Partnership life and health insurance

Protection to maintain the value of a business in case of death or disability of a part­ner. Upon the death or long-term disability of a partner, insurance can provide for the transfer of a deceased or disabled partner's interest to the surviving partner according to a predetermined formula. Funding can be achieved through either of two plans:

1.   Cross Purchase Plan—each partner buys insurance on the lives of the other partners. The beneficiaries are the surviving partners whouse the proceeds to buy out the deceased's interest. This plan can become complicated when there are more than two partners. Forexample, if there are four partners, partner A will buy insurance on the lives of partners B, C, and D. The procedure would be repeatedwith partners B, C, and D. Total policies would be 12.
2. Entity Plan—because of the number of policies required, the entity plan is most often used for buy-and-sell agreements by larger partnerships. The partnership owns, is beneficiary of, and pays the premiums on the life insurance of each partner. When one of the partners dies, the partnership as a whole purchases the deceased partner's interest. Premiums are not tax deductible as a business expense. If whole life insurance is used, the cash values are listed as assets on the balance sheet of the partnership and are available as collateral for loans.

Partners use insurance to fund other objectives. In personal service partnerships of doctors, lawyers, and accountants, when it is important to retain a deceased partner's name on the title of the firm, the heirs may agree to this for a share in subsequent partnership profits. An income continuation insurance plan funded through life insurance by the partnership, serves this purpose. Disability of partner buy and sell insurance can be used by a partnership to provide income for the firm if a partner becomes disabled. The policy would pay a monthly income to the partnership for the duration of the partner's disability.

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