Finance Friday: Buy/Sell Plans

Welcome to the second episode of Finance Friday, where we will be featuring some local financial planners, and providing some strategies to protect your family or business. Today we’re talking Buy/Sell Plans with Kristen Soares from New York Life. Watch the video below or read the transcript. If you would like to submit your own question, you can send and email to me at jlapointe@lapointeins.com, on our Facebook Page, or contact us through the website.

Video Transcript:

“ John: Hey everyone John Lapointe with Lapointe insurance here, It’s Finance Friday, today I’m here with Kristen Soares from New York Life. She Works closely with small business owners to work with them on their business succession planning. What we’re going to talk about to today is Buy/Sell Plan, and Kristen is obviously very knowledgeable about these things, so Kristen can you tell me a little bit about why business owners need a but sell plan and when they should start thinking about one and putting one into place.

Kristen:  So really what a buy sell plan entails is more of a buyout, more of an agreement. It entails really an orderly agreement from ownership, also it alleviates a lot of conflicts that happen in a business. So typically, when an owner starts a business, maybe they’re in a partnership, they want to be with that partner, but in case of a Triggering Event such as retirement, disability, or death, they might not have that partner anymore, but that partner still has that percentage of ownership of the business. So they need to figure out who they’re now going to work with, whether they’re gonna buy out this person, whether they’re comfortable working with their spouse or children. What this Buy/Sell agreement does is set up an agreement that’s also tied together by an attorney that makes sure the business continues the success no matter what happens. So typically, this triggering event will happen and this buyout plan will be set up to make sure one business owner, no matter how much they love their partner’s spouse, they’re not working with their partner’s spouse. They have the opportunity to buy that partner out or to set up an arrangement where they’re both still going to be taken care of, but they’re still going to be happy in the business and the business will continue to succeed.

John: So basically, the idea there is to make sure you’re planning ahead for the future of your business and you want to have a plan in place as to know how it’s going to work should your partner either fall ill or retire.

Kristen: Right, right and a lot of times it’s like you said this event is going to happen, it’s inevitable whether it’s death, disability, or retirement. We hope it’s the retirement part first so they get taken care of and that whole buyout plan maybe stays in affect but maybe we don’t have to use it early on in the business. But really, this allows you to start a business, typically within three to five years of starting a business you should start thinking about setting up these plans once you start seeing success and you want to continue this success and say you do have a family where you’d like to pass this business down to your children, a lot of times that doesn’t happen if you have a partner and you don’t plan well for it. So typically, it’s always good to plan. Not planning is almost planning to fail a lot of times.

John: That’s something we talk about with our clients too right. The thing about Insurance, the big I word is what do you buy that you hope you never use and that’s something we deal with all the time in terms of insurance claims and in this case, it’s something you’re going to have to use eventually, no matter what one of those trigger events is gonna happen and if you’re not prepared for it you’re gonna be…

Kristen: Yea so it’s very easy to work it out, we won’t bore you with all the details of how it’s funded, how it’s set up, but we’ll just tell you that if you’re in a business and you have a partner and you want your business to continue to succeed no matter what triggering event happens, we can help take care of that at Lapointe Insurance.

John: Awesome, once again you guys know where to find us. You can click the link below or give us a call. If you want to reach Kristen, same thing we’ll put her information in here as well. Thanks everybody for coming to our finance Friday.

Kristen: Thank you!”

This video is part of an ongoing series dedicated to helping families and small businesses plan for success.

At Lapointe Insurance, we have a long history of working with all varieties of small businesses.  That history gives us the unique experience and expertise to strategically manage your risks. Through a plan that includes loss control, safety planning, and insurance contracts, we can help keep your employees and patrons safe, while protecting your bottom line as well.

If you would like to speak with our MA or RI small business insurance specialists, please call us at (508) 678-8341 or click here to begin the process by email.

If you’d like to reach Kristen, Call (508)-279-4418 or E-Mail her at KSOARES@FT.NEWYORKLIFE.COM

Thank You,
John Lapointe
Account Executive