Business Protection Review Checklist
Most owners spend their energy on growth, and rightly so. But continuity is what protects that growth, and the risks that threaten a business most are usually the quiet ones. This checklist helps you find them while everything's still fine.
Who this is for
- Owners who've never mapped their continuity risks
- Partnerships without a funded plan for an owner's exit
- Businesses that lean heavily on one or two people
What you’ll learn
- The people and agreements your business depends on
- Where a sudden loss would hit hardest
- What's documented, and what only lives in someone's head
- How the insurance-based pieces fit with your CPA and attorney's work
Continuity protects everything else
A business can be profitable and still be fragile. If one person, one agreement, or one source of cash is holding things together, a single event can unravel years of work. Continuity planning is simply making sure the business can keep running through the events no one wants to think about.
The good news is that most of this is findable in advance. The risks that hurt owners most are rarely exotic; they're ordinary things that never got mapped, funded, or written down.
The exposures worth mapping
A review looks across a few connected areas, not just one:
- Key people whose sudden loss would seriously disrupt the business
- Ownership transition: what happens to a share if an owner exits or passes
- Funding: whether any agreement actually has money behind it
- Documentation: what's written down versus what lives in someone's head
- Retention: whether key people have a reason to stay
Where we fit, and where your professionals do
Our lane is the insurance-based funding strategy. Valuation, tax treatment, and agreement drafting belong with your CPA and attorney. The best outcomes happen when everyone coordinates, which is exactly how we work, rather than handing you one more thing to chase down alone.
Your protection checklist
- The one or few people whose loss would seriously disrupt the business
- Whether there's a buy-sell agreement, and whether it's actually funded
- How the business would bridge lost revenue during a transition
- What's written down versus what lives only in someone's head
- Whether key people are being rewarded and retained intentionally
- Which items need your CPA and attorney involved
Common risks business owners overlook
- A buy-sell agreement that exists on paper but was never actually funded
- One person holding relationships, passwords, or know-how no one else has
- Coverage amounts that haven't kept up with how much the business has grown
- No clear answer for who has the authority to act in a crisis
- Personal and business protection tangled together with no clear line
Your next step
You don't have to solve all of this at once. A Business Protection Review maps your exposures in one calm conversation, then helps you prioritize what's worth handling first, coordinated with your CPA and attorney.
Start Your Business Protection ReviewMore in Business Wealth
Key Person Insurance Guide
What key person coverage protects, and how it's structured.
Buy-Sell Funding Guide
How to make an ownership agreement actually payable when it's needed.
Business Continuity Planning Checklist
The 'what if' scenarios worth planning for before they arrive.
Ready to turn a guide into a plan?
It's free, and you'll leave clearer than you arrived.
Educational only. Business continuity strategies involve tax, legal, and valuation considerations that must be confirmed with your CPA, attorney, and other qualified professionals. Guarantees are subject to the claims-paying ability of the issuing carrier. NOI does not provide tax, legal, or investment advice.