Built To Grow Financial Group  ·  Business Protection Strategies

What You Built Deserves
More Than a Salary.

Most business owners spend everything protecting their revenue and nothing protecting the engine that creates it. One event can end it all. We’re here to make sure it doesn’t.

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Before You Scroll Any Further

Every Business Owner Should Be Asking These Questions

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What happens to your business if you're hospitalized for 6 months?
Your lease doesn't pause. Your employees still need checks. Your loan payments still hit. Who keeps the lights on if you can't work?
Living Benefit Rider answers this.
🤝
If your business partner died tomorrow, who would you be in business with?
Without a funded buy-sell agreement, his ownership transfers to his family. They may want a buyout you can't afford, or worse, they become your new partners.
Buy-Sell Agreement funding solves this.
💼
If your top performer walked out or passed away, how long could you survive?
Revenue drops. Clients leave. Contracts fall apart. Some businesses never recover from losing one irreplaceable person.
Key Person Insurance protects this.
💰
Are you paying key executives enough to keep them from leaving?
A competitor will offer them more money. The business that offers a life insurance policy with cash value they own will win the talent war every time.
Executive Bonus Plan retains them.
📋
What happens to your SBA loan if you or your key person becomes severely injured?
SBA lenders often require key person coverage for a reason. If that coverage doesn't exist, the loan may default, the bank can call the note, and your business can close through no fault of your own.
Key Person coverage handles this.
🔗
Would you rather your co-founder carry everything alone, or have the funds to hire help immediately?
A surviving partner shouldn't have to carry revenue loss, debt obligations, and staff management all at once. The right policy gives them breathing room to rebuild properly.
We design strategies for exactly this.
🚀
Just launching your business? This matters even more at the start.
Early-stage businesses are the most vulnerable. One health event, one lost partner, one key employee exit can wipe out everything you worked to build before you even had a chance to grow.
Protection from day one changes the odds.
🏆
Your top executive is being recruited. What's your retention play?
A split dollar plan or executive bonus puts a tax-advantaged wealth-building policy in their name, funded by the company. That is not something a competitor can easily match with just a bigger salary.
Split Dollar and Sec. 162 do this.
40%
of small businesses never reopen after a key person loss
1 in 4
business owners will face a critical illness before age 65
70%
of buy-sell agreements are either unfunded or outdated
$0
cost for an initial strategy session with our team

Business Insurance Strategies

Six Ways We Protect
What You Built

Each strategy below is a real tool used by serious business owners. We'll tell you what it is, who it protects, and what happens when it's not in place.

Executive Bonus Plan Section 162 — Business pays the premium, Executive owns the policy
Executive Retention

The Executive Bonus Plan: Reward Your Best. Keep Your Best.

"Not all compensation is created equal."

Under IRC Section 162, a business pays the life insurance premium as a bonus directly to the executive. The company deducts it. The executive owns the policy personally, builds tax-deferred cash value, and their family is protected. Everyone wins, and it costs the company only what they were already willing to pay in compensation.

  • ✓Premium is 100% tax-deductible to the business as a compensation expense
  • ✓Executive owns the policy, not the employer, so it's theirs regardless of what happens to the company
  • ✓Cash value grows tax-deferred over time, building real wealth
  • ✓Death benefit provides family protection from day one of the policy
  • ✓Powerful retention tool: executives are far less likely to leave when tied to a growing asset
  • ✓Works for owners, partners, and key leaders you absolutely cannot afford to lose
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What Is It?
The business pays the premium. The executive receives it as a bonus and owns the policy personally.
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Who Is It For?
Owners, partners, and key executives you cannot afford to lose to a competitor.
⭐
The Real Benefit
Cash value, death benefit, business deduction. One tool. Three wins.
Key Person Insurance — One person holds up the business, insurance protects it when they can't
Business Continuity

How One Policy Keeps Your Business Alive

"Your business built around one person shouldn't end with them."

Key person insurance pays the business directly when the person the company depends on most passes away. That money buys time: time to replace them, time to stabilize revenue, time to service debt and keep employees paid while the business finds its footing again.

  • ✓Death benefit paid directly to the business, not the employee's family
  • ✓Funds cover lost revenue and stabilize payroll during the transition period
  • ✓Covers recruiting and onboarding costs to replace an irreplaceable person
  • ✓Satisfies SBA and lender requirements for key person coverage on business loans
  • ✓Can fund a buy-sell agreement buyout when structured correctly
  • ✓Protects against business closure: operations don't have to stop because one person is gone
Real Scenario

Your master mechanic, executive chef, or lead director passes away unexpectedly. Operations can stop entirely without them. Key Person insurance gives you 6 to 24 months of financial runway to rebuild properly instead of scrambling to survive.

Key Person Insurance — One person holds up the business, insurance protects it when they can't
Critical Illness Protection

When the Key Person Can't Work, The Business Still Can

"A qualifying illness doesn't have to close your doors."

The living benefit rider triggers when a key person is diagnosed with a qualifying critical illness, chronic condition, or terminal diagnosis. The business receives funds while the key person is still alive, allowing operations to continue during recovery without the company bleeding out.

  • ✓Replaces lost business income while the key person is recovering
  • ✓Keeps payroll, rent, and fixed operations funded during extended recovery
  • ✓Covers the full cost of recruiting, onboarding, and training a temporary or permanent replacement
  • ✓Triggers on critical illness, chronic condition, or terminal diagnosis
  • ✓Applies to any person whose absence alone stops revenue: owners, mechanics, top producers, lead chefs
  • ✓The business doesn't stall. The team doesn't scatter. The clients don't leave.
Think About This

You're hospitalized for 4 months. Your business partner is now doing two jobs. Your top salesperson has no one leading them. Your SBA payment is still due. Would you rather face that alone, or have a check already waiting that was written specifically for this moment?

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Loss of Income
Policy funds replace revenue lost while the key person recovers.
🎓
Replacement Costs
Cover recruiting, onboarding, and training a temporary replacement.
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What Triggers It?
Critical illness, chronic condition, or terminal diagnosis. Anyone whose absence stops revenue.
Buy-Sell Agreement funded with Life Insurance — Partner A, Partner B, Life Insurance Funds the Buyout
Partner Protection

The Buy-Sell Agreement: The Cleanest Exit Strategy in Business

"When a partner exits by choice or by fate, who owns what matters more than you think."

A buy-sell agreement funded with life insurance is a legally binding contract that decides what happens to ownership if a partner dies, becomes disabled, or exits the business. Without it, ownership passes to a family member who may know nothing about your industry and may want cash you don't have.

  • ✓Legally determines what happens to an ownership share at a triggering event: death, disability, or exit
  • ✓Life insurance funds the buyout so the surviving partner doesn't need to liquidate assets or take on debt
  • ✓Prevents a deceased partner's family from becoming unwanted co-owners in your business
  • ✓Buyout price is pre-agreed, eliminating disputes at the worst possible time
  • ✓Each partner is insured, and the death benefit triggers the purchase automatically
  • ✓Clean. Fast. Protected. The business stays in the right hands.
Without This in Place

Your partner passes away. His 40% ownership transfers to his spouse. She wants a buyout of $800,000, which you don't have. She becomes your new partner with no experience in your industry. You didn't choose this. But you could have prevented it.

Split Dollar Plan — Company pays premium, Executive owns cash value and death benefit, company recovers premium
Elite Talent Retention

The Split Dollar Plan: How Smart Organizations Retain Elite Talent

"The best contracts aren't just about salary."

In a split dollar arrangement, the organization and executive share the cost of a permanent life insurance policy. The employer funds the premiums and retains an interest. The executive receives the benefit and cash value. When structured correctly, the executive walks away with significant tax-free wealth, funded largely by the organization.

  • ✓Organization and executive split the cost of a permanent life insurance policy
  • ✓Employer funds premiums and retains a recoverable interest in the cash value
  • ✓Executive receives the death benefit and access to cash value over time
  • ✓Tax-advantaged benefit that goes far beyond what a salary bump can offer
  • ✓Used by top NFL organizations, Fortune 500 companies, and elite professional firms
  • ✓When structured correctly, the executive accumulates significant tax-free wealth, funded largely by the company
❓
What Is It?
A shared premium arrangement on a permanent policy. The org pays, both parties benefit.
🏆
Why Elites Use It
NFL coaches and executives negotiate this as part of their total compensation. You can too.
🔭
The Long Game
Tax-free cash value plus death benefit. Funded by the org. Owned by the executive.

Additional Coverage

More Ways We Protect Your Business

These strategies round out a complete business protection plan and are often the ones most owners don't know to ask about.

🏗️
Business Overhead Expense (BOE) Coverage
If you become disabled, BOE pays your fixed monthly expenses: rent, utilities, employee salaries, loan payments. Your business doesn't close because you can't work. It waits for you.
Great for sole proprietors and small partnerships.
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Group Life and Employee Benefits
Offering group life or benefit coverage makes your business a place talented people want to stay. It signals that you're a real company that takes care of its people, not just another job.
A retention and recruiting tool most small businesses overlook.
📊
Business Valuation Protection
As your business grows in value, so does the risk of an underfunded buy-sell or key person policy. We help you stay current so protection grows with the business, not behind it.
Most buy-sell agreements are 3x underfunded within 5 years.

No Pressure. No Obligation. Real Information.

You Built This Business.
Let's Make Sure It Survives You.

Whether you're just launching or scaling a multi-location operation, a 30-minute strategy session with our team gives you clarity on exactly which strategies apply to your situation and what they cost.

✓ No obligation
✓ 30 minutes
✓ We come to you or meet virtually
✓ Works for new businesses too
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The Team Behind BTG

We Don't Just Sell Policies.
We Build Strategies.

We are licensed professionals who specialize exclusively in business protection. When you sit down with us, you're getting real answers for real business scenarios, not a generic brochure.

Founders

Treon and Miranda Hill, Founders of Built To Grow Financial Group
Founders
Treon & Miranda Hill
Co-Founders · Built To Grow Financial Group
Husband and wife. Business builders. We started BTG because we know what it means to build something from nothing and protect it at all costs. Every business owner who sits across from us gets the same intensity we bring to our own.
Book Directly With Treon

Licensed Brokers of Business Relations

Aaron Marcom, Licensed Broker of Business Relations
Licensed Broker
Aaron Marcom
Licensed Broker · Business Relations
Aaron specializes in connecting business owners with the right coverage strategies for their stage of growth. From launch to scale, he ensures nothing is left unprotected.
David De Robles, Licensed Broker of Business Relations
Licensed Broker
David De Robles
Licensed Broker · Business Relations
David brings sharp business acumen and a client-first approach to every conversation. He helps owners understand not just the what, but the why behind each strategy.
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