Protect

• Much of your business depends on your people. You want to make sure that your business will continue to be successful even if you lose the expertise of either a partner or important employees.
• While you may consider your key employees irreplaceable, protecting your business from experiencing financial loss is the foundation of business preservation.

Build

• As your business reaches stability, you may become more reliant on management teams and key players. The need to plan for the future and both attract and retain employees becomes more important.
• Reducing taxes and saving for retirement is a priority of Stage 2 of business preservation.

Optimize

• At this phase, your business has become established, and you should be looking for ways to get the most out of the business you have built.
• Deciding is tax-qualified plans or “non-qualified” plans will be the best way to build and protect your money/assets/retirement is key in this phase. Plans can be designed to offer a current tax deduction for the business or tax deferral for the key employee.

Transfer

• Eventually, you will want to transition out of your business, whether by selling outright or passing it to your children or other family members.
• Whether you retire completely or continue to work during the transition, you will need an exit strategy that will liquidate your share of the business value with the fewest tax consequences, while still leaving the business in good financial shape for successor owners.
• If you have family members that will not be active in the business, you can use a strategy called estate equalization. This will make sure that each of your heirs is treated fairly and equally.