At Keith Eck Financial our team incorporates our client’s financial goals and objectives as well as the specific expertise of our strategic partners, to develop an insurance program tailored to their needs. No matter how much you plan and prepare for the future, undoubtedly there will be circumstances that you cannot predict. Insurance helps mitigate the damage when you find yourself in unexpected situations. As insurance brokers with access to multiple products, we will help you decide which insurance products are most appropriate for you and fit best into your overall financial plan. Together, we will help you successfully plan for life events, as well as prepare for the unexpected.

Insurance is complicated and to be fully understood requires detailed analysis. The numerous components of insurance are the most often misunderstood pieces of a financial, business, or estate plan.

Our Process involves:

		Needs Analysis
		Policy Review
		Insurance Carrier Financial Strength Analysis
		Policy Funding Strategies
		Policy Disposition Options

Comprehensive Life Insurance Programs

Business owners work hard to establish their business and achieve success. Typically, the business is the primary income generator for the family and/or business partners. We will assist you in developing the most appropriate program to provide for your family or business in the event of your death or disability.

Buy/Sell Funding Strategies

A Buy/Sell agreement is a legal document, drafted by an attorney, to provide for the smooth succession of your business upon the occurrence of a specified event. The intent is to help ensure that the business continues and, most of all, that your beneficiaries receive the fair market price, in full, for your interest in the business. While there are several funding options, life insurance on each owner's life is one of the most popular options, due to the leverage it employs and ensures that beneficiaries will receive the agreed upon price for the business.

Key Person Insurance Strategies

Most companies have at least one employee who is key to the success of the business. Whether it's the owner, a partner, a majority stockholder, or someone with a high level of expertise, the loss or death of that person could mean financial ruin for the company. Key-person insurance protects your company's solvency in the event of losing a key employee or founder. If a key employee dies, the employer receives the policy’s income tax-free death benefit and can apply it toward business expenses or losses caused by the employee’s death.

Protecting your company from such potential disasters not only makes good business sense, but also, lenders and investors generally require that a business carries key-person insurance to protect their loans and investments in the company.

Key Employee Programs

A deferred compensation plan is an arrangement whereby an employee or owner defers some portion of their current income until a specified future date. Wages earned in one period are actually paid at a later date.

Life insurance can be used to fund a deferred compensation plan. The deferred amounts can be used to pay premiums on cash value life insurance. The cash value can then be available at retirement to supplement other income or, if the insured dies before retirement, the insured’s designated beneficiary would receive the insurance policy’s death benefit.

Disability Income Strategies

If a disability were to leave you unable to work for an extended length of time, you might lose the ability to earn an income. During that time your business and living expenses would continue and in fact could actually increase. For example, you might need to hire additional personnel to oversee duties you would normally perform. That is why disability income insurance can be a valuable part of your business and income protection strategy. It is designed to help you maintain your business and standard of living if you were to become unable to work.

Personal Disability Income

You insure other less valuable assets like your car and home — so why not your income? The risk of a long term sickness or injury is greater and has a potentially more significant impact on your present and future position than you may think. Nearly half of all bankruptcies are due to a disabling medical condition. Disability is the number one cause of home foreclosure. Disability insurance is a product designed to replace your income on a tax-favored basis should a sickness or illness prevent you from earning an income in your occupation.

Business Overhead Disability Income

How long would your business survive if you were temporarily disabled? How would you pay the salaries of your employees and meet your monthly expense obligations? Business overhead expense (BOE) insurance is designed to reimburse a business for overhead expenses in the event a business owner becomes disabled. This is not the same as personal disability insurance which usually pays benefits to age 65. A business overhead expense policy pays a shorter benefit of one to two years after a waiting (elimination) period. Most professionals agree that few businesses have the ability to stay open more than two years following the owner’s disability.

Business Buy-Out

If you became disabled and unable to continue working, how would the other owners buy your interest? What price would they be interested in paying you and would you accept that price? How long can the business afford to operate without the disabled person's help? How long can the business continue paying the disabled person's salary?

A Disability Buy-Out Insurance plan will fund an agreement designed to provide the company owners with the money they need to purchase a disabled owner’s interest in the company at a mutually agreeable price and at the correct time. A disability buy-out policy differs from a life insurance policy designed to fund a buy-out in the event one owner dies.

Long Term Care Insurance

Americans are living longer as a result of scientific advancement and medical breakthroughs. Consequently, the need for long-term care insurance has increased dramatically. Long-term care is extended care you would need for basic activities such as bathing, dressing, or eating due to chronic illness, injury, or frailties of old age. However, long-term care insurance is not just for the elderly. Catastrophic events, such as a serious accident, can affect us at any time during our lives and could require long-term care.

Treatment you receive from a doctor or a hospital, or recoverable conditions such as cataracts or a heart attack are typically covered by your health insurance policies and not long-term care insurance. Long-term care is extended care, typically received at home, from a nurse, home health aide, or even a family member. It can also be provided in a nursing home, assisted living facility, or adult day-care center.

Long-term care insurance gives you the ability and the financial resources to make choices. It reserves for you the right to get the care you need in the environment you choose. Perhaps, most of all, it can help you live out your advanced years with dignity and financial security.

For information on Employee Benefits click here.