Disability Insurance

Your average everyday financial guru doesn’t tend to agree with insurance agents all that often, but one area in which they both tend to be pretty in-sync is the subject of disability insurance.

I’ve always found this sort of amusing. Disability insurance is arguably the most important financial product one can own prior to retirement and yet it’s probably the most under-purchased financial product in existence.

Perhaps this has to do with its steep price tag. High quality disability insurance is expensive, and who wants to buy a pricey insurance product that covers a life event we’d all much rather not have to experience? Sound logic be damned, because I’ve heard this one too many times in the past.

Maybe it’s the brutal medical underwriting process that precludes the purchase from an otherwise hungry crowd of potential purchasers? I used to jokingly say, “oh you’ve had hangnails before? Declined.”

Or maybe it’s really because…it’s all a scam.

Keep Reading

One of the trickiest health conditions to navigate in disability insurance underwriting is a mental nervous disorder.  It used to be the kiss of death for any hopeful proposed insured, and thankfully has gotten much better.

Because mental nervous disorders are hard to prove or disprove, and because they tend to come with the territory of a stressful high income professional career (the crowd most disability insurance carriers like to target) any sign that it could be a problem down the road is an immediate time out for underwriting.

Today we'll dive into how to deal with disability underwriting if you have a history of mental nervous disorder, and how to prepare.

Keep Reading

Contrast all the noise about your 401k with the deafening silence of financial pundits discussing how to protect your retirement plan with disability insurance.  No one can deny that we place a tremendous focus on the accumulation of retirement savings in our country.

I think we've pretty much all accepted the fact that we have to take this on as a personal responsibility and that this afternoon's Barnum & Bailey three ring circus on Capitol Hill cannot be counted on to help us out in retirement. (excuse the run-on)

Or is that just me?

Disability insurance comes with a multitude of different riders to enhance the contract.  Today we'll dive into what those riders do for you.  Additionally, we'll also touch on some contract features that may not be riders, but do vary from company to company and are a good thing to keep in the back of your mind when comparing policies.

Keep Reading

I remember when I was studying for my insurance license and I came across the disability insurance section.  I was sitting in my sales manager's office going through items and I commented that own-occupation was obviously far superior to any-occupation.  Little did I know my little intuitive observation lay at the core of disability insurance comparison.  It may seem unimaginable, but the definition a disability insurance policy uses can vary a lot among carriers, and this definition certainly separates the good from the bad.

Keep Reading