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The Phoenix Companies Inc., Hartford, unveiled recently The Business of Wealth, a marketing and support program for advisors working with successful business owners.
The program is useful to agents selling to all different types of businesses because it speaks to the life cycles a business goes through, regardless of the industry, says Walter H. Zultowski, senior vice president of marketing and market research at Phoenix.
"We focus not so much on the type of business as the stage the business is in regardless of the industry," he says. "Any business passes through life-cycle stages; we try to educate advisors about the different life cycles any business falls through–that will direct the services needs that business will likely have."
Those services include helping to provide employee benefits, offering retirement plans, and developing a family office or foundation, he says.
The product integrates the business life-cycle model and the changing needs of the business owner with an advisors practice, Zultowski says.
The first stage of the life cycle is Business Entity, the start-up and growth years, where the focus is on creating and supporting a successful business.
The second stage is Business Transition, when a company is sold or left to another owner or a family member.
The third stage, Business Family Legacy, considers strategies for using the wealth generated by a business when a family or owner wants to build a lasting legacy. This stage is unique to high net-worth business owners.
The program also provides information, direction and tools to support advisors efforts. That includes a guide that integrates practice management issues with the needs of high net-worth business owners.
The guide outlines needs at three different phases of ownership and the skills, strategies and resources advisors should have to serve this market.
