Running a business tends to eat the time you'd spend planning your own finances. The irony is that owners have more planning levers than anyone: how you pay yourself, where profit sits, and what the company can fund on your behalf.
Pensions through the company
Employer pension contributions are usually an allowable business expense, which makes them one of the most efficient ways to move profit out of the company and into your own name. For many directors on a small salary and dividends, they beat almost every alternative.
We work alongside your accountant: they advise on the company's tax position, we make sure the pension itself is invested sensibly and heading for the retirement you actually want.
Protecting the business
Most small firms depend heavily on one or two people. Key person cover pays the company if illness or death takes one of them out. Shareholder protection lets the remaining owners buy the shares rather than inheriting a stranger as a partner. Relevant life policies give directors and staff life cover paid for by the company, often more efficiently than a personal policy.
None of it is exciting. All of it is the difference between a bad year and the end of the business.
"Twenty years building the business, twenty minutes realising it was also my pension. That meeting changed how we ran it."
Client, Weymouth · PLACEHOLDER, replace with verified review
Life after the business
Whether the plan is a sale, passing it to family or simply closing the doors one day, the question is the same: what do you need the business to have produced by then? Working back from that number changes decisions today, from how much to draw to how hard to push growth. We build the personal plan the business is quietly funding, so the exit is a choice rather than a cliff edge.
What it costs
The first conversation is free. If we go on to work together, our fees for advice and ongoing reviews are set out in writing and agreed before any work starts. Fee structure to be inserted from Quilter-approved disclosure.