Business and group protection guides

Key questions

The basics

What business protection covers and which product answers which loss.

What is business protection, and which businesses need it?

Protecting the business

Cover for lost profit, ownership changes and company borrowing.

Cover for directors

Single-life arrangements a company can fund for its owners.

Employee benefit schemes

Group life, group income protection and group critical illness.

Tax

How premiums and pay-outs are treated, and where the rules come from.

Tax treatment of business and group protection premiums and pay-outs

Everything in business and group protection

What is business protection, and which businesses need it?
Business protection is insurance a company buys against the financial damage of losing a person. Key person cover replaces lost profit, shareholder protection funds buying…
Key person insurance: how it works and how much cover to buy
Key person insurance pays the business a sum if a named individual dies or, on some policies, suffers a defined critical illness. The company owns…
Shareholder and partnership protection, and cross-option agreements
Shareholder and partnership protection puts money in the hands of the surviving owners so they can buy a departing owner’s share, while the family receives…
Relevant life plans explained
A relevant life plan is a single-life death-in-service policy a company takes out on one employee or director, with the benefit written in trust for…
Executive income protection for company directors
Executive income protection is income protection owned and paid for by the company on an employee or director. If the person cannot work, the insurer…
Group life insurance and death in service explained
Group life insurance pays a lump sum to an employee’s family if they die while employed — the benefit usually described as death in service.…
Group income protection explained
Group income protection pays a continuing income to employees who cannot work through illness or injury, funded by the employer. The scheme’s deferred period usually…
Group critical illness cover explained
Group critical illness cover pays a lump sum to an employee diagnosed with a condition on the scheme’s defined list that meets the written definition.…
Business loan protection: covering company borrowing
Business loan protection pays a sum to the company to repay borrowing if an owner or key person dies or, on some policies, suffers a…
Tax treatment of business and group protection premiums and pay-outs
There is no single rule. Key person premiums are deductible only if they pass HMRC’s sole-trade-purpose test, and where they do, the pay-out is generally…