Business Owners spend most of their time trying to protect their business assets including their premises, stock, staff and customers. They ensure they have the appropriate insurance cover in place to provide for losses such as Fire, Flood, Theft, Injury and so on.

Employers Liability Insurance provides cover for injuries sustained by employees however most business owners generally don’t realise that they themselves will most likely not be covered by their employers liability policy. As the employers liability policy is negligence based generally the business owner is the one in control of the company and will struggle to prove negligence in a court of law against an entity which they are in control of.

This then leaves the business owner venerable should an accident occur. The same is also true of accidents that take occur outside the workplace and indeed illness. What will happen the business if the business owner is not there to drive it ? Will the business owner be able to draw a salary from it?

Typically a business owner will not be entitled to social welfare assistance as they haven’t been paying PRSI as a self employed person or a 20% company director.

We would suggest that all business owners have an income protection policy in place which will provide a monthly benefit to them in the event of their inability to work. The benefit under an income protection policy lasts from the date of incident upto the persons normal retirement date and is generally subject to a deferred ( excess ) period of 13 weeks.

The premiums payable are allowable against tax at the marginal rate which does mean that the benefit is treated as taxable income. The policy can be tailored to each business owners needs and can include benefits like inflation protection and waiver of premium.

All in all Income Protection should be a must for all business owners.