Business Insurance & Financial Strategy

Your business built this.
Now protect it, fund it,
and make it work harder.

Most advisors see your business as a client. We see it as a financial engine — one that can generate tax-advantaged wealth, protect its key people, and fund a legacy far beyond its operating life.

I

The accounting lens

We understand your P&L, your entity structure, and your tax exposure before we recommend a single product. That changes everything about what gets designed.

II

The CFO perspective

We've sat in the fractional CFO seat. We know what business owners actually need — and what the financial impact of every strategy looks like on the balance sheet.

III

The insurance authority

Fully licensed, independently placed, and backed by 40+ top-rated carriers. We design the structure first, then find the best product to execute it.

What a well-advised business
actually looks like.

These aren't off-the-shelf products. Each of the following is a designed strategy — structured around your business's financial reality, tax position, and long-term objectives.

Key Person Protection

Key Person Life Insurance

When a business loses a key person — founder, top producer, technical expert — the financial damage can be immediate and severe. A properly structured key person policy provides the capital to stabilize operations, service debt, recruit a replacement, or wind down on favorable terms.

  • Policy owned by and payable to the business
  • Coverage sized to true economic impact, not a round number
  • Can double as an executive retention vehicle with cash value accumulation
Life InsuranceBusiness Continuity
Partnership & Ownership

Buy-Sell Agreement Funding

A buy-sell agreement without funding is a promise the business may not be able to keep. Life insurance is the most efficient mechanism to ensure a buyout is fully funded at the moment it's needed — at the death, disability, or exit of a partner — without forcing surviving owners to liquidate assets or take on debt.

  • Cross-purchase and entity-purchase structures evaluated
  • Policy funding coordinated with the legal agreement
  • Valuation guidance in partnership with your attorney
Life InsuranceBusiness Law
Executive Benefits

Executive Bonus Plans (Section 162)

A Section 162 bonus plan allows a business to provide a select key executive with a tax-deductible bonus used to fund a permanent life insurance policy. The executive owns the policy personally, accumulates tax-advantaged cash value, and retains the asset even if they leave. Because the bonus is taxable income to whoever receives it, this strategy is best suited to key non-owner employees the business wants to reward and retain — for an owner-employee, bonusing themselves simply creates personal taxable income and defeats the purpose.

  • Bonus is deductible to the business as compensation
  • Best suited for key non-owner employees, not owner-employees
  • Executive receives a personal asset with cash value and death benefit
  • Can be structured with vesting to incentivize retention
Tax StrategyExecutive Retention
Non-Qualified Deferred Compensation

NQDC & Split-Dollar Arrangements

Non-qualified deferred compensation plans allow businesses to defer executive pay to future years. Split-dollar arrangements let the business and executive share the cost and benefit of a permanent life insurance policy — a powerful tool for high-income owners who have maxed qualified plan contributions.

  • Defers taxable income to lower-bracket retirement years
  • Split-dollar structures can be loan-based or endorsement-based
  • Designed alongside your tax counsel for IRS compliance
Deferred CompTax Deferral
Group & Voluntary Benefits

Business Life & Benefits Programs

Beyond the owner, a business's people are assets too. Group term life, supplemental life, and voluntary benefit programs can be structured to attract and retain talent while creating minimal cost to the business — particularly for businesses that can't yet afford full benefit packages.

  • Employer-paid and employee-paid options structured together
  • Simplified and guaranteed issue products available for small groups
  • Builds employee loyalty and strengthens recruiting position
Group BenefitsTalent Retention
Premium Financing

Premium Finance Strategies

For high-net-worth business owners who want large permanent life insurance coverage without liquidating assets, premium financing uses a third-party lender to fund policy premiums. The business retains capital working in the business while the policy accumulates cash value — often exceeding the loan cost over time.

  • Appropriate for coverage needs typically above $5M
  • Requires careful case design and collateral analysis
  • Exit strategy and loan repayment built into the plan from day one
High Net WorthCapital Efficiency
Succession & Estate

Estate Equalization & Business Succession

When most of an estate is concentrated in an illiquid business, heirs can be forced to sell the company — often at a discount and under time pressure — simply to cover estate taxes. Survivorship (second-to-die) life insurance creates liquidity at precisely the point it's needed, and can equalize inheritances between children active in the business and those who are not.

  • Provides liquidity to pay estate taxes without selling the business
  • Equalizes inheritances between active and non-active heirs
  • Often owned by an irrevocable trust to keep proceeds outside the taxable estate
Estate PlanningSuccession

Where accounting meets
insurance strategy.

Most insurance agents don't read financial statements. Most accountants don't design insurance strategies. We do both — and that gap is where most business owners are losing money right now.

When we evaluate a business insurance strategy, we're looking at your actual numbers: your compensation structure, your cash flow seasonality, and how any premium obligation will land on your books. That's not standard. That's Entos.

Our fractional CFO and onsite advisory work means we've seen what the inside of well-run and poorly-run businesses actually looks like. We bring that operational intelligence to every engagement.

I

Financial statement review before strategy design

We analyze your P&L, balance sheet, and cash flow before recommending any product. Strategy first, always.

II

Tax impact modeled before implementation

Every strategy is evaluated for its effect on taxable income, deductibility, and long-term tax position — in coordination with your CPA or tax counsel.

III

Cash flow timing matched to business rhythm

Premium obligations are structured around your actual cash flow patterns — not a carrier's preferred payment schedule.

IV

Coordination with your full advisory team

We work alongside your attorney and tax professionals — not around them. Every strategy is aligned before execution.

V

Annual review tied to business performance

As your business grows, your strategy should evolve. We build in reviews that respond to changes in revenue, headcount, and ownership.

Business owners come to us
when the stakes are real.

Scenario — Partnership

Two partners with no exit plan and no funded agreement

A 50/50 partnership had a handshake buy-sell agreement but no life insurance to fund it. If either partner died, the survivor had no clear path to ownership without a legal battle or forced sale.

Entos approach

Coordinated a cross-purchase structure with two policies, sized to current business valuation, timed with a restated legal agreement through their attorney.

Scenario — Owner Compensation

High-income owner maxed on qualified plans, still over-exposed to tax

A business owner was already contributing the maximum to their qualified retirement plan but still writing large checks to the IRS each April. They needed additional tax-advantaged accumulation — without increasing their W-2 income, since a larger salary or bonus would only add to the tax bill.

Entos approach

Structured a loan-based split-dollar arrangement — the business loans premium dollars into a permanent life policy the owner personally controls, at or above the applicable federal rate, with the loan repaid to the business at a defined future point. The owner builds tax-advantaged cash value and a death benefit without adding to personal W-2 income, coordinated with their tax counsel for documentation and compliance.

Scenario — Business Continuity

Key employee holds institutional knowledge no one else has

A company had one operations director who managed supplier relationships, proprietary processes, and a team of 12. His absence would have been immediately catastrophic to revenue.

Entos approach

Structured a key person policy covering 24 months of revenue impact, plus a retention bonus arrangement tied to a permanent life policy — incentivizing the employee to stay while protecting the business if he didn't.

40+ top-rated carriers.
One independent advisor.

Independence matters. We are not captive to any single carrier, which means every recommendation is chosen from the full market — evaluated on financial strength, product design, underwriting flexibility, and long-term stability.

We have access to the full spectrum of life products, exclusive product lines not available through captive agents, impaired risk underwriting for complex health situations, and premium finance solutions for high-net-worth cases.

Product TypeTerm Life Insurance
Product TypeWhole Life Insurance
Product TypeIndexed Universal Life
Product TypeVariable Universal Life
Product TypeSurvivorship Life
Product TypeSimplified & No-Med Issue
Product TypeLong-Term Care Riders
Product TypePremium Finance Solutions

Your business deserves
the same strategy as your wealth.

Let's look at what's actually on the table — and what you may be leaving behind.

Jennifer@EntosAdvisory.com (805) 423-8504

All information is held in strict confidence. We respond within one business day.