Built for Founders
You built the business. Now protect everything that depends on it.
Founder & Family is a specialist advisory service helping UK founders, directors, and business owners structure life, health, and business protection, personally and through their company, so that nothing is left to chance.
Our Philosophy
Three relationships. One framework.
As a founder, you carry obligations that most financial advisers never fully address. You have duties to your business, to its continuity, and the people who depend on it. You have duties to your family, to ensure they’re not left fighting for what’s rightfully theirs. And you have duties to your business partners, to protect them from being forced into a legal dispute with your grieving spouse.
Founder & Family exists to address all three, simultaneously, through a single integrated protection architecture.
01. Protect Your Family
If you die or are critically ill, your family should be financially secure, not dependent on the goodwill of your remaining business partners or a distressed asset sale.
02. Protect Your Business
Losing a key person, a founder, a rainmaker, a technical lead, can destabilise even a healthy company. Protection ensures the business can survive and adapt.
03. Protect Your Partners
Shareholder protection means surviving directors can buy back shares from a deceased partner’s estate at a fair, pre-agreed value, retaining control and avoiding conflict.
82%
of UK SME owners have no formal shareholder protection in place, leaving their business and families exposed if a partner dies.
£0
is what many founder families receive from the business they helped build, because the right structures weren’t in place. Shareholder agreements and protection policies change everything.
100%
of qualifying premiums can be paid as a company business expense, meaning your protection costs less than you think.
Core Protection Product
The Founder & Family Protection Suite
Founder Life Assurance
Personal life cover structured specifically around a founder’s needs, ensuring your family receives a meaningful lump sum, free from business complications, should you die.
- Level and decreasing term policies
- Whole-of-life options for IHT planning
- Written into trust for immediate payout
- Coordinated with your shareholder agreement
- Payable outside of the estate
Critical Illness Cover
A cash lump sum paid on diagnosis of a specified serious condition, giving you and your family time and financial space to focus on recovery, not revenue.
- 40–50+ conditions typically covered
- Children’s critical illness included
- Can be added to life or standalone
- Covers cancer, stroke, heart attack + more
- Personal or business-owned structures
Key Person Insurance
Protects the business against the financial impact of losing a key individual, covering lost profits, recruitment costs, and the time it takes to rebuild.
- Paid to the company as policyholder
- Covers life and / or critical illness
- Typically tax-deductible as a business expense
- Covers founders, directors, and key staff
- Lump sum or income-replacement basis
Shareholder Protection
Ensures surviving partners can buy the shares of a deceased or critically ill shareholder at a pre-agreed fair value, retaining control without a dispute or distressed sale.
- Each shareholder insured to the value of their stake
- Cross-option agreement with solicitors
- Business valuation methodology agreed upfront
- Avoids forced sale to third parties
- Prevents family members gaining unwanted control
Income Protection
If illness or injury prevents you from working, income protection pays a monthly benefit to replace lost earnings, typically for founders who draw salary or dividends.
- Covers up to 60–70% of pre-disability income
- Short or long-term payment periods
- Deferred periods from 4 weeks to 12 months
- Own occupation definition of incapacity
- Executive income protection also available
Pensions & Investments
Company pension contributions, SIPP structuring, and investment strategies that make your business work harder for your long-term financial independence.
- Director pension contributions as business expense
- SIPP and SSAS structuring
- Pension on death, IHT efficient
- Investment portfolio planning
- Exit-aligned wealth planning
Tax Efficiency
Your company pays. Everyone benefits.
One of the most overlooked advantages available to founders and directors is the ability to structure protection products as legitimate company expenses reducing your corporation tax bill while building comprehensive cover for you, your family, and your business.
We work closely with your accountant to ensure every policy is correctly structured, properly documented, and optimally tax-efficient from day one.
Relevant Life Policy
Key Person Insurance
Key person insurance premiums are typically fully deductible against corporation tax when covering a director or key employee, subject to HMRC criteria.
Director Pension Contributions
Director Pension Contributions made by the company are a corporation tax-deductible expense and don’t attract National Insurance for employer or employee.
Shareholder Protection
Integrated Advisory
Protection is only as strong as the structures around it.
Insurance alone is not enough. The right payout, to the right people, at the right time, depends on legal, tax, and financial structures being properly aligned. Founder & Family coordinates with your wider professional team or introduces you to specialists to ensure nothing falls through the cracks.
Corporate Solicitors
Shareholder agreements, cross-option agreements, and business succession documentation aligned with your protection policies.
Accountants
Corporation tax treatment, P11D implications, and pension contributions structured for maximum efficiency with HMRC compliance.
Trust Specialists
Policies written into discretionary or absolute trusts ensuring fast, tax-efficient payouts to the right beneficiaries outside the estate.
Will & IHT Planners
Business interests, pension assets, and life policies coordinated with your Will to minimise inheritance tax and avoid probate delays.
Process
How Founder & Family works
01. Discovery & Exposure Review
We begin with a structured conversation covering your business structure, shareholding, personal financial position, existing cover, family circumstances, and any shareholder agreements in place. We map where you’re exposed and where you’re protected.
02. Bespoke Protection Architecture
We design a layered protection plan covering personal, business, and shareholder needs, including how to structure each policy for maximum tax efficiency and minimum complexity. Where required, we brief in legal and accounting professionals.
03. Implementation & Coordination
We manage the full application process, work with insurers to secure the best terms, brief solicitors on trust and shareholder agreement requirements, and liaise with your accountant on premium treatment and documentation.
04. Annual Review & Adaptation
As your business grows, your shareholding changes, or your family circumstances evolve, we review and adapt your protection architecture, ensuring it always reflects your current reality and any changes in HMRC guidance.
Get Started
The best time to put this in place was the day you incorporated.
The second best time is now.
A no-obligation discovery call to understand where you’re exposed and what a comprehensive Founder and Family plan would look like for you.
Ongoing protection support
Protection planning is not a one-time process. Our advisers provide ongoing support to ensure your plan remains suitable, reviewing your cover regularly and adjusting it as your circumstances and goals change. Our commitment is to help you maintain financial security and peace of mind.
