The Advanced High-Net-Worth and Small Business Planning Service
The Advanced High-Net-Worth and Small Business Planning Service is a comprehensive suite of services designed to support high-net-worth individuals and business owners in achieving their financial and legacy planning goals. Through tailored planning concepts, our team—comprising attorneys, CPAs, CLUs, ChFCs, and tax professionals with over 255 years of combined experience—creates strategic designs and approaches that meet each client's unique needs.
This service is ideal for brokers working with high-net-worth individuals, business owners, corporate executives, and entrepreneurs who require advanced planning strategies.
Succession and Buy-Sell Planning: Ensuring a smooth transition of business ownership and assets, with options like insurance-only LLCs, disability buy-out insurance, and key person life and disability insurance.
Individual and Wealth Transfer Planning: Addressing estate tax planning, inheritance equalization, wills and trusts, generation-skipping planning, family limited partnerships, and special needs planning.
Corporate Financing Solutions: Offering commercial premium financing, private financing, split-dollar arrangements, and BizEquity business valuations.
Retirement and Executive Benefit Plans: Providing a range of options, including 401(k) safe harbor plans, traditional defined benefit plans, cash balance plans, SEP-IRAs, profit sharing plans, and non-qualified deferred compensation.
Charitable and Legacy Planning: Crafting strategies for charitable giving, such as charitable trusts, life insurance as a supplemental retirement income source, and planning for legacy goals.
Plan Reviews and Valuations: Offering reviews for wills, trusts, buy-sell plans, key person plans, and comprehensive BEI Exit Planning Solutions for business owners.
Expertise and Experience: With a team of seasoned professionals totaling over 255 years of experience, we bring a wealth of knowledge in all areas of advanced business, individual, and wealth transfer planning.
Tailored Planning Concepts: We specialize in customized strategies for high-net-worth individuals and businesses, meeting specific financial goals and ensuring long-term stability. Our approach includes innovative tools and concepts, such as insurance-only LLCs, executive bonus plans, and supplemental executive retirement plans.
Comprehensive Solutions: Our services cover a broad spectrum, from succession and buy-sell planning to estate tax strategies and retirement planning. This holistic approach ensures that all aspects of a client’s financial situation are addressed under one roof.
Strategic Business Resources: Provides advanced planning solutions, while tools like BizEquity business valuations and BEI Exit Planning Solutions help clients understand and maximize their business’s value.
Enhanced Client Service: We offer ongoing reviews and updates to existing plans, including key person, buy-sell, will, and trust reviews. This helps ensure that plans remain aligned with clients' evolving goals and market conditions.
Competitive Advantage: By working with our specialized team, advisors and professionals can offer high-value services to their clients, differentiating themselves in the marketplace and expanding their client relationships.
If you’re a broker and you work with us, you’ll have complimentary access to our full range of advanced planning services. This means you can offer your clients comprehensive solutions, from succession and estate planning to corporate financing and executive benefits, all with the support of our experienced team—at no extra cost to you.
Business valuation is the process of determining the economic value of a business. It’s crucial for owners who need to understand their company’s worth for various reasons, such as selling the business, planning for succession, or securing funding. Valuation methods can vary, with common approaches including income-based, market-based, and asset-based methods.
A buy-sell plan is a legally binding agreement that outlines how a business owner’s share of the business will be transferred if they pass away, become disabled, or leave the business. It ensures a smooth ownership transition, protects the interests of all parties involved, and helps prevent disputes among co-owners, heirs, or other stakeholders.
Funding a buy-sell plan can be accomplished through various methods, including:
Life Insurance: Often used for buy-sell plans, life insurance provides the necessary funds to buy out a deceased owner’s share, helping ensure liquidity and reducing financial strain on the business.
Disability Buy-Out Insurance: This policy provides funds if an owner becomes disabled, allowing remaining owners to buy out the disabled party's interest.
Self-Funding or Loan Agreements: In some cases, business owners may use retained earnings or take out loans to finance the buyout. However, these methods can be more challenging and place a financial burden on the business.
The Connelly Decision impacts buy-sell agreements by potentially subjecting certain buyout arrangements to estate taxes, particularly if structured as cross-purchase agreements funded by life insurance. Depending on the structure of your buy-sell plan, it may need to be reviewed to ensure that it doesn’t unintentionally increase the estate tax liability for the deceased owner’s beneficiaries.
Life insurance is a valuable tool in estate planning, especially for covering potential estate tax liabilities. Here’s how it can help:
Providing Liquidity for Estate Taxes: Life insurance proceeds can offer immediate cash to pay estate taxes, which are due shortly after death. This liquidity allows heirs to cover tax obligations without needing to sell valuable or non-liquid assets, like real estate or a family business, preserving the estate’s integrity.
Using an Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust (ILIT): By placing a life insurance policy in an ILIT, the policy’s death benefit can be excluded from the taxable estate. This setup ensures that the proceeds are protected from estate taxes and can be used to pay estate taxes, thus reducing the taxable amount and preserving more assets for heirs.
Covering State Estate and Inheritance Taxes: Even if the estate is below the federal estate tax threshold, state-level estate or inheritance taxes may apply. Life insurance can provide the necessary funds to cover these state taxes, allowing heirs to inherit the full value of the estate without additional tax burdens.
Equalizing Inheritances Among Heirs: In cases where assets aren’t easily divisible (such as a family business or specific real estate), life insurance can provide a cash equivalent to other heirs. This helps avoid the forced sale of any part of the estate, ensuring all heirs receive equitable inheritances and reducing potential conflicts.
Life insurance can be a strategic option to help minimizing estate taxes, provide liquidity, and help families preserve and transfer wealth.
Guardian, its subsidiaries, agents, and employees do not provide tax, legal, or accounting advice. Consult your tax, legal, or accounting professional regarding your individual situation. 7200322.1 Exp 10/26
We look forward to learning more about your business and working with you.