Business Insurance & Benefits: Protect the Engine That Pays for Everything

Why owners move first with TUSK

• Partners & continuation: If a partner can’t work or passes unexpectedly, who buys, with what money, and at what valuation? A funded buy-sell answers that before crisis day. (Life & disability buy-out funding.)
• Owner disability is common: Roughly 1 in 4 of today’s 20-year-olds will experience a disability before full retirement age—plan for income and control, not chaos.
• Benefits drive retention: Employees rank health insurance and retirement plans among the top reasons they stay.
• Benefits are real dollars: Employer benefit costs average ~29%–39% of total compensation—make them work harder.
• Health plans are expensive and rising: 2024 average family premium: $25,572. Design and funding decisions matter.
• Small business is the backbone: ~34.8 million small businesses employ ~45.9% of the U.S. workforce—continuity planning protects jobs and value.

Your Business Protection Stack

• Buy-Sell Agreements (life & disability-funded): Cross-purchase or entity-purchase designs, with agreed valuation methods and funding so transitions are fast and fair.
• Key-Person Insurance: Replace revenue, hire interim leadership, and reassure lenders if a pivotal person is lost.
• Golden Handcuffs (Executive Benefits): Non-qualified deferred comp, SERPs, performance-vested bonuses, and restricted cash-value life to retain top talent and align long-term outcomes.
• Group Benefits & 401(k): Health, HSA/HRA, dental/vision, STD/LTD, life/AD&D, EAP, and a fiduciary-aware retirement plan review to benchmark fees, match design, and participation.
• Outsourced HR (as needed): HRIS selection, enrollment support, handbook updates, compliance calendars, onboarding/offboarding—so benefits run clean and employees feel supported.
• Exit Strategy & Succession: Timeline, successor criteria, funding sources, tax-aware structure, and document sync (operating agreement, trustee, powers, POAs).

Retention that actually retains (golden handcuffs done right)

We align compensation with stay-power: milestone-based bonuses, deferred comp with vesting, and executive life with cash value earmarked to loyalty. Benefits your team actually values—health insurance and retirement—stay at the core, because that’s what keeps people.

The questions we answer with documents, funding, and timelines

• What if your partner can’t perform their role anymore? Do you have disability buy-out funding and the right “own-occ” definitions to trigger it?
• What if someone dies unexpectedly? Is the buy-sell current, funded, and synchronized with valuations and loan covenants?
• Are continuation plans sound? Who runs payroll next Friday, who signs, who talks to the bank and top clients?
• What’s the exit strategy? Internal successor, third-party sale, ESOP—how are you de-risking taxes and timing?
• How do you keep employees? Which benefits move the needle for your people at your stage and margins?

Open the hood. Fix the gaps. Keep the promise.

We’ll benchmark your benefits, test your buy-sell, map partner disability/ death funding, and align executive retention with cash-flow and tax goals—owner-first, then all the way to the household (or the reverse). You’ll leave with a clear, pressure-free action plan.