Corporate

Corporate Services

Insurances

Many companies require specialist financial advice to ensure their staff are looked after and protected, as well as ensuring the company stays on the right side of the corporate and tax laws which affect them.

Key person insurance

Directors and employees with specialist skills or knowledge are key employees of the companies they work for. To lose one through death or incapacity can be damaging to the business. That is why taking out a key person insurance to protect the company can be of significant importance and could even ensure the survival of the company.
Key person insurances can provide several benefits.

These can include:

Paying the costs of a temporary replacement

Meeting the costs of recruiting a permanent replacement

Covering the cost of death or incapacity of a key member of staff.

The full scope of cover will depend on the type of policy purchased, but companies ignore the risks of losing key staff at their peril. Shareholders, bank managers, suppliers and customers may not be so relaxed.
Many existing corporate insurances are not set up correctly or in the most tax efficient manner. This can cause a much higher tax burden, as well as the possibility of unnecessary delays in receiving the proceeds of the plan when claims have been made.

At AAC, we will be more than happy to review existing arrangements and/or consider new plans to ensure your needs are met, as well as ensuring they are met as efficiently as possible from a taxation point of view.

Share protection through life assurance

Director or partner share agreements may provide for the remaining directors to purchase the shares from the other shareholding directors when they die. However, there is a risk that the remaining directors may not have sufficient funds available when a fellow director passes away unexpectedly.

One way round this is to take out life cover as a source of funding.

To arrange such cover requires the understanding and agreement of all concerned. It will also require careful consideration and calculations to determine how much cover is required. It will be a comfort to all directors or partners of a business to know that in the situation of their own or a colleague's death, the other directors will have sufficient support to ensure they can continue to run the business in the spirit of their shareholders' agreement and that money will be available to pay money to their families for their shareholdings.

Pensions & raising capital

Directors may prefer to establish a separate pension plan from that of their employees. The reasons for this are that the term of their employment may be a fixed number of years, their tax position may be more complicated than other employees, or they may prefer to set up a form of self administered scheme more suitable to their circumstances.

Corporate

Directors and partners may also wish to leverage their company pension scheme at some stage to raise funding for the business. This may be a tax and cost efficient way of funding the acquisition of commercial property.
In these circumstances, sound pensions advice will be invaluable.

Directors and staff benefits

Recruiting, motivating and retaining top quality staff is of the utmost importance to many businesses and getting the rewards mix right is often essential in achieving this.
Remuneration, whether salary, pensions, life insurance, tax efficient bonuses or other benefits, are all common in well managed businesses and require careful planning and selection. Depending on the type of business and the type of staff who are involved, the benefits scheme could be considerably different. What motivates and retains staff at an Internet start up business may require a different balance than at a manufacturing business with a substantial production line workforce.
If staff are the key to a successful business, then well founded and well managed reward strategies are vital. Taking the right advice early on means you can make the right moves sooner rather than later. The result should be content and efficient staff, who are confident they are getting the best deal for their time and labour.