Key Man Insurance- Yeah I've heard of it now tell me how it works.
By Margie Wilson
 Insurance to protect the life of a business Why not? Just as the death of a parent can throw a family into financial turmoil, the loss of a crucial member of a business team can put the business in jeopardy. To ensure that they can survive the loss of their most crucial employees, businesses use key man life insurance.
Key employees are those whose rare or unique abilities, knowledge, and business connections make them hard to replace but vital to the ongoing business of Business are more likely to depend heavily on certain key employees for continued profitability.
What trials would the loss of a key employee inflict upon your business? Finding and training replacements for highly specialized positions is costly and takes time. Likewise, restructuring the business to work around the loss of a vital employee takes time and money that a many small- to mid-sized businesses haven't got.
Key man life insurance, also called key employee insurance or key person insurance, provides funds in the event that a key employee dies, retires, or otherwise departs.
Rolling out benefits In the event that a business intends to provide a retirement plan for its key employee, it may be more cost effective to combine the retirement plan and the key man life insurance into a single entity: cash value life insurance policies provide life coverage, but they also build equity, which makes them a valuable asset.
Upon a key employee's retirement, ownership of the cash value insurance policy can be transferred to him, or the policy can be cashed in-"surrendered," in industry jargon-and the proceeds used to fund the retirement plan.
One type is insurance that grows in value, never losing value like some “401K” retirement vehicles is a Universal Life Insurance Policy. The cash value growth in universal life products depends on the payments that the policyholder makes into the policy, as well as on interest rates which vary, according to the finances of the insurer.
Cash value for added protection Not only does cash value in insurance entail the possibility of using an insurance policy for retirement, it can also protect a business against the loss of a key employee through means other than death. If a key employee retires prematurely or even leaves to work for someone else, the employer is at liberty to liquidate the cash value insurance policy which it held over said employee.
The cash value is certain to fall short of the death benefit which could have been supplied, but it can still provide the funds needed to replace the employee or reorganize the business.
About the Author
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| Margie Wilson, People Helping People
2900 Adams St. Suite A410
Riverside, CA 92504
951-567-9194
Contact Author: request info
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