No matter how successful your business is, its future may depend on how well you have prepared for the unexpected.
It can be hard to make time to focus on planning for the financial future of your organisation, whether this means corporate tax planning, managing your commercial property, workplace pension advice or employee incentives.
Our team of financial advisers can help you:
We aim to work with you as an extension of your team, offering an innovative service that meets your specific needs with practical and cost-effective solutions.
If you think about your core team, the skills and more importantly knowledge of your business and its inner workings that your key individuals have, what would you do if you unexpectedly lost them to illness or sudden death? Are they replaceable and at what cost to your business?
Your Heritage adviser can help you to understand the importance of setting up corporate insurance.
The death or serious illness of a key director or employee can cause significant consequences for a business including:
You can reduce the risks for yourself and your business with the following protection options:
Shareholder protection
The death of a major shareholder could have a serious impact on your business.
You have two situations to consider:
Shareholder protection can help with this by setting out how shares are to be managed if a shareholder passes away. The policy can also include critical illness and is taken out on the lives of each shareholder by either fellow shareholders, or the business. Should a shareholder die or become critically ill, pay-outs can be used to purchase the shares of the holder.
Key person insurance
Key person insurance is a policy that helps to safeguard a business against the financial impact of death, terminal illness or critical illness of a key person during the policy term. It will usually cover you for recruitment and training costs and well as the value of lost business.
The policy is written on the life of the key person but owned and paid for by the business.
As a business owner, how are you supporting your employees to plan for their retirement? There are a range of potential solutions that will provide both you, and your employees, with tax efficient retirement benefits.
It has long been recognised that most people are not saving enough for retirement and, as a result, may not be able to live comfortably on their state pension alone.
Your adviser can help you to understand the range of corporate pensions and the benefits to your business and employees.
Auto enrolment makes it compulsory for employers to automatically enrol eligible workers into a pension scheme and then pay into the scheme on their behalf.
There are minimum contribution guidelines for both you and your employees which are currently set at 3% from the employer and 5% from the employee.
Schemes are going to vary in terms of fees, expenses, and investment approach. If you need help setting up a suitable scheme for your business, a Heritage independent financial adviser can search the whole of the market to find the best possible solution and will help you to remain compliant.
A Small Self-Administered Scheme (SSAS) is a type of occupational pension scheme established for the directors and senior employees of a business. It is set up under trust by the sponsoring employer for the benefit of the scheme members.
Each member will have a ‘share,’ or interest, in the SSAS fund. This will depend on the contributions and transfers paid in by, or on behalf of, a member, their share of any investment growth (or loss) and any relevant payments made from the SSAS for them. The amount of benefits that a member can receive will depend on the value of their share of the SSAS fund at the time they decide to take the benefits.
A SSAS can also be used to make a loan to the sponsoring employer or to acquire commercial property. Not only does this inject valuable cash flow into the business, but it also provides a regular income which is free from income tax. There are several other advantages to holding property within a SSAS, including tax relief on any contributions used to purchase the property.
A SSAS will not be suitable for all investors. You should speak to one of our independent financial advisers if you have any questions, as they will be able to search the whole of the market to find the best possible option for you and your business.
A Group SIPP (Self-Invested Personal Pension) pools together the pension assets of its members for investment purposes.
Each member has their own account within the group SIPP that will be individually registered with HMRC, but all assets are combined into a single fund. A member’s initial share in the fund, their investment returns, and associated costs will be based on what they pay in.
Individuals can make further contributions or transfer payments and take funds out as a tax-free lump sum or a pension when they draw benefits. Everyone’s share in the fund will be re-calculated each time this happens. A group SIPP only operates as a pooled fund, so individual investment is not possible.
If the advantages of pooling together assets are not needed, then other pension arrangements may be more suitable. You should speak to one of our specialist corporate financial advisers if you have any questions, who will be able to search the whole of the market to find the best possible option for you and your business.
A pension is a long term investment. Depending on the pension arrangement you have, the fund value may fluctuate and can go down. Your eventual income may depend on the size of the fund at retirement, future interest rates and tax legislation.