Buy-Sell Agreement Funding
The agreement says who buys your share and at what price. The insurance makes sure the money is there, so the buyout happens on the terms you wrote, not the terms a bank offers your family under pressure.
Business Continuation · Pennsylvania & Maryland
What happens to the business if something happens to you?
If an owner dies or is suddenly disabled, someone has to buy their share, replace the person who ran things, and keep payroll moving, all at once. Business continuation planning answers that ahead of time with life insurance: funding for your buy-sell agreement, coverage on the people the business can't run without, and funded plans that keep your best employees. The paperwork decides what happens. The insurance makes sure the money is there when it does.
Three Tools, One Job
Keep the business running when life doesn't cooperate.
After years of building a business, you deserve to know it lands in good hands, and that nobody has to scramble for money to make that happen. All three of these are life-insurance-based, and all three get sized to your actual numbers.
Key Person Insurance
Every business has someone it can't run without. If that person is suddenly gone, this coverage pays the business itself, bridging lost revenue and the real cost of finding and training a replacement.
Deferred Compensation
A funded promise that keeps your best people: extra pay later, backed by a plan funded today. Taxes on that money are generally deferred: the tax bill comes at payout, not now. We explain it plainly and coordinate with your CPA.
The Owner's Checklist
Five questions every owner should be able to answer.
Every family business eventually faces the same question: who takes over, and are they ready? We've asked these across years of sitting down with owners. Most can answer two. If you can answer all five, you don't need us, and we'll tell you so.
Do you have a plan to sell in the future?
To family, a partner, an employee, or an outside buyer? And do they know it?
Who is your most valuable team member?
And what would it actually cost, in dollars and months, to replace them?
Has the business been evaluated for sale recently?
A current valuation is what makes every other number in the plan honest.
Do you have a buy-sell agreement in place?
A handshake understanding isn't one. It needs to be written down.
How will it be funded?
The question most plans skip. An unfunded agreement is a set of instructions with no fuel in the tank.
“The strategy is designed there. It's funded here.”
Succession strategy (who takes over, when, and how the transition runs) lives in our business consulting practice. The funding lives on this page. Because both happen under one roof, the plan and the money get built together: strategy and funding, one table.
Common Questions
Fair questions. Straight answers.
What's the difference between a buy-sell agreement and its funding?
The agreement is the written contract that says who buys your share of the business, when, and at what price. The funding is where that money comes from. Life insurance on each owner is the most common answer: when the contract triggers, the policy pays, and the buyout happens without loans or a fire sale. The agreement itself is drawn up separately; we handle the funding side.
Who counts as a key person?
Anyone the business would struggle to run without: the rainmaker who brings in the work, the manager who keeps the shop moving, often the owner. With key person insurance, the business owns the policy, pays the premium, and receives the benefit: money to cover lost revenue and the real cost of finding and training a replacement.
How does deferred compensation actually work?
You promise a key employee extra pay later (at retirement, or at a date you choose) and back that promise with a plan funded today, usually with life insurance. Taxes on that money are generally deferred, which simply means the employee's tax bill arrives when the money is paid out, not now. Every situation is different, so we explain the mechanics in plain English and coordinate with your CPA.
We're a small shop. Is this only for bigger companies?
The opposite. The smaller the team, the more the business depends on one or two people, which makes the plan matter more, not less. Most of the owners we work with run main-street and professional-service businesses across Pennsylvania and Maryland.
Let's make sure the money shows up when the plan needs it.
Bring your questions, or bring nothing at all. The first conversation is free, and it stays in plain English.
Book a continuation review