A financial plan has many important pieces, but your client’s ability to earn an income makes everything else possible. People insure their homes, cars and personal property, yet fail to insure the thing that makes it all possible. See how to protect their income with disability insurance.

This discussion outline helps establish a need for business owners to create a guaranteed issue life insurance program. Common needs are buy-sell for businesses with a lot of stockholders or members, key person business protection or key employee benefit packages.

Employer-provided long-term disability coverage is a start. But, there’s a cap on monthly benefits, and highly paid employees take a big pay cut if they go on claim. An individual DI policy can supplement group coverage and replace more income when clients need it most.

Even for affluent clients, pre-funding death expenses with discounted dollars remains effective. Life insurance is uniquely able to deliver a specified pool of tax-free liquidity at exactly the time needed to cover final expenses, debt, liquidation, taxes, probate costs and bequests.

An effective executive benefit program must meet the objectives of both the employer and employee. This concept examines the structure and design of three plans: nonqualified deferred compensation, restricted executive bonus arrangement (REBA) and split-dollar arrangement.

When it comes to recruiting and retaining key employees, nonprofits are limited due to IRC Section 457. Here are three executive comp plans that help nonprofits including split-dollar, restricted executive bonus arrangement (REBA) and nonqualified deferred compensation.

Women pay more than men for disability insurance coverage. Blame statistics and underwriting. Fortunately, there are multi-life options that help level the playing field. By purchasing coverage on multiple employees, female business owners can save money while protecting more lives.

When corporate tax rates are lower than individual income tax rates, owners seek to retain capital in their businesses. Many keep a large part of their working capital in conservative, liquid assets but should consider maximum funding corporate-owned cash value life insurance.

Three plans. One goal: help a business owner retain key employees. Moving from simple to more complex, these plans include and an endorsement split dollar plan, executive bonus plan with option to add restriction and defined contribution supplemental retirement plan.

Part of business is mitigating risk. But many business owners haven't considered what they would do if a partner was too sick or hurt to help run the business. It's critical to have a written disability buy-out (DBO) plan before something happens – even if the plan is not funded.

Businesses rely on people. If someone were unable to perform their role due to illness or injury, would the business continue to run smoothly? The risk of losing a key employee — someone essential to the success of the business — can be reduced through disability insurance.

Your client is ready to grow their business. Maybe start an expansion, or bring on a new partner. You can help provide them with a safety net in case they get disabled along the way. With a business loan protection (BLP) rider, a disability insurance policy can keep the doors open.