I spend most of my consulting time putting together wealth transfer plans for successful business owners. About half of my clients bring up two critical and related operational problems:

• “How do I keep my top executives?” (The headhunters — usually working for a competitor — are always circling.)

• “How do I attract new quality people?”

The problem is not new. It’s been a problem in the past and likely will get worse in the future as the bidding war for talented people escalates.

What to do?

Almost 20 years ago, after struggling with the problem for about a year, we decided to develop an organized plan to find the answers. We interviewed our few business-owning clients who did not have the two problems; we also interviewed their key management people. Then came the hard part: getting permission to interview the key people of clients who were suffering with the problem.

What quickly became clear was that almost 100 percent of the best key people had the souls of entrepreneurs. But for various reasons they did not want to strike out on their own or couldn’t — usually because they couldn’t raise the required capital.

Solving the top-executive problem turned out to be simple.

Mimic ownership — give ‘em the same challenges as an owner and, if they’re successful, most of the rewards.

Additional interviews just kept confirming the original solution.

The top non-owner executives wanted four core benefits of ownership:

• A piece of the action (a share of company profits).

• Getting paid when they were sick or became disabled.

• Receiving adequate retirement pay when it was time to leave the company.

• Death benefits for their family. Most executives put it this way, or in similar words: “Like my piece of the equity if I get hit by a bus.”

Over the years we have created hundreds of contracts — the technical name is a nonqualified deferred compensation agreement; the nontechnical name is a golden handcuff agreement — that attract and keep the kind of key people you want in your organization.

Let’s take a closer look at each of the four desired benefits:

A piece-of-the-action plan

Typically, this is a percentage of the profits in excess of a specific dollar amount. Often, the percentage grows as the business and profits grow.

For example, Sam Topgun will get 4 percent of all before-tax profits in excess of $200,000 per year. Profits in excess of $400,000 will be entitled to 6 percent.

Say the amount earned under the plan for year one, or any subsequent year, is $21,000. Usually, Sam will get about one-third ($7,000) in cash, and the balance ($14,000) is deferred. The deferred portion is invested for Sam’s benefit.

When does Sam get the deferred portion and the accumulated earnings (usually called the side fund)? When he becomes disabled, dies or reaches retirement age. The age is usually set around 58 for younger key employees and around 65 for older key people.

When the key employee becomes entitled to collect the side fund, it usually is paid out in equal annual installments. If the side fund is $500,000 and paid out over 10 years, the employee gets $50,000 per year plus the additional investment earnings for that year.

Disability

The employee gets paid when sick or disabled — whether for a day or for a lifetime. This benefit is covered by long-term disability insurance.

It is essential that disability is defined word for word in your agreement — the same as it is defined in the disability insurance contract.

Retirement

The side fund (described above) supplements any regular retirement program, like a 401(k) or profit-sharing plan.

Typically, the executive is allowed to direct the investment of the side fund, which remains an asset of the employer.

The tax consequences of the arrangement:

• The side-fund earnings are taxable to the employer.

• When the employee receives a distribution, the company gets a deduction for the exact amount distributed and the employee must report the identical amount as taxable income.

If the employee leaves for any reason — except for disability, death or retirement — the entire side fund is forfeited by the employee and remains the property of the company.

Hence, the name “golden handcuffs.”

A set amount of money at death

When an owner dies, the family can sell the business — assuming it is not transferred to the kids. A similar benefit, really a death benefit, should be given to the employee. Of course, this benefit should be insurance-funded.

We have been doing these nonqualified plans for years.

Done right, they work. Often, when an owner does not have a family member to pass the business to, the side fund serves as the down payment by one or more of the key people to buy the business from the owner.

Two warnings:

• This column does not attempt to cover every detail and the endless variations for tailoring an agreement that is perfect for your company. Always, and we mean always, work with an experienced adviser. Years of experience have proved that the right agreement will make your good people even better.

• Sadly, we have never seen an agreement that will make a bad employee even a little bit better.

In a way, getting and keeping good people is a frustrating subject. The reason: We have never been able to develop a cookie-cutter solution.

Yes, the four core benefits are almost always the same or similar. But the bells, whistles and unique requirements of each situation make it impossible to write a complete report — much less a book — on the subject.