Life Insurance for Business Owners
The business is the estate — insure it like one. Key person coverage, post-Connelly buy-sell funding, §162 executive plans, and trust-owned estate liquidity, designed from our Dearborn, Michigan HQ for owners in 49 states.
What kinds of business life insurance does CentraLife design?
Four families of work: key person coverage (company-owned protection on the people revenue depends on), buy-sell funding (cross-purchase and post-Connelly redemption designs), executive benefits (§162 bonus plans and informally-funded deferred compensation as golden handcuffs), and owner personal planning — the max-funded cash-value designs that build the owner’s own retirement outside the business. Most engagements touch more than one.
Do you meet with Michigan business owners in person?
Yes. CentraLife is headquartered at 290 Town Center Dr in Dearborn, and advisors meet business owners across metro Detroit and the state in person — or by phone and video for the rest of the country. We’re licensed in 49 states, and you can verify our Michigan licensing through the state regulator, DIFS, at michigan.gov/difs.
Are business life insurance premiums tax-deductible?
Generally no — IRC §264 blocks deductions for premiums when the business is a beneficiary, and anyone promising “deductible life insurance” deserves a second opinion. The real tax story is on the other end: death benefits received income-tax-free (when §101(j) is satisfied for employer-owned policies), cash value growing tax-deferred, and §162 bonus plans where the premium IS deductible because it’s the employee’s compensation. Structure determines everything, which is why we design with your CPA.
We already have coverage a bank required years ago. Is that enough?
A lender minimum answers the lender’s question — will the loan get repaid — not yours: will the company survive, will the buyout get funded, will the family get bought out at real value. Coverage placed to close a loan is also where we most often find §101(j) paperwork gaps and valuations three cycles stale. The in-force review is free and specific: what you have, what it actually does, what’s missing.