Do you need key person insurance?

Posted by admin on July 17th, 2009 filed in Uncategorized

The cost of insuring a key person varies significantly from hundreds to thousands a year. It depends on a number of variables including state of health and the responsibilities within the organization. Young and healthy people cost less to insure. Mature businesses depending on older members of staff will find the premiums significantly higher. The insurance itself is a variation of term life insurance. So, for whatever period of time is set, the insurance company will pay out if the key person is no longer available through accident, injury, disease or death. One of the most common reasons for this type of insurance is during a funding exercise. Banks, venture capitalists and other lenders often make a loan conditional on adequate insurance being put in place. This is routine in start-ups where the funding is for the people rather than the business. If one of the company promoters does die, the death benefits usually go to the lenders, repaying some or all of the capital invested. This allows the survivors to continue the business with their own investment protected. When it comes to business insurance, it’s not the time to be sentimental or optimistic. People do get into accidents, fall ill or die. That’s life and you have to plan how the business is going to survive and recover from the loss of a key person. Blindly hoping no-one gets sick is not a good strategy. Business insurance and training must go hand-in-hand to prepare against all the worst-case scenarios you can foresee. That way, you can keep the premiums ticking over and capture as much of the key person’s expertise before the worst happens.

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