Risk Specialist Network
Strategic Alliances
Specialised business insurance and estate planning services for you and your clients
A service designed specifically for:
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About the Risk Specialist Network
MLC Advice Solutions' Risk Specialist Network brings together more than 155 financial planning practices that specialise in risk advice, business insurance and estate planning services.
This area of advice for business clients is very specialised, so our advisers have a high level of technical training and access to a specialised legal panel to help them achieve the right outcomes for their clients.
Our advisers have also undergone advanced training with legal services firm Bartier Perry, and have a dedicated technical manager who ensures their advice and strategy remains up-to-the minute.
By working with us you can offer your clients a professional solution to their succession, estate planning and business insurance needs. Through our network we will source the right adviser for your client base, and you can be assured of their technical skill, knowledge and legal support. By working together we can provide a more comprehensive service to clients.
Strategic Alliances can be structured formally with revenue opportunities, or informally, depending on your preference and business requirements.
MLC Advice Solutions is part of the National Australia Group of companies; it operates the ApogeeFP, Garvan and Godfrey Pembroke Licensees and also provides support services to advice businesses with their own AFSLs.
Our services
Our advice businesses work collaboratively with you, your clients and other professionals as required to meet your clients' needs. The Risk Specialist Network can provide you and your clients the following services:
Business insurance expertise
A risk specialist financial adviser provides competitive, flexible business protection to cover businesses against all key person and business succession needs. This means your clients can concentrate on running and building their business rather than worrying about the future.
What advice does a business need?
There are three basic protection needs that typically apply to businesses:
Asset protection
It's the intellectual capital provided by key people in a business that generates profit. Material things can always be replaced or repaired but a key person’s death or disablement can result in a financial loss more disastrous than any loss of, or damage to, physical assets.
In such a situation, a business may be forced to sell assets to maintain cash flow – particularly if creditors press for payment or debtors hold back payment. Similarly, customers and suppliers may not feel confident in the trading capacity of the business, and its credit rating could fall if lenders are not prepared to extend credit. Outstanding loans owed by the business to the key person may also be called up for immediate repayment.
A risk specialist financial adviser can provide your client with asset protection. This can supply the business with enough cash to preserve its asset base so it can repay debts, free up cash flow and maintain its credit standing if a business owner or loan guarantor dies or becomes disabled. It can also release personal guarantees secured by the business owner's assets (such as the family home).
Revenue protection
A drop in revenue is often inevitable when a key person is no longer there. Losses may also result:
A risk specialist financial adviser can provide your client with revenue protection which can supply the business with enough money to compensate for the loss of revenue and costs of replacing a key employee or business owner should they die or become disabled.
Ownership protection
The death of a business owner can result in the demise of an otherwise successful business simply because of a lack of business succession planning. While business owners are alive they may negotiate a buy-out amongst themselves, for example on an owner’s retirement. But what if one of them dies?
The remaining owners must now negotiate with the deceased owner’s legal representative, who may be more concerned about the needs of the estate than the needs of the business.
Many business owners mistakenly believe that this contingency has been catered for in the business’ constitutional documentation. But often there is no buy-out provision, or if there is, it’s usually ineffectually drawn up and inadequately funded.
A risk specialist financial advisers can arrange ownership protection. This can provide the continuing owners, or their nominees, with sufficient cash for the transfer of the outgoing owner’s equity to the continuing owners, should a business owner die, become disabled, or suffer a critical illness. In addition, a risk specialist adviser can brief and facilitate a specialist legal firm to draft appropriate legal documentation.
Estate Planning Services
In family-owned businesses, business insurance advice is inevitably intertwined with personal estate planning. This is especially important when one family member is working in the business and is intended to be the business successor, and the owners have other children to consider in their estate wishes. It becomes a greater issue when there are second marriages and potential challengers to the will.
These issues have to be solved with a combination of the right strategy, structure and insurance policies, along with a lawyer skilled in estate planning to ensure asset structures and estate documents are sound.
Other services include:
Technical Workshops
Advanced Insurance Strategy Workshop, August 2008
The Risk Specialist Network hosts a number of workshops which may be of interest to you and your staff or association members. The next workshops are being held in Melbourne on August 19 and Sydney on August 27.
Jon de Fries, MLC National Manager Insurance Strategy, recently presented a Business Insurance Strategy workshop. He discussed why superannuation is now a more attractive ownership option for business insurance, and explored strategies around insurance via super for business owners, including types of business insurance arrangements, Self-Managed Funds and Key Insurance Strategies, ownership protection and Key person, Super-ownership drivers besides tax deductions and more.
Future workshops
If you would like us to email you details of our next round of technical workshops, please enter your contact information in the form below.
Contact us
If you are interested in accessing our services for your business or you wish to find out more, please contact us via phone or complete the form below to arrange a confidential discussion.
Lena Ridley,
Business Manager, Risk Specialist Network, MLC Advice Solutions
02 8908 6270
lena_ridley@mlc.com.au
To register your interest in attending the next round of technical workshops or to arrange a meeting , please enter your details below:
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