Individual Disability Policies
Disability insurance can be critical to protecting you and your family from financial devastation. If you become sick or suffer injury you want to make sure you still have an income. Your illness need not be catastrophic. If you have to miss work for cancer treatment, depression or a temporary injury you may be eligible for coverage.
Many employers offer group disability coverage, but some don’t and you won’t have it if you’re self-employed. Even if you’re covered by group disability insurance, you’ll no longer be eligible if you leave or lose your job. Employers can also discontinue your group benefit.
Individual disability insurance will give you long-term peace of mind. It’s important to understand the terms of your disability policy, particularly about what triggers disability payments. Some policies will consider someone to be disabled if they’re unable to perform the basic duties of their job. Others will only consider you to be disabled if you are unable to do any job suitable for your skill set based on your training, education and experience. Sometimes a policy will consider you disabled for a period of time, usually two to three years, if you can’t perform in your current job. But they won’t consider you disabled after that time period if you can perform a suitable job.
When purchasing a disability policy you should look to ensure that the benefit you’ll receive will replace from 60 percent to 80 percent of your after-tax income. The benefits you’ll receive from your policy are usually tax-free. Another benefit of holding disability insurance is that your coverage usually can’t be canceled unless you fail to pay your premium.
The best time to purchase individual disability insurance is often when you’re healthy because you are able to get the most favorable terms. If you greatly depend on having income or if you have dependents who need to be cared for you should strongly consider individual disability coverage. Talk to Blair Insurance about what option might be best for you. You’ll be glad you did.