1. Strategies and Solutions to Help Your Business
Owning Your Future
Strategies and Solutions to Help Your Business
Notes if presented to an audience mainly comprising your current clients:
Thank you for joining me/us today for Merrill Lynch’s seminar on Strategies and Solutions to Help Your Business. I am/we are [INSERT NAME(S)], a [INSERT TITLE(S)] with Merrill Lynch.
Today’s seminar has been designed to help you:
Think about your financial needs in the context of both your business and your personal life
Understand the useful guidance I/we can offer through my/our experience helping business owners like you
Consider the customized business solutions that Merrill Lynch offers
Learn about ways to manage your business finances while helping to secure the future for your family
Notes if presented to an audience mainly comprising prospective clients:
Thank you for joining me/us today for Merrill Lynch’s seminar on Strategies and Solutions to Help Your Business. I am/we are [INSERT NAME(S)], a [INSERT TITLE(S)] with Merrill Lynch. To give you a little bit of background about myself/ourselves…[HIGHLIGHT KEY DETAILS ABOUT YOUR BIOGRAPHY(IES) AND EXPERIENCE AS AN ADVISOR(S)].
Presented by: First and Last Name or Group Name

2. Investment, insurance and annuity products:
Any information presented about tax considerations affecting your financial transactions or arrangements is not intended as tax advice and cannot be relied on to avoid any tax penalties. Neither Merrill Lynch nor its Financial Advisors provide tax, accounting or legal advice. You should review any planned financial transactions or arrangements that may have tax, accounting or legal implications with your personal professional advisors.
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3. Why We’re Here Today Business owners have unique financial needs.
Personal and business finances are interrelated.
Merrill Lynch can help by providing:
A deep understanding of business owners
Integrated advice and guidance
A comprehensive suite of business solutions
Over the next hour, [I/we] will talk about some of the unique and pressing financial needs you have as a business owner. While it’s empowering to be your own boss, it can also be stressful. [I/we] will illustrate just how intertwined your personal and business finances are.
The decisions you make at work really do affect your family—and vice versa. But you don’t have to go it alone. Merrill Lynch has a long history of working with business owners like you. And as an experienced Financial Advisor, [I/we] can be your trusted source for the advice and guidance you need for your business life and your personal life. As we touch on the needs of your business, [I/we] will describe the comprehensive suite of business solutions that Merrill Lynch offers.
Are there any questions before we get started? Great, let’s begin…

4. The Typical Life Stages of a Business
As a business grows, its needs change over time.
Early Growth
Expansion
Transition
Maturity
Time
Sales
Streamline cash management
Succession planning
Acquisition, merger or expansion cycle
Increase sales, gain market share
Manage profits
Succession
Wind down
Expand products and services
Like investors, every business experiences distinct life stages:
In the Early Growth stage, a company is launched and its customer base begins to grow. Early Growth businesses usually need to optimize cash flow, produce operating capital and meet unexpected cash needs.
During the Expansion phase, a business may be developing new markets, increasing sales and expanding its product line. These businesses usually seek to finance further growth, and to attract and retain the staff to power that growth. To that end, they may implement a retirement plan or other benefits.
As a business Matures, succession planning becomes a concern, as does profit management. A Mature business often looks to control costs, build effective business investments and put excess cash to work.
For a business in Transition, the owners may consider selling the company or passing it on to heirs. These businesses need to implement a merger or acquisition strategy, and the owner must execute personal wealth transfer plans.
At each stage of your business, you will have different concerns and will need to implement different financial strategies.
Grow customer base
Develop new markets
Company launch
Source:

5. Common Business Needs Optimize cash flow Maintain working capital
How many of these are important to you?
Optimize cash flow
Maintain working capital
Finance continued growth
Attract and retain talented employees
Ensure business continuity
Plan for a succession
No matter what life stage your business is in, your business likely shares some of these common needs.
Let’s see a show of hands. How many of you need to optimize cash flow? [Wait for responses]
How about maintain adequate working capital? [Wait for responses]
Does anyone here today need to access financing for the continued growth of their business? [Wait for responses]
I’ll bet many of you want to implement or improve the benefits you offer to attract and retain employees.
Who here is considering a retirement plan for their business? [Wait for responses]
Is ensuring business continuity a concern for you? [Wait for responses]
And lastly, raise your hand if you have a succession plan in place. [Wait for responses] If not, we’ll talk further in a few minutes about ensuring an orderly transition for your business … even if that day is years in the future.
As you can see from the show of hands around you, even the most successful business owners wrestle with both day-to-day and long-term financial concerns.

6. Merrill Lynch Solutions for Business
Managing your cash and financing needs
Investing for short- and long-term goals
Retirement planning for you and your employees
Merrill Lynch understands the unique concerns you face as a business owner. Our Solutions for Business suite covers four key areas:
Managing your cash and financing needs for working capital and future growth
Investing for the short-term and long-term goals of your business
Retirement planning to help secure the future for you and your employees
Strategies to safeguard your business, minimize estate taxes and plan for a smooth succession
All the solutions offered at Merrill Lynch are designed to work in harmony with your personal financial strategies. And with my/our experience helping business owners like you, we can help you put plans in place to help you achieve your goals.
Strategies to safeguard your business, minimize estate taxes and plan for a smooth succession

7. Your Business Needs to Optimize Cash Flow and Access Financing
Make your business cash work harder 
Improve liquidity and access to accounts receivable 
Unlock the borrowing power of your business
For most of the business owners [I/we] work with, cash management and lending are the most pressing concerns. Most business owners want their cash to work as hard as they do, and they don’t like to see money sitting inactive in a checking account. But they can’t tie up the cash, since they may need to access it immediately if something comes up. For many businesses, accounts receivable don’t come in quickly or efficiently enough. And when a business needs additional funds to increase working capital or finance expanded operations, owners are reluctant to borrow against their personal assets. They need a way to use the business as collateral.
You can put your business cash to work utilizing integrated strategies for cash management and lending, with investment products offered through Merrill Lynch and banking products provided by Bank of America, N.A. 
Fund expansion plans and capital expenditures

8. Manage Your Business Cash More Effectively
Cash management services
Short- and long-term CDs
Treasury management services
Automatic cash sweeps for overnight investments
Cash management services available from Bank of America include business checking accounts, money market savings accounts, and short-term and long-term CDs to help you increase the yield your business earns on deposits. In addition, Treasury management services can improve access to your business’s accounts receivable with features such as lockbox services and remote check deposit. Merrill Lynch provides automatic cash sweeps for overnight investments as another tool for pursuing higher returns on cash. [I/we] can talk further with you about these and other ways to make it more convenient to manage your company’s banking and financial activity.

9. Access Financing for Your Business
Lines of credit
Term loans
Business credit cards
Securities-based lending
Through Merrill Lynch, you can access lending solutions that can help you unlock the borrowing power of your business, including:
Lines of credit to help you manage cash flow and finance operations, receivables and inventory
Term loans that can allow you to acquire major assets, expand or remodel facilities, and access additional working capital
Business credit cards to simplify and better control business purchases and to fund fleet, travel and entertainment expenses
Securities-based lending through Merrill Lynch that lets you pledge a range of eligible assets as collateral, leveraging their combined value without interrupting your investment strategy
Your company may be your most valuable asset, and you shouldn’t have to pledge personal assets to back up business loans. That’s why Merrill Lynch also offers a range of life insurance options for you as the owner that can be used as collateral for loans. [I/we] can talk further with you about unique financing solutions to fund the growth of your business.

10. Your Business Needs a Disciplined Investment Strategy
Maintain adequate working capital 
Invest for continued growth 
Potentially strengthen the financial situation of your business
Few business owners realize that their company should have its own investment portfolio. They often have investable assets that could be used to increase working capital or fund continued growth.
A solid investment strategy can potentially put a business on stronger financial footing while minimizing the need for an owner to use personal resources to grow the business.
Best of all, using a single source of financial advice for your personal investment portfolio and your business investments results in greater efficiency and the elimination of redundancy. As a Merrill Lynch Financial Advisor, [I/we] have deep experience working to integrate the investments of business owners. 
Minimize the need to draw on personal resources 
Integrate your personal and business investments

11. Invest for Short- and Long-Term Goals
Disciplined approach
Open-architecture platforms
Brokerage and managed investment solutions
Tax-advantaged vehicles1
Advice and guidance
Merrill Lynch Managed Accounts can support your businesses investment objectives by delivering robust investment solutions that can be complemented by the vast resources of Merrill Lynch.
Managed Accounts also leverage the firm's intellectual capital, providing you with advice and guidance, based on BofA Merrill Lynch Global Research group’s research and due diligence processes, to help you align your investment strategy with your unique financial situation.
Managed Accounts allow you to manage your portfolio the way you want to. You can select a managed account solution, in which you approve each transaction (nondiscretionary), or a discretionary managed account, in which you delegate the management of your investments to Merrill Lynch.
Managed Accounts also allow you to select the kind of investment you want to hold and give you the ability to utilize Merrill Lynch model portfolios to assist in your asset allocation process. In addition, each Managed Account allows you to pay for your investment advisory services with a single, asset-based fee instead of individual commissions for each transaction.
1 Neither Merrill Lynch nor its Financial Advisors provide tax, accounting or legal advice. Clients should review any planned financial transactions or arrangements that may have tax, accounting or legal implications with their personal professional advisors.

12. Your Business Needs an Effective Retirement Plan
Attract and retain talented employees 
Maximize tax-advantaged savings for participants 
Receive tax benefits for your business
Many business owners are so busy that they have little time to plan for their future. Yet they know they need to address retirement—not just for themselves, but for their employees, too. The business owners [I/we] advise tell us that a well-designed retirement plan helps them attract and retain the talent their business needs. They and their employees benefit from the tax-advantaged savings that plans offer.
Most businesses can use all the tax help they can get, and a retirement plan can provide tax benefits to the business. Many owners use their company retirement plan to consolidate their personal retirement assets. And perhaps most important, owners are looking for the satisfaction that comes from knowing they’ve provided the right solutions to their valued employees.
Merrill Lynch offers retirement plan help to business owners, no matter how large or small. [I/we] can:
provide you with integrated solutions through our suite of proprietary platforms, as well as solutions from professional third-party providers, to help you find a solution that meets your needs and manages your business retirement plan effectively;
offer disciplined management of plan investments; and
help your participants assess their overall financial situation, taking into account a review of their personal and retirement investments together. 
Consolidate personal retirement assets

13. Retirement Plans for You and Your Employees
Simplified Employee Pension (SEP)
SIMPLE IRA
Individual 401(k)
Defined Benefit
Profit Sharing
Traditional 401(k)
Benefits
Contribution flexibility
Inexpensive
Easy to maintain
No IRS reporting required
Salary deferral
Fewer administrative requirements than 401(k) plans
Potentially higher contributions than SEP, SIMPLE IRA or profit-sharing plans
Option to offer loans
High contribution limits
Lifetime monthly benefit at retirement
Tax-advantaged way to transfer assets from the business
Can structure to provide greater benefits to highly compensated or preferred employees
Merrill Lynch can help you secure the future for yourself, your family and your employees. The chart details the range of retirement plan solutions that business owners can consider. There are many choices to consider, each with its advantages and disadvantages. We can help you determine the best option for you and your business.
Whether you’re a one-person business or have dozens of employees, [I/we] can tailor a cost-effective and low-maintenance plan for your business. [I/we] can help you identify which retirement plans and account types may be suitable for your business, and then help you select from a wide range of investment options, carefully selected and qualified by Merrill Lynch’s due diligence process, in which to invest your retirement plan assets. Together, we can work to identify and implement a retirement strategy designed to address your unique circumstances and support your broader goals.

14. Managed Solutions May Help You Fulfill Your Responsibilities
Professional asset management
Disciplined approach to asset allocation
Due diligence by Merrill Lynch
May help you meet fiduciary obligations associated with ERISA*
Merrill Lynch offers competitive capabilities, including access to professional third-party asset managers. Many of the retirement plan offerings available from Merrill Lynch include managed account solutions as an option for participants’ retirement savings. These solutions provide a disciplined approach to asset allocation. They offer ongoing due diligence to ensure that managers perform as expected. Just as importantly, if your retirement plan is covered by ERISA, you have a fiduciary obligation to manage retirement assets prudently. Choosing a managed solution may allow you to fulfill that responsibility with one simple decision.
* The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of You should discuss the use of managed accounts with an attorney, tax advisor or third-party administrator to ensure compliance with ERISA.

15. Your Business Needs to Protect Against the Unexpected and Plan for the Future
Protect owners and key employees 
Ensure business continuity 
Transfer personal wealth in business tax-efficiently
For a majority of business owners, personal wealth and income are closely tied to the success of the business. That’s why it’s important to step back from day-to-day concerns to address issues that can have a significant impact on the business or the ability of you and your family to benefit from what you have created.
Our Wealth Structuring Group provides solutions that protect business owners and their key employees.
We help owners create business continuity plans to help protect against the unexpected.
Knowing that a large percentage of their wealth may be associated with the business, we help owners identify strategies that can help them transfer that wealth in a tax-efficient manner. We recommend that owners begin this process early, to take advantage of certain strategies that are most effective when implemented over time or well in advance of any potential sale of the business.
We also help owners with business succession planning, regardless of the next generation’s interest in taking over the business.
Merrill Lynch Solutions for Business include strategies, advice and access to teams of specialists who can help you achieve these critical goals and update your strategies as your needs and situation change. 
Design an orderly transition to new leadership

16. Strategies to Safeguard Your Business
Key-person insurance
Buy-sell agreement funding for partners
Strategies that can help you safeguard your business include business continuation planning and solutions such as key-person insurance, which can help the business transition after the loss of an important employee.
You may also wish to consider directors and officers insurance, which can protect company leadership against other unforeseen circumstances.
For individuals who share ownership with family members or business partners, buy-sell agreements backed by tax-efficient funding, such as life insurance policies, are important solutions that can help avoid placing additional demands on the company at what may be a critical time.

17. Ideas for Transferring Wealth
Trusts
Insurance
Family limited partnerships
Realty trusts
As an owner, it’s never too early to begin planning for the tax-efficient transfer of the personal wealth that you have created in your business. Merrill Lynch can help you evaluate alternatives that use trusts to help you maintain operating control while taking advantage of tax-free gifting strategies to transfer economic ownership over time. We can also help you evaluate strategies designed to minimize estate taxes by moving appreciation in the value of the business out of your taxable estate.
Other wealth transfer solutions include the use of insurance in conjunction with a trust to provide cost- and tax-efficient funds that can be used to pay estate taxes or equalize inheritances between children who will run the business and those who will not. When properly structured, the proceeds of an insurance policy held in a trust are free of estate and income taxes.
Family limited partnerships are another potential solution that may enable you to transfer wealth over time and in a tax-efficient manner.
And a realty trust can be a useful tool for separating ownership of any business-related real estate from the business itself. The realty trust can be used to provide an income stream to the owner after retirement, or it can be used to equalize inheritance of heirs who choose careers outside the business.
While [I/we] do not provide tax or legal advice, [I/we] can work with your tax and legal professionals on estate planning strategies that carry out your wishes for your business and for your loved ones.

18. Take the Uncertainty Out of Succession Planning
Merger and acquisition referrals
Specialty Asset Management
Private Sales Referral Network
The expertise of Merrill Lynch can help you plan and implement an orderly transition to the next generation of owners. Because it’s never too early to discuss succession planning, [I/we] will connect you with specialists who will explain all your options, including selling the business outright, to management, or to your employees; merging with another company; or transferring ownership to your children.
Merrill Lynch can arrange referrals for a potential merger or acquisition. The Specialty Asset Management Group can provide interim or ongoing management of your business or help you prepare the company for sale. And the Private Sales Referral Network connects buyers and sellers across Merrill Lynch’s huge client base.
As circumstances change, we’ll help you update your succession plan to reflect new realities. Having one in place can help put your mind at ease.

19. Working Strategically With Your Other Advisors
Understand your business and its life stage
Deliver a broad array of business solutions
Integrate management of your business and personal wealth
Connect you with specialists at Merrill Lynch
We will work with your: other professional: advisors, including: 1
You
Attorneys
Accountants
Business insurance professionals
Your Business
Financial Advisor
When you work with Merrill Lynch to manage both your business and personal finances, you can achieve true financial integration. [I/we] will take the time to understand your unique business and its current life stage. [I/we] will deliver a broad array of business solutions to meet your needs, now and in the future. [I/we] will make sure that your business fits into your overall financial strategy and wealth transfer plans. And [I/we] will serve as a liaison between you and the teams of specialists at Merrill Lynch, as well as between Merrill Lynch and your other professional advisors.
1 Neither Merrill Lynch nor its Financial Advisors provide individual tax or legal advice. Clients should review any planned financial transactions that may have tax implications with their tax or legal advisors.

20. Next Steps You don’t have to go it alone.
[I/we] can be a powerful resource for you and your business.
Schedule a meeting to discuss the extensive suite of Merrill Lynch Solutions for Business.
Together, we can position your business for continued success.
As I/we hope I’ve/we’ve shown you today, Merrill Lynch understands your needs as a business owner. We know how busy you are and how many things you want to accomplish—both at work and at home.
When you work with Merrill Lynch, you don’t have to make key decisions on your own. I/we encourage each of you to schedule an appointment with me/us where we can discuss the specific needs of your business and determine which business solutions might be right for you. It all begins with a discussion, and I/we look forward to helping you achieve your business and personal goals.
Thank you for joining [me/us] today.
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