Life Insurance

Life Insurance for Business Owners

Life insurance is an essential element of advanced business planning, offering strategies that go far beyond personal protection. For business owners, it can be a powerful tool to facilitate succession, provide liquidity, and safeguard the continuity of your enterprise.

At J.P. Morgan Private Bank, our advisors partner with you to design bespoke life insurance strategies addressing key person coverage, buy-sell agreements, and legacy planning—while integrating seamlessly with your broader financial and business objectives. With deep expertise and a nuanced understanding of complex ownership structures, we help you protect what you’ve built and position your business for enduring success.

Safeguard your legacy

Top risks facing business owners

Succession risk for business owners

70% of family-owned businesses fail to transfer to the next generation, often due to lack of planning and insufficient life insurance.¹

70% fail

Key person vulnerability

Over 50% of small businesses would close within a year if a key owner or employee died, yet only 20% have key person life insurance in place.²

50% risk

Liquidity for estate taxes

More than half of business owners lack a formal succession plan, which can create liquidity challenges for estate taxes.³

55% worry

Examining how the One Big Beautiful Bill simplifies life insurance for business owners

This article explores how the One Big Beautiful Bill can simplify life insurance planning for business owners, helping avoid common mistakes and maximize protection, liquidity, and legacy for your business and family.

How J.P. Morgan Private Bank supports business owners with life insurance

Expertise in business succession and continuity

Our team understands the complexities of business succession and continuity planning. We help business owners use life insurance to support smooth transitions, protect key people, and safeguard both family and business interests.

Tailored solutions for liquidity and legacy needs

We work with business owners to design life insurance strategies that address liquidity for estate taxes, buy-sell agreements, and legacy planning—ensuring your business and family are prepared for the future.

Collaborative guidance from experienced advisors

J.P. Morgan Private Bank advisors collaborate with you and your other trusted professionals to integrate life insurance into your overall wealth and business strategy, providing thoughtful guidance for your unique goals.

Ready to learn more about Life Insurance?

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Families with wealth may consider whether life insurance should be a part of their plan. Although many think of insurance as fulfilling an income replacement need providing additional funds should a breadwinner's life be cut short, that is only one potential use case. It's a mistake to think that when a family's assets have grown beyond that need, insurance is never warranted.

Our clients may consider life insurance for some of the following reasons: First, conveying a business or some other illiquid asset intact. Generally, the estate tax is imposed on the value of your assets, whether liquid or not, but the tax needs to be paid with readily available funds. Business owners frequently look to life insurance to provide those funds so that the business can remain intact. Related uses of life insurance can include funding a buy-sell agreement with co-owners and equalizing an inheritance if an owner wants to leave the business or other asset to some of the heirs and liquid funds to others.

Second, addressing other specific estate planning needs. As an example, providing a legacy to children of a first marriage so that other funds can pass to the current spouse and children of the current marriage. Another potential use could be providing dedicated funds for a parent or sibling with the other estate funds passing to descendants.

Third, serving as part of a diversified trust portfolio. Insurance can be a tool used to offer an element of diversification. Life insurance removes the policy benefit from the taxable estate and allows the death benefit in most cases to pay income tax-free to the trust. It can also offer certainty around legacy planning and trust valuation.

The starting point is always to understand your goals. That helps us identify, plan, and execute strategies to help you achieve them. Also, your needs evolve over time and part of working with an advisor involves a regular review of the existing plan to determine if it still achieves what you want to accomplish and what aspects of that plan might change over time. Purchasing life insurance is a nuanced decision and your JP Morgan team can help guide you through the thought process whenever you're ready.

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What is your intention for your wealth?

Life insurance can bring clarity, tax efficiency and liquidity to families. Listen to our Private Bank Wealth Strategist, Christopher Kelly, who discusses why life insurance can benefit your wealth plan.

3 VIDEOS

Meet our distinguished life insurance team

Our team delivers personalized life insurance strategies to help you protect your family, plan for the future, and address complex estate or business needs.