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Policies also can be cross-owned by partners or shareholders - with no involvement of the business entity itself - to facilitate the acquisition of shares at the death of a partner or owner (leaving each partner to bear the policy expense of the other partner(s), but also resulting in increased tax basis for surviving shareholders). Policies can be owned by the business in support of an "entity" stock purchase plan (easier to pay for, especially if participating insureds have significantly different premiums, but with no corresponding increase in the tax basis of shares owned by the survivors). Business-oriented life insurance is an extremely important part of almost every business continuation plan. While there have been some well-publicized esoteric plans of life insurance to offset retirement benefit costs covering many workers (so-called "janitor" insurance), these are a small portion of the total. Whether it's a partnership of individuals seeking to avoid finding themselves in business with a deceased partner's spouse, a bank whose conditions for lending include adequate life insurance, or indemnification in the event of the loss of a key person, business uses for life insurance are considerable.

Transforming needs should ideally be anticipated - at least in concept - at the time of policy selection, and more will be said about this topic. The death benefit of a large term policy purchased to handle the contingency of premature death will now be needed for other long-term purposes, but the policy may become unaffordable (or unconvertible) to continue for any practical period. When the insured is not the owner of the policy, the owner and the beneficiary must be identical to avoid adverse gift taxes (gifts in contemplation of death) at the time of death. Often there is a desire to have someone else own a life insurance policy, including trusts, for the purpose of avoiding estate taxes on the death benefit. When the insured is the owner of the policy, the insured may designate anyone he or she wishes as beneficiary and, unless he or she has previously placed a restriction on changes, the owner is free to change the beneficiary designation whenever he or she wants. Life insurance is personal property, and the policy must be titled in the name of the insured or another person or entity with an insurable interest in the individual. Additionally, life insurance maintained on the lives of key employees can offset banking and line-of-credit restrictions placed on small businesses when a principal dies. In all cases, life insurance for business continuity should be the financial supplement for a written business continuation agreement.