You may be surprised to learn that you can protect yourself financially from the adverse effects on your business of losing an owner through death or major illness or losing a key staff member that was critical to the operation of your business.

We can help you look at the risks your business might face and what you can do to protect yourself and your business.

Losing Key Staff

Your ability to maintain the value of your business can be seriously endangered by the departure of any key person who contributes significantly to the revenue of your business.  The loss of a key person can affect your business through:

• Loss of revenue
• Increased costs (such as recruitment)
• Failure to meet financial obligations

It’s obviously difficult if the loss is through death or disability, but you also need to prepare for resignation and retirement.

Key Person Protection
While all businesses should ideally plan to reduce their dependency on any key person or persons over time, most businesses find this difficult. Key person insurance allows your business to receive a lump sum payment if a key person can no longer work due to illness, injury or death. Key person protection can help you meet your short-term business obligations, offset a reduction in profits and help provide the funds to find and train a suitable replacement.

Losing a Business Owner

A business owner could get sick or injured, die unexpectedly, or resign or retire – so it’s crucial that business owners have preparations in place to ensure a co-owner’s departure causes the least disruption possible.

There are plans you can put in place to help ensure your interests are protected, and you retain control and maintain the value of your business, despite the planned or unexpected departure of a co-owner. These measures include:

Key person protection – see above

Buy / Sell Agreements – these allow the remaining owners to purchase the departed owner’s shares at a pre-agreed value.  (This value should be reviewed each year to ensure it changes in line with the value of the business).
 
Buy / Sell Funding – wherever possible, the Buy / Sell Agreements should be fully funded to avoid delays and avoid existing owners being disadvantaged financially.

Property and assets are often essential to the day-to-day operation of your business, so if they suffer loss or damage it can be devastating.  You need to ensure that, if anything should go wrong, your property and assets can be restored as soon as possible to get your business up and running again.

We can provide the following protection for your business:

• Commercial Packages – cover for your business premises, vehicles and equipment
• Property Damage Insurance – covers you for accidental loss or damage to your insured property at your business premises
• Motor Vehicle Comprehensive Insurance – covers you against accidental loss or damage to your insured vehicles
• Goods in Transit – covers you against accidental loss or damage to your property while in transit in New Zealand
• Machinery Breakdown Insurance – covers you for sudden and accidental breakdown of your electrical and mechanical plant at your business premises
• Business Interruption Insurance – covers you for lost business profit as a result of accidental loss or damage to your property

Other types of business cover are also available such as Professional Indemnity, Employer's Indemnity, Directors’ & Officers’ Liability, Statutory Liability and Personal Disability Insurance.

Contact Us for more information on how we can help protect your business.