Business planning strategies are plentiful when you know where to look for them. This is the reason why so many of our clients are business owners. We love helping business owners with their Financial Planning, because their needs are often more intricate and diverse. We also find there are usually a lot more options available for us to us to assist our business owner clients with.
The biggest opportunity that most business owners have is to integrate their existing business structures with their personal financial plan and over more than two decades, we have accumulated a lot of expertise in finding creative solutions to do so.
When weighing up your investment options for example, we consider structuring advice and will help you weigh up the pro’s and con’s of different structuring decisions, considerate of the tax implications and risk
With 12 industry awards and professional practice recognition from the Financial Advice Association of Australia. You will feel confident you are working with a team of Melbourne wealth advisors that place your interests first.
Financial Planning including Structuring to reduce Tax & Liability Risk.
Business Agreement Planning and the Insurances that underpin them
Business Succession and Investment Strategies
Purchasing a Commercial Premises to work from
As a business owner it is likely you have at least a few business structures and possibly several. There are normally good reasons for why this is, primarily linked to tax advantage and risk mitigation, however what we often see is that these structures are not actively used to benefit your personal financial plan.
Whether you are operating as a Sole Trader, Partnership, Company or Trust, it creates opportunities for your Financial Plan and what your Yield Financial Advisor will work with you to uncover are the opportunities that exist for you.
A couple in their 50’s approached us wanting a comprehensive financial plan to secure their ideal retirement. As a business owner and a specialist surgeon, they already had investments in property and shares, but our financial plan was able to utilise the structures they already had available to them and focus their strategy on positioning them for a successful retirement.
One of the most effective and successful strategies we recommend for Business Owners is a bucket company. By directing profits to a concessionally taxed corporate tax structure, you can ‘catch’ your earnings in a bucket company, which leaves more money for you to invest. When proceeds are drawn out in retirement, this can be highly tax effective.
You’ve worked hard to build your business, but what would happen if you or your business partner could not work for medical reasons? A well crafted partnership agreement, with Buy Sell insurance underpinning it, can protect you.
A partnership agreement is like an employment agreement or pre-nup between the partners. It is a framework for how the partners agree to work together and is intended to provide confidence and clarity to all partners now and in the future, including agreement on business succession.
Having an agreement, goes some way to ensure that if something changes in the partnership relationship or if something occurs that could make agreement difficult down the track, then there should be little dispute or confusion.
Two of the main events that a good partnership agreement should address include:
Clients of ours have a business with profit between $800 – $1.6mill pa. They had an old partnership agreement and some insurance in place that had not been reviewed in several years.
Your business agreement should clearly state what your agreed policy is on paying an ill partner while they are unable to work due to medical reasons. The process is kind of like deciding how much sick leave you are prepared to cover for each other. Once agreement is reached on a time frame then it is important that each director have their own personal Income Protection and Trauma insurance, to cover their own risk.
With this said, the loss of a key person in the business can also have direct impact on the financial viability of the business and there are two policies available to protect your risk in this area.
When a key person dies or is severely disabled, it can create immediate and long term financial problems for the business. A drop in revenue in the short term is often inevitable when a key person is no longer there, however losses can also result while the business is searching for and then training a suitable replacement.
When there is not a suitable replacement within the business, it can sometimes take a significant amount of time and money, to find and train a successor. Key person insurance helps insure against this risk.
To help pay for the fixed costs of running the business, like rent and electricity, then business expenses insurance is designed to ensure the bills can keep getting paid. This relieves some pressure on the business remaining viable and goes some way to ensure there is cashflow remaining to pay the remaining owners, who are likely to be working harder than ever to bridge the gap.
Life insurance for business owners is an inexpensive way of funding the buyout of a deceased business owner’s interest. This ensures the deceased’s family is adequately paid out for their estate interest in the business and allows the surviving business partners to affordably take over ownership of the deceased partner’s share.
Total Permanent Disablement (TPD) insurance is an inexpensive way of funding the buyout of a permanently disabled business owner’s interest. In this situation it is as final as life insurance from a business perspective, as the disabled partner, must never be able to work again in the business, in order to meet the definition for payment. TPD therefore provides an affordable way for the affected partner to cash out their interest in the business, giving them financial security and the remaining partners.
All business partnerships should be underpinned by a clear buy/sell agreement to address the inevitable departure of a partner. This could be voluntary, such as when they want to sell down due to retirement or due to an involuntary departure, such as death or disablement.
In the case of the latter, the cheapest and most sensible way to underpin this agreement financially is usually buy/sell insurance.
A business financial plan is a detailed document that outlines a company’s current financial status and future projections. A business financial plan helps businesses with attracting investors, securing loans, and evaluating the feasibility of new business ideas. It’s important to get this right, tailor the plan to your unique circumstances, and review it regularly to adjust to any changes.
Financial planning in business is all about crafting a smart strategy to manage company finances while aligning personal goals with business objectives for a comprehensive approach. This includes budgeting, tax planning, investments, insurance, cash flow management, business agreement planning, and succession planning to achieve business goals and manage risks effectively.
Here are some key benefits why a business should do financial planning:
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We have entrusted our wealth creation and future security with Yield FP for a number of years now. They truly are professionals who have stayed ahead of the game by making strategic decisions at the right time and have always given sound advice. Security for our future is in great hands. Thanks YFP!!!
