The Reluctant Small Business Owner

The Brackground:

Tom came to the Brayshaw Financial Group extremely concerned about his business. He owned a property and casualty insurance company that had lost their ability to write certain types of insurance. Tom’s partner had died suddenly, and he was left with large debts and the entire business to care for. He was losing sleep and emotionally drained. Tom didn’t want to put his family or his employees at risk for the same scenario and needed a policy that would cover the debenture for the company. He was quite a bit older than his wife and had some health struggles and was very worried about protecting his family if anything happened to him.

Brayshaw Financial created a complete fiduciary financial plan for both Tom’s personal life and business life by assessing what was missing from each. On the personal side, he was completely unprepared for the healthcare risk his family was under due to his condition. His main asset in both areas of his life was his business, however, his business was being crippled by debt, a lack of employee retention incentives, and no discernable continuity plan. Therefore, it would be hard to grow the business if Tom didn’t start with restructuring his employee roles and incentives.

The Brayshaw Financial Group began a full fiduciary strategy for his personal and business concerns. By doing this we significantly helped Tom begin working his way out of several concerns that were weighing him down.  

The Brayshaw Financial Complete Wealth Management Approach:

1. First, we worked with Tom and his wife to create a strong family budget they could be fully engaged in and committed to.
2. The Brayshaw team then quickly obtained simple term life insurance to cover Tom, his family, and his business. The insurance we chose had also provided chronic, critical and, terminal coverage that did not require a death to give Tom and his family financial help.
3. For Tom’s business, the Brayshaw team engaged a consultant to assess the value of the company saving him thousands on the business valuation process.
4. We worked with the business consultant to create a plan that would scale and grow Tom’s business by elevating key employees, increasing company partnerships, and instituting performance-based benefits for critical staff.
5. We developed an owner buy-sell agreement, compliant with IRS code, an essential component for both Tom and his key employees that:
6. Built the retention Tom was looking for so the business could have a strong new beginning.
7. Energized employees in their work, by creating security that should something happen to Tom, they would be able to continue the company and retain their own work investment moving forward.
8. Created natural income for Tom’s family by instituting a business buyout plan for Tom’s employees in the event of his death.
9. We purchased key-man life insurance for Tom on his top VP’s to protect the business should one of those people pass away.
10. Lastly, we placed the company retirement plan with a new custodian that provided a broader and stronger technology solution with open architecture investments allowing the employees to better meet their retirement needs and goals.

Tom is very pleased with the strategy the Brayshaw Financial Group put in place and has found that his family and employees are feeling more peaceful and stable. The new systems and structures implemented have both enhanced the freedom for growth in the company and have created a more relaxed workplace and homelife for all.