What happens to the business when the person it depends on is gone.
Key person coverage pays the business when an owner or essential employee dies or becomes disabled. Buy-sell funding gives the surviving owners the money to buy that share.
Tell us the situation.
One licensed human replies the same business day — not five agents, not an auto-responder. If the policy you have is already the right one, we will tell you.
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Send us what you have. We’ll tell you if it’s right.
Your current policy paperwork, a renewal notice, or nothing at all. A licensed agent reads it and replies the same business day.
What key person actually covers.
Key person
A benefit paid to the business on the death or disability of someone it depends on.
Without it — Revenue tied to one relationship or one skill disappears with no cash to bridge it.
Buy-sell funding
The money to buy a deceased owner’s share, under an agreement written in advance.
Without it — The surviving owners find themselves in business with an estate that wants to be paid out.
Loan coverage
Repayment of business debt personally guaranteed by an owner.
Without it — A lender calls a guaranteed loan at the worst possible moment.
Where key person shows up.
- Contractor
Where one person holds the license the company operates under, their death is a licensing emergency as much as a personal loss.
- Long Haul Trucking
On a small authority the owner is the company: the driver, the dispatcher and the person the bank lent against.
- Electrical Contractors
Where one license holder qualifies the company, their death is a licensing emergency before it is anything else.
- Loan-Out Companies
The company has exactly one asset who can perform the contract, which is the definition of the exposure.
- Labels, Agents & Managers
A roster frequently follows one relationship, and the business does not survive losing it uninsured.
What clients with key person ask us.
Is a buy-sell agreement the same as the insurance?
No, and both are needed. The agreement is the legal document setting out who buys, at what price and on what terms. The insurance is where the money comes from. An agreement with no funding behind it obliges people to buy a share they cannot afford, which is how well-drafted agreements still end in a forced sale.
What happens to an owner’s share if there is no buy-sell agreement?
It passes under the owner’s will or trust, and the operating or partnership agreement decides what the heir can do with it. Without an agreement and the money to fund it, the surviving owners can end up in business with the estate. We place the insurance and set up each owner’s will or living trust; an attorney drafts the agreement.
How much coverage does a buy-sell agreement need?
Roughly each owner’s percentage times the value the agreement uses, reviewed whenever that value changes. Key person coverage is sized separately, usually as a multiple of the person’s pay.
Commercial insurance is 96% of what we do — it is not a department here, it is the whole business. Not ready to talk? The guides answer the questions this page raises in more depth. Already insured with us and need a certificate or a policy change? Ask the service team rather than starting a quote — it is faster and it goes to the people whose job it is. We also write home and auto, which is usually cheaper alongside the business policy than apart from it.
Handed a lease, a vendor packet or a client contract with insurance requirements? Paste it into the COI Requirements Decoder to see what each one means for your business, or read what the requirements mean.