Businessmen and SME owners form an important target audience for advisors. Financial planning is vital for these entrepreneurs, because they need a constant source of income to keep their business up and running. Retirement planning for this target segment is also a challenging and time-consuming task.

Why plan?

The first question that many entrepreneurs ask is why plan if the business itself is the biggest security. While the cash in hand and all other investments made into the business may be the biggest financial shelter for a businessman, most of this wealth will be difficult to unlock immediately. Further, the businessman’s family should not solely depend on or remain tied to the progress of the business.

Again, the potential rate of return from investing in the business itself could be greater than other investment choices available. However, saving outside the business in different instruments or markets will mitigate the risk of channelizing all funds into the business.

What are the fundamental elements of a financial plan for businessmen?

Provide a cushion, in case of death, for the family to fall back upon

The objective being protection, putting in place sufficient life insurance cover is extremely important. This will provide for an immediate source of liquidity in case of any unfortunate eventuality. Ensure all personal liabilities such as bank loans, mortgages and liabilities (such as personal guarantees and accrued income-tax on assets that have appreciated in value) are adequately covered. You should ensure that there is adequate income for surviving family members, so that they can maintain their lifestyle. Life insurance can be used to pay any liabilities & dividends can be used to generate income. Term plans should be considered as they enable one to pick up a bigger insurance cover at a very low premium.

Nurturing savings

Businesses are vulnerable to a multitude of risks. The savings plan can double as a back-up for rough business conditions as well as a source of additional capital in the long run in order to exploit business opportunities. The idea should be to systematically transfer wealth from the business entity to the businessman’s personal holdings. There are methods available for this transfer—salary, bonuses and dividends. From the taxation angle, salary and bonus would be the more efficient means as compared to dividends which suffer an additional tax in the form of dividend distribution tax. So these cash-flows into the businessman’s individual account can be allocated into asset classes such as equity, fixed income securities etc.

What about retirement?

Creating a retirement plan can be considerably more complex for small business owners than for other people considering the multiple sources of income, tax considerations and succession issues when building a retirement plan. One must consider both personal finances and business finances—and how both can work together to help the businessman reach retirement goals. It is important to take stock of potential sources of retirement income. Good venues are government and other pension plan payments, insurance and investments in real estate. Businessmen depend largely on their business to fund a substantial portion of their retirement. Further, while planning for retirement, it is vital to put in place a succession plan.

What is succession planning?

Business succession planning should be a priority for every business owner. Sooner or later, retirement is inevitable. But when a business is in question, retirement does not merely come into effect as and when the owner decides to stop working. Obviously even if the owner has enough money to retire comfortably, there are certain crucial questions to be addressed: What happens to the business? How will ownership be transferred? Will the business be taken over by the family or sold? It's important to realize that management and ownership are not necessarily one and the same. For instance, the owner may transfer the management of the business to just one heir but give equal number of shares to the other children. Also, business succession planning does not end with an estate plan, life insurance or a will only.

Succession planning answers these questions and enables an orderly and cost-efficient transfer of the business to the next generation. Failure to plan for an orderly business succession can result in monetary losses or even loss of the business itself.. So it is up to the owner of the business to clearly indicate at an early stage his intentions and the direction of the business. A succession plan will help avoid wasting time and money on legal battles.