Business Exit, Wealth Protection and Later Life Planning

We understand running a business can be stressful. Coupling this with dealing with difficult family affairs and trying to support ageing parents with later life decisions adds even more pressure to your already busy life.

At Cognitive Law we work with trusted partners in providing a full service of support and guidance for business owners in dealing with both their business and family affairs.

Our trusted partners provide advice on both business and personal finances as well as business coaching to help business owners at every stage of their business; from growth to exit.

Having worked with many business owners we know what keeps them awake at night. Much thought is divided between dealing with elderly parents and protecting the wealth in a business.

Here are some pointers that we hope will help business owners with these issues, along with a wealth of useful guides.

Dealing with parents

When it comes to dealing with elderly parents, tensions may arise between siblings. To help alleviate this tension remember to:

Communicate with one another – you all want to ensure your parents are happy but may have different idea’s as to how this can be achieved. Always be open and honest with each other.
Appreciate it is difficult for you all.
Work to your respective strengths, but also spread the load as it's important to have time away to re-charge
Counsel each other, after all, you know your parents best.

Care finding and funding

Take a look through the guides provided to gain a full understanding of your options. You will also need to consider:

What can you claim from your Local Authority (LA)
Attendance Allowance
Carers Allowance
Where can you get help (Age UK & Alzheimer’s Society are good places to start)
Where the funds are coming from and how they can be made to last as long as possible.
How does your parent want care to be provided – a care home is not the only option. There are other options available such as live in carers.

Dealing with the business

When it comes to managing your business to a successful exit you may wish to consider these points.

Shareholder protection, income protection, critical illness cover, life insurance and medical insurance. Our guides provide clear explanations of each of these and how they can be used.
Understanding how to extract money from the business. Here’s a useful link to 25 ways a business owner can extract value from their business.
The difference between key person insurance and shareholder protection. In basic terms, key person insurance gives funds to the business to compensate for loss of staff. Shareholder protection ultimately gives money to your family in exchange for the shares.
Business Powers of Attorney - Have you thought about what will happen to your business if you lose capacity? Having Business Powers of Attorney in place will ensure your business can continue to be run as intended and will reduce the risk of losing value whilst you are incapacitated. It may also prevent a co-owner’s personal attorney having a say in your business when they may have a competing agenda and/or little knowledge of how to run the business.

About our Trust Partners

Benchmark

No one knows exactly what the future holds. But expert financial planning gives you the confidence to go after your goals – knowing you are ready for anything.

Find out how Benchmark and Mark Cardy can support your business and family here.

Scarlet Monday

Scarlet was established in 2004 specifically to help business owners, leaders and managers to work better: Leading People in Leading Companies, usually by leading themselves better. We are experts in unblocking business growth, and then have models, frameworks, and a structured process for achieving high growth.

Find out how Scarlet Monday can support your business here.