Business Protection Plan

Safeguard the future of your business.
When a business loses its sole trader, a key employee, an owner or a business partner, the
consequences can be dramatic. Profits can fall, loans may have to be repaid at short notice or, at worst, the future viability of the business can come under threat.

It is essential for business owners to know that, even if the worst should happen to a key stakeholder, they’ll have the financial means to stay on track. The Business Protection Plan provides a unique way of helping protect business finances.

The Business Protection Plan menu
Partners Business Protection Plan offers a comprehensive range of covers that provide financial support in a variety of situations.

The plan allows you to mix and match any number of covers, for as many key stakeholders as needed, and with the appropriate ownership structures to achieve the correct outcome for your
specific business. Your adviser will help you decide the best fit for your particular business.

A new approach to business insurance
Partners Life is pleased to introduce you to a brand new concept in lump sum business protection products.

We offer three unique lump sum covers which along with our standard Life, Trauma, Severe Trauma and Total & Permanent Disability Covers, can be mixed and matched to give the business
the insurance solution that best fits your needs.

Ownership Buyout Cover – this cover is designed to fund the buy-sell agreement commitments of the business for an employee owner whose Total Long Term Disability, Total and Permanent Disability, Terminal Illness or Death would trigger the buy-sell agreement. Ownership Buyout Cover is not available to sole-traders.

Debt Protection Cover – this cover is designed to fund business debt re-payment upon Total Long Term Disability, Total and Permanent Disability, Terminal Illness or Death of any employee, owner or sole trader, whose death, terminal illness or total long term disability would trigger a requirement for the debt to be repaid.

Permanent Loss of Key Person Cover – this cover is designed to provide a capital injection into the business upon the Total Long Term Disability, Total and Permanent Disability, Terminal Illness or
Death of a key employee or sole trader of the business.

What is total long term disability?
Because a person can suffer a serious illness that would trigger certain financial business conditions but may not meet the claims triggers on traditional Trauma, Severe Trauma or Total & Permanent Disability Covers, we have introduced the new, unique concept of ‘total long term disablement’.

The concept of ‘total long term disablement’ is that we will consider a claim if the covered person has been suffering an illness or injury which leaves them totally unable to do their own job for 3 months, and is likely to prevent them from being able to go back to that job for at least a further 6 months* into the foreseeable future.

We believe, on balance, that this trigger is more closely aligned to the likely timing for the following key business decisions, and therefore gives the business owners more certainty about outcomes:

the buy-sell agreement being enforced;
the business debt requiring repayment;
the business having to fund the replacement of a key person or sole trader;
the business having to be sold or wound-up

Protecting your revenue
Any employee who makes a significant contribution to profits is likely to be a key person – for example a key salesperson or a technical expert, as well as company directors and executives.
Loss of Revenue Cover and Variable Loss of Revenue Cover each provide an agreed monthly revenue replacement benefit when a key employee or sole trader is disabled, either totally or partially.

We’ll pay the Total Disability Benefit and Partial Disability Benefit in advance following the end of the selected waiting period.

Business Premium Cover
Business Premium Cover is designed to relieve your business of the financial responsibility of paying for policy premiums when a key employee or sole trader is totally or partially disabled.

Your choice of waiting periods and payment terms
Partners Life Loss of Revenue and Business Premium Covers provide you with the flexibility to structure the plan to most closely suit the needs of your business. You have a choice of waiting period (4, 8, 13 and 26 weeks) and payment term (6, 12, 24 and 36 months).

Other covers you can add to the Business Protection Plan
As well as the covers described above, you can also add the following traditional covers.

Life Cover
Total and Permanent Disability Cover
Trauma Cover
Severe Trauma Cover

These standard Partners Life covers can also be used to fund buysell agreement commitments, debt repayment commitments and key person replacement costs in the event of the death, terminal
illness, total and permanent disability or trauma of a sole trader or key employee or an owner or debt guarantor (whether employed within the business or not).

They can also be used to fund business debt re-payment in the event of the death of any individual. Finally, they can also provide capital to the business to fund replacement costs and loss of revenue in the event of the death of a key employee of the business.

Providing flexibility to meet the needs as your business changes or grows
We all want our business to be successful and to grow. As it grows, you might need to take out more cover.

Whether your business grows because of a key person becoming more important, a shareholder’s interest becoming more valuable, or an increase in the business debt, by selecting Business Future
Insurability Option – you can increase your cover, without having to give us any medical information about the covered person.

Flexibility in structuring the cover
You can also choose whether you have all the covers on one policy or split over multiple policies to facilitate differing ownership requirements and it won’t cost you any extra to have the cover split
over multiple policies.

Turning claims promises into reality
Claims time is when it counts. Our intention is to manage claims fairly and ethically, irrespective of what the law might allow us to do as a life insurer, and this is a legally binding promise. We have
included our commitment to our claims philosophy into our policy wordings – so we are contractually obliged to behave this way.

Rewarding partnership for life
Partners Life is passionate about sharing the value we create over time with you. Rather than solely focusing on incentivising new customers to join, we also want to reward existing customers.
Your Partners Business Protection Plan includes an increasing loyalty premium discount over time, starting at 1% at the 2nd policy anniversary – subsequently increasing by 1% each year until
it reaches 10%. Therefore, you can take comfort that you will pay increasingly less for your business Protection Plan than a new client to the company. Policies with a level premium review period automatically include an averaged loyalty premium discount, therefore an additional discount does not apply.

Providing guarantees
Because certainty is important, Partners Life makes the following guarantees:

Guaranteed policy wordings – Partners Life does not withhold the right to remove or restrict the benefits and feature provided for under the Partners Life Business Protection Plan. This means that once you have cover with us you can be assured that the cover you and your advisers selects can not be altered to your detriment.

Guaranteed policy wording upgrade – Ensuring that your plan stays up to date is important so you can take advantage of changes we introduce that make your covers better. Our policy document requires us to enhance all existing customer’s cover where we make a change that does not result in an increase in premium.

Cover conversion
If the covered life ceases to be a shareholder, sole trader, key employee or debt guarantor of the business, or if your business goes into receivership, and as a result the covers under the policy
are cancelled, Partners Life will allow these covers to be converted to personal Life, Trauma, Severe Trauma or Total and Permanent Disability covers under the Partners Protection Plan, without further health assessment, within 3 months following the cancellation date
(some limits and exclusions apply).

Worldwide Cover
Your Life Cover, TPD Cover, Trauma Cover and Severe Trauma Cover is valid wherever you may be in the world. However, for the following, Cover is worldwide as long as the life assured remains an owner, a key person, actively involved in the business operations or liable for business debt:

Debt Protection
Ownership Buyout
Permanent Loss of Key Person
Loss of Revenue
Variable Loss of Revenue