An ONA immersive briefing · Business
If you stepped away tomorrow,
would the business survive?
You insured the van, the tools and the building. But the business runs on people, and the biggest risk on your books has never had a policy against it. Let's walk through it.
01 · The premise
Most cover protects things. Almost none protects the people the business can't run without.
Premises, vehicles, stock and liability are easy to picture, so they get insured. The owners and the few key people who actually generate the revenue? Usually nothing. When one of them is suddenly out of the picture, the whole structure is exposed at once.
02 · The domino effect
One person leaves. Four things fall.
Revenue stalls
The work that person brought in, or did, slows or stops. Cash tightens fast.
The bank doesn't wait
Loans, overdrafts and personal guarantees don't pause for a funeral or a hospital stay.
Ownership gets messy
A departed owner's share passes to their family, who may want out, in cash, now.
People drift
Clients and staff read uncertainty quickly, and quietly start looking elsewhere.
Risk one · Shareholder buy-out
Your partner's shares just went to someone who's never run a business.
When a co-owner dies, their stake usually passes to their spouse or estate, so you wake up with a new "business partner" with no experience and very different goals. A funded buy/sell agreement fixes this: the surviving owners get the shares, the family gets a fair lump sum, and nobody has to find the money under pressure.
The cover: life and total-disablement cover sized to each owner's stake, tied to a shareholders' agreement so it pays out cleanly to the right people.
Risk two · Key person
Who is the one person you can't replace overnight?
Every business has one, the rainmaker, the master tradesperson, the person who holds the key relationships. Lose them suddenly and revenue dips while you spend months and real money recruiting and rebuilding. Key person cover hands the business a lump sum to ride out exactly that gap.
The cover: a lump sum to replace lost profit and fund the cost of finding, hiring and getting the right replacement up to speed.
Risk three · Debt & revenue
The loan doesn't stop because someone's in hospital.
Business debt is often propped up by the very people who run the place, frequently with personal guarantees on the family home. Debt protection clears or services those borrowings if an owner dies or can't work, and monthly revenue cover keeps the doors open while the business steadies.
The cover: debt protection to clear borrowings, plus business-expenses / revenue cover to keep fixed costs paid through the disruption.
A 60-second exposure check
Five questions. Honest answers.
- 1Is there a funded buy/sell agreement between the owners, not just a handshake?
- 2If your key person was gone for six months, do you know what it would cost you?
- 3Are any business loans backed by a personal guarantee over your home?
- 4Could the business cover its fixed costs for 90 days with revenue down?
- 5When was any of this last reviewed against where the business is now?
A "no" or "not sure" to any of these is exactly the conversation worth having.
The ONA approach
Independent advice that structures cover to respond.
Getting business cover right isn't about a bigger policy, it's about the right structure, ownership and amounts so the money lands with the right people at the right time. As an independent broker, Daniel compares New Zealand's leading insurers and builds it around your business, in plain English.
Your move
Let's map exactly what's exposed, in 15 minutes.
No jargon, no obligation. Just a clear picture of the risks your business is carrying and what it would take to cover them. The first conversation is free.
ONA Insurance Brokers · Independent risk advice for New Zealand businesses