Every plan to protect, reward, and grow your business — in one place
From buy-sell agreements to executive benefits and annuity-funded retirement plans, explore the strategies that keep your business and its people secure. Not sure where to start? Use the interactive planner to find the right fit for your structure and goals.
Which plan is right for your business?
Answer a few quick questions about your structure and goals, and we’ll point you to the strategies that fit — with links to dig deeper and notes tailored to your entity type.
First, what's your business structure?
This tailors the tax notes in your results.
What's your main goal right now?
How many owners share the business?
What matters most for this benefit?
How would you like the plan funded?
Protect a single-owner business
A classic buy-sell needs two or more owners. With one owner, the usual moves are a one-way buy-sell funded with life insurance (if you have a chosen successor — a key employee or family member) and key person insurance to give the business cash if something happens to you.
For two owners, a cross-purchase is often the cleanest fit
With two owners, a cross-purchase keeps the insurance proceeds out of the company, gives the surviving owner a step-up in cost basis, and sidesteps the Connelly valuation problem. An entity purchase is simpler to administer but can raise the company's value for estate tax.
With several owners, entity purchase or own-your-own scales best
A cross-purchase among three or more owners means a lot of policies. An entity purchase uses just one policy per owner (mind the Connelly ruling), while an own-your-own structure keeps each policy with its insured and avoids transfer-for-value problems.
Key person insurance protects the business itself
If losing a specific person — an owner, a top producer, or an irreplaceable expert — would seriously hurt the company, key person insurance gives the business a tax-free cash cushion to replace lost revenue, recruit a successor, and reassure lenders.
A Section 162 executive bonus is the simplest, deduct-now option
For a clean, fully deductible benefit the employee owns and controls, a Section 162 bonus is the easiest executive benefit to set up — no IRS approval and minimal admin. If you later decide you want retention, you can layer on a restrictive endorsement (REBA).
A Restrictive Executive Bonus Arrangement (REBA) adds golden handcuffs
A REBA is a Section 162 bonus with a restrictive endorsement: the employee owns the policy, but can't access its cash value until they vest — often after 5 to 10 years. You keep the simplicity and the full employer deduction of a bonus plan, and gain real retention leverage. It's the best of both worlds when keeping a key person is the priority.
Split-dollar lets you share the cost — and recover it
Split-dollar shares a life insurance policy's cost and benefits between the business and the executive, and the employer can often recover its outlay. Choose the economic benefit regime for simplicity, or the loan regime to build equity for the executive.
Deferred comp offers the strongest handcuffs and deferral
Nonqualified deferred compensation lets you promise a key executive future pay with no contribution limits and powerful vesting — often informally funded with company-owned life insurance. It's the most complex of the three (governed by §409A), so build it with counsel.
A SEP IRA — high limits, employer-funded, annuity-friendly
A SEP lets you contribute up to $72,000 (2026) with almost no paperwork — ideal for the self-employed or owners with few employees. Fund it with an annuity for principal protection and guaranteed lifetime income. Want to go even higher, with the contribution guaranteed by an insurer? A 412(e)(3) plan can support a larger deductible contribution than a SEP.
A SIMPLE IRA — let your team save, with a required match
A SIMPLE IRA lets employees defer their own pay (up to $17,000 in 2026) alongside a required employer match — easy to run for teams up to 100. Fund it with an annuity for protected growth and lifetime income.
Compare SEP and SIMPLE side by side
Both are easy, annuity-friendly small-business plans. A SEP allows much larger, employer-funded contributions; a SIMPLE lets employees save from their own pay with a smaller required employer contribution. Here are both:
All business-owner resources
Every guide and tool we’ve built, organized by what it helps you do.
Buy-Sell & Succession
5 resourcesPlan what happens to ownership when an owner retires, exits, dies, or becomes disabled — and fund the agreement so the money is there when it’s needed.
Buy-Sell Agreements
Start here: how the three buy-sell structures compare and when each one fits.
Open →Entity Purchase Buy-Sell
The company owns the policies and buys a departing owner’s shares directly.
Open →Cross-Purchase Buy-Sell
Owners insure each other and buy the shares personally — with a basis step-up.
Open →Own-Your-Own Policy Buy-Sell
Each owner owns the policy on their own life and endorses it to the co-owners.
Open → Free ToolFunding Calculator
Value the business five ways and size the coverage your agreement needs.
Open →Executive Benefits
5 resourcesAttract, reward, and retain the key people who drive your business — and protect the company against losing them.
Section 162 Executive Bonus
A deductible bonus a key employee uses to buy a policy they own and keep.
Open →Economic Benefit Split-Dollar
Share a policy; the insured is taxed on the term cost. Simple, with no equity.
Open →Loan Regime Split-Dollar
Premiums are loans at the AFR, and the executive builds policy equity over time.
Open →Key Person Insurance
The business insures the people it can’t afford to lose — and collects tax-free.
Open →Deferred Compensation
Promise key executives future pay with no limits and powerful golden handcuffs.
Open →Retirement Plans
3 resourcesTax-advantaged retirement saving for you and your team — funded with annuities for principal protection and guaranteed lifetime income.
SEP IRA
Employer-funded retirement saving up to $72,000 (2026), funded with an annuity.
Open →SIMPLE IRA
Let employees save with a required match — annuity-funded for lifetime income.
Open →412(e)(3) Plan
A fully insured, guaranteed pension that can support the largest deductible contributions.
Open →Not sure which plan fits? Let’s talk it through.
A licensed Quote-Bot expert can help you match the right strategy — or combination of strategies — to your business and goals.
