Insurance planning should begin with the problem—not the policy.

For business owners, executives, and families with significant wealth tied to a business, insurance can play an important role in protecting business value, providing liquidity, funding ownership transitions, retaining key people, and protecting family wealth.

Dan Parrish Insurance Services helps clients identify financial risks, evaluate potential strategies, and coordinate insurance solutions with their broader business, estate, tax, and succession plans.

Our goal is not simply to place insurance.
Our goal is to help build the right solution.

What Problems Can We Help Solve?

We help business owners and their advisors address complex financial problems involving:

When Insurance Is Part of a Much Bigger Plan

The most important insurance decisions often arise from larger financial questions:

• What happens if the owner dies?
• How will a business transition be funded?
• What happens to the business if a key person is lost?
• How will the family receive liquidity if most of its wealth is tied to the business?
• How can a company retain the executives it needs to grow?
• Does the existing insurance program still support the owner's current goals?

These questions require more than a policy illustration.

They require an understanding of the business, ownership, family, estate, liquidity needs, and long-term objectives.

Our Approach

1. Problem
2. Analysis
3. Strategy
4. Coordination
5. Implementation
6. Ongoing Management

1. Identify the Problem

   We begin by understanding what the client is trying to accomplish and identifying potential gaps or risks.

   This may involve:

   • Business continuity
   • Ownership transition
   • Estate liquidity
   • Key person exposure
   • Executive retention
   • Debt obligations
   • Family wealth
   • Tax considerations
   • Existing insurance
   • Long-term financial objectives

2. Analyze the Options

   We evaluate potential insurance strategies based on the client's objectives, risk tolerance, time horizon, and financial circumstances.

   Our analysis can include:

   • Policy design
   • Cost structure
   • Guarantees
   • Current assumptions
   • Carrier financial strength
   • Ownership
   • Beneficiary designations
   • Existing coverage
   • Long-term policy performance

3. Coordinate the Solution

   Insurance is often only one component of a larger plan.

   We coordinate with the client's professional advisors when appropriate, including:

   • Attorneys
   • CPAs
   • Financial Advisors
   • Lenders
   • Surety Professionals
   • Estate Planning Advisors

   Our RAM process is designed to help capture goals, identify appropriate strategies, facilitate the right team of advisors, and maintain the plan over time.

4. Implement & Maintain

   A good plan should not sit in a file after implementation.

   We help monitor the strategy and review it as circumstances change.

   • Business value changes.
   • Ownership changes.
   • Families change.
   • Tax laws change.
   • Insurance policies change.

   Your planning should change with them.

The Business Owner's Insurance Planning Map

1. Business Value
2. Ownership & Control
3. Key People
4. Liquidity Needs
5. Family & Estate
6. Insurance Strategy
7. Business & Family Continuity

Insurance is the tool.
The financial objective is the solution.

Key Person & Business Continuity Planning

Some people are more financially important to a company than their job title suggests.

A key person may have:

• Critical technical expertise
• Important customer relationships
• Leadership responsibilities
• Sales or revenue responsibilities
• Specialized knowledge
• Ownership responsibilities

The unexpected loss of that person can create financial consequences for the business.

Key person insurance may provide the business with liquidity following the death of an important individual.

The appropriate amount and structure should be based on the actual financial exposure and the role that individual plays within the company.

Buy-Sell & Ownership Transition Funding

A buy-sell agreement can establish what happens when an owner dies, becomes disabled, retires, or otherwise leaves the business.

But an agreement alone does not necessarily provide the money required to complete the transaction.

Funding is what can turn an agreement into a workable transition plan.

Life insurance may be one potential source of funding for a buy-sell arrangement, depending on the ownership structure, agreement, financial objectives, and applicable legal and tax considerations.

Important questions include:

• Who owns the policy?
• Who is the beneficiary?
• How much funding is needed?
• What happens if the business value changes?
• What happens if an owner becomes disabled?
• Is the current agreement consistent with the actual ownership structure?
• Does the funding still match the business's current value?

Executive Benefits & Key Employee Retention

The people who drive a business's success can be difficult to replace.

Executive benefit strategies may help a business:

• Attract highly qualified executives
• Retain key employees
• Reward long-term performance
• Create incentives for continued employment
• Provide benefits beyond traditional qualified retirement plans

The right strategy depends on the company's goals, cash flow, ownership structure, tax situation, and the needs of the executive.

Executive benefits should be designed as part of the business strategy—not in isolation.

Business Owner Life Insurance

For many business owners, life insurance has implications far beyond personal income protection.

It may be used as part of a broader strategy involving:

• Business continuity
• Key person protection
• Buy-sell funding
• Estate liquidity
• Equalization among heirs
• Executive benefits
• Wealth transfer
• Succession planning

When a business represents a substantial portion of a family's wealth, the insurance strategy may need to be coordinated with the family's overall estate and succession plan.

Complex Insurance Planning

DPIS works with business owners, executives, and families whose insurance needs require more than a standard policy recommendation.

Complex cases may involve:

Our role is to analyze the financial problem, evaluate the available strategies, and coordinate the insurance solution with the client's broader plan.

Premium Financing & Advanced Funding Strategies

For certain qualified clients, premium financing may be considered as a way to fund significant life insurance premiums while preserving other capital for business, investment, or estate planning objectives.

Premium financing involves significant financial, interest-rate, collateral, and policy-performance considerations.

DPIS evaluates whether the strategy is appropriate within the client's overall financial plan rather than assuming financing is appropriate simply because a large policy is being considered.

Existing Policy Review & Restructuring

A policy that was appropriate when it was purchased may not be appropriate today.

We can review existing policies to evaluate:

• Current cash value
• Death benefit
• Premium requirements
• Guarantees
• Cost of insurance
• Policy performance
• Ownership
• Beneficiaries
• Carrier strength
• Current objectives

When appropriate, strategies such as a 1035 exchange may be considered as part of a broader policy review.

The question is not whether an existing policy is old.
The question is whether it still works.

When to Bring DPIS In

DPIS can be brought into the planning process when:

The earlier we are involved, the more planning options may be available.

When Most of Your Wealth Is in Your Business

For many business owners, the business represents a significant portion of their total net worth.

That means a business transition can also be a family wealth transition.

If the business is transferred to one child, the family may need to consider how other children will receive value.

If the owner dies unexpectedly, the family may need liquidity while the business is dealing with an ownership or leadership transition.

If a key executive dies, the company may need capital to absorb the financial impact.

These are not simply insurance questions.

They are business, family, estate, and liquidity questions that may require an insurance solution.

DPIS helps bring those pieces together.

Why Business Owners Work With DPIS

Planning Before Products

We start by understanding the financial problem before recommending an insurance strategy.

Objective Analysis

We evaluate existing and proposed insurance based on policy design, guarantees, costs, assumptions, carrier strength, ownership, beneficiaries, and long-term objectives.

Complex Case Experience

We work on sophisticated insurance and business-planning situations that may involve business ownership, estate planning, executive benefits, trusts, financing, and multiple advisors.

Advisor Coordination

We work alongside the client's attorney, CPA, financial advisor, lender, surety professional, and other advisors.

Long-Term Relationship

Insurance planning doesn't end when a policy is issued. We help clients review and maintain the strategy as their circumstances change.

The RAM Process

A dynamic process for building and maintaining the plan.

Clients can become siloed because each professional typically works within a specific area of expertise.

• The attorney focuses on legal documents.
• The CPA focuses on taxes.
• The financial advisor focuses on investments.
• The insurance professional focuses on insurance.

RAM is designed to bring those pieces together around the client's goals.

1. R — Review

   Understand the client's goals, business, family, existing planning, and potential gaps.

2. A — Analyze

   Identify appropriate products, strategies, risks, and opportunities.

3. M — Maintain

   Help coordinate implementation, administration, monitoring, and ongoing adjustments.

The objective is a total solution—not a collection of disconnected recommendations.

Who We Serve

We specialize in working with family-owned companies, particularly in:

• Construction
• Real Estate
• Agriculture

These businesses can have unique ownership structures, substantial business value, complex succession considerations, and significant financial exposure to key individuals.

We also work with individuals, business owners, executives, and families whose insurance needs require a more coordinated and analytical approach.

Questions We Help Business Owners Answer

• Do we have enough insurance to protect the business if an owner dies?
• How would our buy-sell agreement actually be funded?
• What happens if our most important executive dies unexpectedly?
• Are our current policies still appropriate for today's business value?
• Who owns our policies?
• Are our beneficiaries still correct?
• Are our policies built around guarantees or current assumptions?
• Could we retain key executives more effectively?
• How will our family receive liquidity if most of our wealth is tied to the business?
• Does our insurance plan work with our estate and succession plan?
• What has changed since our policies were originally purchased?