In planning for a successful exit it’s important that you focus, not just on building sellable business value but also on protecting business value.

And a key planning area in protecting business value would be human capital…and nothing more important in the area of human capital than protecting the business against loss of a key employee.

A key employee defined by the following characteristics makes a substantial business contribution possesses critical information or knowledge or maintains and nourishes key contacts and relationships.

An owner will want to protect against a Key Employee’s departure resulting in solicitation of customers and employees, and disclosure of confidential business information --- and we would recommend our Episode 43 with Attorney Marc Engel regarding Employment Agreements for that issue.

They should also protect against premature death and permanent disability of a key employee and the impact either of those events could have on the value of their business.

The impact due to loss of an employee who makes a significant business contribution possesses critical information or knowledge or maintains key business contact and relationships can be quite damaging and even destructive --- particularly when the most key employee is an owner of the business.

So, our topic today is The Importance of Key Person Insurance in Protecting Your Business, and our guest is Bill Betz of Betz Financial Advisory.

Betz Financial Advisory is a family owned and operated business and Bill is a specialist in the design and implementation of advanced planning strategies for high net worth families and successful business owners. Bill’s process involves consulting with the client’s key advisor’s to establish and execute leveraged strategies and one of his area of expertise would be planning for key person issues.