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In order to hire the best in your industry, develop a compensation plan that rewards key employees. Learn how here.

As a company owner, you may have what many potential employees would characterize as the “dream job” that includes ideal working conditions and a competitive salary base. But staying competitive in the marketplace for exceptional employees may mean that you will need to offer especially skilled people something above and beyond the basics. In other words, creative employers should offer talented people more than enough incentives to keep them loyal to the company and willing to stay for the long haul. It is essentially a smart business strategy.

Employers are of course obligated to pay their employees for the work they perform. But when talented key workers are offered a job, they are frequently also offered a package of executive benefits—everything from special life insurance policies, long term disability insurance, and retirement plans—that can increase the chance that a sought-after individual will take a particular job and/or that a current employee will stay with the company. But what if the employer has not kept up with similar companies and no longer offers a competitive executive compensation package? The employer may be at risk of losing the chance to hire the best employees and may find his or her current employees feel under rewarded. This might result in low morale and reduced productivity.

Employers need to routinely examine their executive compensation plans. The needs of their employees can change over time, and the benefits themselves can cost the employer and/or the employee more or less over time. A company needs to find the right package of executive benefits that both fits its budget and appeals to its employees.

In the end, planning a sound executive compensation package may require having a strategic meeting with employees and benefits advisors. The availability of additional compensation can also be an attractive incentive for less-skilled employees who have yet to grow into a specific position of value to the company.

Find out how to protect your financial independence and the future of your business with a comprehensive succession plan. Learn how here.

Find out how to protect your financial independence and the future of your business with a comprehensive succession plan. Start here. If you’ve developed a successful business through years of hard work, you may want the business to continue in some form in the event of retirement, death, or disability. Perhaps you want a family member to inherit and manage it, or you want the family to own the business but have it be run by a trained management team. Perhaps you want to sell the business and make sure that it sells at a fair value and is run well. There’s a lot to consider: to make sure everything will run smoothly at the time you leave the business for whatever reason, you need to prepare what is called a succession plan.

By their very nature, these plans are fairly complicated: so start thinking about gathering together your professional advisors, such as your business attorney, your estate planning attorney, your business accountant, and your financial advisor.

One of the most important decisions you’ll need to make is choosing who will take on the responsibilities of ownership and management. It may be that you have already have a great management team, and that team can continue to successfully run the business. Or you may want to draw up a detailed job description and hire your successor. If family members will be running the business, look at the different skills of family members and discuss with them your needs and their interests. Once decisions are made about who will succeed you, whether you keep the business in the family or sell it, you need to train the successor, to ensure the continued success of the business.

If you plan on selling the business, you will need to valuate it—determine what it’s worth. This again is a complicated process, and you’ll have to draw on the expertise of your team of advisors to get it right. And those advisors will shepherd you through the other complexities of planning a business succession: for example, setting up a buy-sell agreement and funding the buy-sell with life insurance. The key to success is to create a comprehensive plan now that addresses all eventualities.

Discover the many reasons it makes sense to purchase life insurance and how to determine your financial needs. Learn more about life insurance here.

When it comes to making certain that your family has an umbrella of protection in the event of your untimely death, nothing comes to the rescue like life insurance.

The purpose of life insurance protection is many fold. However, some of its best uses are to;

• Establish an instant cash emergency fund.
• Pay off credit cards and other individual/family debts.
• Pay off mortgages.
• Create a children’s education fund.
• Pay estate taxes.

Life insurance can address all of the above financial responsibilities if you’re not here to take care of them yourself.

How do you determine how much life insurance is enough? Quick answer: you prepare what’s called a “needs analysis.”

Start with a notepad, a #2 pencil, and an eraser.

• First, list the total value of all your assets, including savings accounts, retirement funds, real estate, personal investments, and current life insurance.
• Second, list all the expenses your family might face if one spouse were to die, including mortgage payoff, rent, college funds, car and credit card payments, and child care.
• Third, knowing that some assets might be sold and some insurance may already be in place, subtract the accumulated needs from the cash available at death. In many instances the needs of your beneficiaries will exceed the value of your current assets and existing insurance. Hence you have a “cash shortfall”.

Like apples and oranges, life insurance comes in different forms, such as term or cash-value insurance. Each form can be applied to either specific needs or to a basket of needs.

A long-term disability could destroy your financial security. Don’t let that happen. Find out how disability income insurance can help.

Statistics show that over their working lives many American workers will suffer a disability that could potentially wipe out their retirement savings, deplete family emergency funds, and/or require the sale of assets such as the family home. 

And, regardless of your profession, career, or business, the fact that a long-term disability might destroy your financial security can be a daunting realization. The most troubling part of disability is that the family or loved ones of the disabled person might be relying completely on the disabled person's ability to earn the income necessary to pay all of the monthly bills, rent or mortgage, car payments, and put food on the table. 

There is also another component to the loss of income for the disabled person and that addresses the need for additional care and rehabilitation. 

The time to consider disability income insurance is when you're young, healthy, and able to qualify for the coverage by passing the medical part of the application process. In addition, like most insurance that covers the person, disability income insurance premiums are lower for younger individuals than for older individuals. 

The premium cost of disability income insurance is governed by several factors. The first step is to chose an income amount that will cover your monthly expenses and also fit the percentage allowed by the insurance company, generally a maximum of 75% of your income. Next, chose a waiting period that will need to be met before benefits are paid, something like three to six months. Then consider how long benefits will be paid i.e. age 65 or life. The sooner you chose to start receiving benefits and the longer you receive them will govern the premiums you pay. 

Disability income insurance is designed to cover the time when you are unable to perform the duties of your career or profession as a result of illness or injury (non work related - that would be covered by workers compensation). 

Analyzing your need and structuring disability insurance policy benefits requires some evaluation and knowledge about the insurance company's underwriting process. It's best to seek competent advice before you do it on your own. 

It’s easier to commit than you might think and can be financially devastating. Find out how to avoid identity theft here.

If you’ve ever spoken with someone whose identity has been stolen, you know that it is a nightmare that can continue for a long time. Repairing your credit and all of the different facets of your life that have been detrimentally affected is a daunting task. Frequently, the financial loss is so overwhelming that many people never recover. Therefore, it is important to understand how identity theft happens and what you can do to protect your credit record and your financial future.

It took a substantial amount of time, but finally the Federal government recognized that something must be done to protect Americans. Legislation has been passed that punishes identity theft more severely than previously, although many believe that it still does not go far enough.

Essentially, when someone steals your identity, they pass themselves off as you. With the right amount of personal information, they can apply for credit cards, personal loans, and perhaps even a mortgage. There have been even more brazen attempts—to secure valuables such as automobiles, jewelry, or real estate.

There are lots of ways thieves can get your private information. Here are a few of the many methods used:

• “Shoulder surfing”: As the name implies, thieves watch everything you provide to another individual or enter into a machine such as an ATM.
• “Dumpster diving”: This is a crude nickname for combing through trash in order to find any hint of information about you.
• Pulling information off the Internet: If you enter private information on an unsecured website, you are at risk because a hacker could retrieve it.

Your first concern should be to protect all of your personal information. There are many items that come under the heading of “how to protect yourself” so that your identity cannot be stolen. And there are many responses that come under the heading of “It happened, now what do I do”? And of equal importance is the question, “Who can I contact in case it happens to me”?

In the end you should learn the secrets of what prevents identity theft so that it will not happen to you.

If a family is required to provide long term care for a loved one at home; sometimes the costs are more than dollars and cents, they are higher.

More Americans are living longer largely because physicians, surgery, and medications are contributing to longevity in a very positive way. However, the fact that many people are living longer does not negate the fact that many are also spending more of their elder years in long term care facilities or being cared for at home by family members.

There are several factors that must be considered when dealing with the high cost of nursing care for a loved one in an extended care facility or in a home environment. Many people believe that one of two government programs, Medicare or Medicaid will immediately step-in and pay for an individual’s long term care in a long term care facility. The fact is that each of the government programs pays something but there are specific circumstances that govern what will be paid and how much will be paid and when it will be paid.

The critical mistake that many individuals and families make is to underestimate the costs of long term care and overestimate the amount of public funding available to pay those costs.

In addition, it is easy for healthy individuals to assume that they will never require long term care. The “I’m invincible” component plays a large part in this type of thinking. However, the world changes dramatically when cancer, heart disease, or a stroke enters the picture.

Thinking about and preparing for an illness or severe accident that may place an individual into a position that requires long term care is frequently difficult at younger ages.

The solution to funding the high cost of long term care in the future must be shouldered by each individual because of the low probability that government funding will be available. Therefore, long term care insurance is the most obvious choice because it accomplishes two primary goals A) long term care expenses are paid either for care in a facility or at home, and B) a person does not have to liquidate all of their assets in order to pay the costs. In the end, having the right long term care insurance brings peace of mind to families.