Investments

Working capital is the lifeblood of any business. Merrill Lynch, together with Bank of America, offers ways help you put your business cash to work to help maximize your ability to meet day-to-day expenses and invest in your people, products and services.

With an integrated approach to liquidity management, you can access strategies designed to provide additional yield on short-term cash holdings, while retaining access to that cash when you need it. Available cash management services include business checking accounts, money market accounts, short- and long-term CDs, overnight investments, automatic cash sweeps and Treasury management services such as Remote Check Deposit and ACH transfers.

As your business grows, you may need to invest additional funds to increase working capital or finance expanded operations. Your Financial Advisor, with the help of commercial specialists, can design a flexible strategy that can help you unlock your potential borrowing power.

We offer access to solutions with competitive interest rates based on your total available credit, not your outstanding balance. Merrill Lynch can offer access to a streamlined approval process to help you secure financing through business credit cards, revolving lines of credit, securities-based lending, commercial lending, term loans and life insurance.

Merrill Lynch empowers you to manage your business investments the way you want—working closely with your Financial Advisor to select the individual investments or delegating the management of your assets to experienced portfolio managers. Your Financial Advisor can show you how a wide range of taxable and tax-advantaged investments can bolster your bottom line. He or she will consider the total financial picture of your business and then recommend a disciplined investment strategy designed to help you balance your day-to-day liquidity needs and help you invest in the future.

Through Merrill Lynch, you will have access to thousands of affiliate and third-party investment funds, high-quality investment solutions and managed accounts, tax-advantaged investment vehicles, fully diversified portfolios or more targeted portfolios designed to fill investing gaps.

With the collective demands of your business and your personal life absorbing much of your time, you may be left with few spare moments to plan for your future — or to help your employees plan for theirs. Whether you're a sole proprietor or have dozens of employees, your Merrill Lynch Financial Advisor can help you identify which retirement plans and account types may be suitable for your business and, if you choose, connect you with integrated solutions from professional retirement plan record-keepers who can help you manage your business retirement plan effectively. The options include: Simplified Employee Pension (SEP), Savings Incentive Match Plan for Employees (SIMPLE) IRA, traditional or individual 401(k), defined benefit and profit-sharing plan.

It is never too early to safeguard your business against the unforeseen loss of key people, prepare for your transition to a less active role or take the uncertainty out of a succession. At Merrill Lynch, we offer solutions to help business owners protect themselves against the unexpected by helping them implement strategies such as key-person insurance, buy-sell agreement funding for partners and directors and officers insurance, as appropriate. We can also help you plan for the appropriate transfer of your personal wealth that is tied up in your business by providing you with important strategies that consider both heirs who will lead your operations in the future and those who pursue careers outside the company.

As you consider the future of your business after you move on, your Merrill Lynch Financial Advisor can help you focus on how to prepare it to continue to thrive when you're no longer in charge.