a multi-disciplinary endeavor. Protecting assets, growing value, transferring a business to children (or co-owners or employees), selling to a third party, and assuring business continuity are tasks that exceed the expertise of any one advisor. That’s why we recommend a Team of Advisors.
Who is on an Advisor Team?
An Advisor Team generally consists of the following professionals:
- Financial/Insurance Professional;
- Business/Estate Planning Attorney(s);
- CPA; and
- Business Consultant (as needed).
If a third party sale is likely, the Team will include a:
- Transaction Intermediary (Business Broker or Investment Banker) and
- Transaction Attorney.
Do they all have to have Exit Planning experience?
While that would be ideal, the answer is no. Not all advisors understand the Exit Planning Process, but all should be able to work with other professionals as a member of a team.
Lawyers and CPAs are expensive. Won't this Team cost a fortune?
Assembling and consulting with your Advisor Team not only facilitates the exchange of information and ideas, but can reduce your costs by increasing the efficiency of each advisor. Instead of advisors proceeding in a disjointed manner, often repeating the work of others, you and your lead Exit Planning advisor coordinate the efforts of all advisors.
How do you find Team members?
Many business owners are familiar with many of these professionals and have worked with them individually in the past, but have not assembled them as a team charged with a common goal: helping you to leave your business in style. We can help you start to assemble your Team.
How do you get started?
Contact us. We can recommend other advisors, and can ask you the questions necessary to help you define your best exit path.
Life insurance products contain fees, such as mortality and expense charges, and may contain restrictions, such as surrender periods. Policy loans and withdrawals may create an adverse tax result in the event of a lapse or policy surrender, and will reduce both the cash value and death benefit. Please keep in mind that the primary reason to purchase life insurance is for the death benefit it provides. Financial Advisors do not provide specific tax/legal advice and this information should not be considered as such. You should always consult your tax/legal advisor regarding your own specific tax/legal situation.
Separate from the financial plan and our role as financial planner, we may recommend the purchase of specific investment or insurance products or accounts. These product recommendations are not part of the financial plan and you are under no obligation to follow them.
For a comprehensive review of your personal situation, always consult with a tax or legal advisor. Neither Cetera Advisor Networks LLC nor any of its representatives may give legal or tax advice.
A diversified portfolio does not assure a profit or protect against loss in a declining market.
