disability insurance

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GaseousClay

GaseousClay

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i know very little about disability insurance but is $330/month for disability that pays out $7400/month a good deal?
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That's ok. I think I pay like $340 for 10k benefit but there's a lot more that goes into a good policy. Since you still a resident you should be able to lock in a nice plan/rate now. I'll pm you a good experienced agent that can set you up.
 
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I pay between 500 and 600/month (can't recall the exact amount at the moment) for 15K/month, own occupation, and I have every rider available through Principal.
 
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I pay $195/month for a disability payout of $6500/month post tax dollars that is occupation specific. My new job pays for a separate disability insurance and that pays 15k/month post tax. I think $330 is expensive for a payout of 7400/month. I would definitely shop around but I don't know your age and other circumstances.
 
Don't forget to look at the time that it takes for payments to "kick in" e.g., out of work for 30, 60, 90, or 180 days. Analogous to the deductible on homeowners and auto insurance. When I chose a policy there was significant difference between 30 and 180 days. I decided that I would self insure a short term disability and that the real risk was a career ending disability. I chose a 180 day "deductible". Saved quite a bit on premiums. On the flip side, I have been paying premiums for 25 years and never put in a claim.
 
RedAnesthesia said:
I pay $195/month for a disability payout of $6500/month post tax dollars
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Keep in mind you can claim your premiums as a tax deduction as long as you do it on the following year's tax return (in order to keep your benefit money tax free should you ever have to make a claim).
 
SaltyDog said:
Keep in mind you can claim your premiums as a tax deduction as long as you do it on the following year's tax return (in order to keep your benefit money tax free should you ever have to make a claim).
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Could anyone else verify this? I haven't heard this before, but it's very appealing
 
dr doze said:
Don't forget to look at the time that it takes for payments to "kick in" e.g., out of work for 30, 60, 90, or 180 days. Analogous to the deductible on homeowners and auto insurance. When I chose a policy there was significant difference between 30 and 180 days. I decided that I would self insure a short term disability and that the real risk was a career ending disability. I chose a 180 day "deductible". Saved quite a bit on premiums. On the flip side, I have been paying premiums for 25 years and never put in a claim.
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That's the downside of all insurance isn't it? It's there if you need it , but do you really want to be in a situation that classified you as disabled ! I've been in practice 5 years and now with 3 kids really considering getting disability insurance and upping life insurance . A colleague of mine been out in PP for 10 years is contemplating just canceling his disability and saving /invest in that money .
 
Skip2myLou said:
That's the downside of all insurance isn't it? It's there if you need it , but do you really want to be in a situation that classified you as disabled ! I've been in practice 5 years and now with 3 kids really considering getting disability insurance and upping life insurance . A colleague of mine been out in PP for 10 years is contemplating just canceling his disability and saving /invest in that money .
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Nobody knows what the future holds. Don't confuse strategy and outcome. I don't consider the premiums for disability and life insurance wasted because I didn't/haven't collected on those policies.
 
That's expensive, but depends on your health. I pay $180/mo for $7750, own occupation, 90 day wait, with options for future increase and cost of living adjustment through Guardian. I got the policy towards the end of residency, which came with a lifetime 10% discount. There's also another 10% off premiums because they don't cover anesthesiologists (and EM docs) for drug addiction and psych disability for more than 2 years.
 
I pay about $225/month for a $4K/mo own occ policy with Mass Mutual, which is the only reputable company which will underwrite someone in the military. It's an individual policy that I got at age 40, after I was a few years out of residency. 180 day exclusion period with most of the riders, including COLA and future insurability. I also have a super cheap $2500/mo policy through the AMA but it only pays out for 5 years.

My need for DI is limited since I have (effectively) a ~$7-8K/mo policy through the Navy via the medical board retirement system (injury gets you med boarded out with a % of pay for life).
 
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Skip2myLou said:
That's the downside of all insurance isn't it? It's there if you need it , but do you really want to be in a situation that classified you as disabled ! I've been in practice 5 years and now with 3 kids really considering getting disability insurance and upping life insurance . A colleague of mine been out in PP for 10 years is contemplating just canceling his disability and saving /invest in that money .
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If you have enough money to self insure, that's fine and maybe the smart call. But you need a lot of money or low expectations. A new attending with a family has a lot of insurance needs. Raising 3 young kids in a reasonable lifestyle and paying for college is going to be expensive. If you get disabled, 5-8000 a month might keep you out of the homeless shelter, but not much more, especially if you have significant medical needs.
I think I have 20 total. I probably wouldn't have that much if I was paying for all of it.
 
IlDestriero said:
If you have enough money to self insure, that's fine and maybe the smart call. But you need a lot of money or low expectations. A new attending with a family has a lot of insurance needs. Raising 3 young kids in a reasonable lifestyle and paying for college is going to be expensive. If you get disabled, 5-8000 a month might keep you out of the homeless shelter, but not much more, especially if you have significant medical needs.
I think I have 20 total. I probably wouldn't have that much if I was paying for all of it.
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What would you consider enough to "self insure?" I just dont see myself getting to that point, but there may be some interesting perspectives from some of the older members.
 
With regard to life insurance you need enough to put your kids through college, pay off your mortgage and leave your wife enough to cover your departure. The number will vary depending on how many kids you have, the lifestyle you want for them and if your spouse works. My wife has a great job, she can easily make enough to support my family if I die, but I want them to have tuition fully paid, not have to sell the family home, etc. I have one 20 and one 30 year policy for 1.5 each that i got when I got out of the military. I will probably retire before the 30 year one runs out and drop it with a few years left. If you didn't have a family to worry about, you might not need any. The university gives me a free one as well, but it's only ~200k.
As for disability, if you can't afford to retire the way you want, you should probably have significant disability coverage. Again, some comes down to lifestyle. I could sell our property and live on my wife's income, but that's not what I want to do, and that's not how I want my kids to be raised. Own occupation insurance can work out well as you can potentially retrain in another field and not have to worry that it doesn't pay well, won't allow me to continue to save for retirement. etc. I think it goes to 62 or 65. When the mortgage is paid and I could retire with a reasonable lifestyle, I will drop my private policy as well. I'm not going to retrain in a new career or go bankrupt if I lose a hand or eye, etc at 55 instead of 60 or 62.
So the answer is it depends.
 
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GaseousClay said:
i know very little about disability insurance but is $330/month for disability that pays out $7400/month a good deal?
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The rate is all based off your current health status, med specialty, age, gender, and state of residency. Most of the time a good rule of thumb is about $20-$30 per month per $1,000 for most residents (due to typical age).
 
Skip2myLou said:
That's the downside of all insurance isn't it? It's there if you need it , but do you really want to be in a situation that classified you as disabled ! I've been in practice 5 years and now with 3 kids really considering getting disability insurance and upping life insurance . A colleague of mine been out in PP for 10 years is contemplating just canceling his disability and saving /invest in that money .
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As you know, you probably will never need it so buy an efficient contract not one loaded and bloated with riders. I certainly understand your friends position of save premiums but at the same time you can do that with everything home, car, health and life insurance. In fact if you think about it if he dropped his policy and had a claim how many years of premium savings does he need to have in order to pay for just a 6 month claim? Most carriers are charging $2k-$5k per year depending upon ages for $120,000 per year of tax free benefit, assume you just split the difference at $4k per year of premium that is 30 years of premium = 1 year of claim. Think about these things because everything in our lives rotates around our ability to pay for them....without income how do you put food on the table, shelter over your head, keep the utilities on and the such. Plenty don't have coverage and they very well might be fine, I just think everyone needs to make an educated decision about does this make sense for me and my family. Either decision is fine and long as one has made a decision and not just allowed something to happen to them.
 
dr doze said:
Don't forget to look at the time that it takes for payments to "kick in" e.g., out of work for 30, 60, 90, or 180 days. Analogous to the deductible on homeowners and auto insurance. When I chose a policy there was significant difference between 30 and 180 days. I decided that I would self insure a short term disability and that the real risk was a career ending disability. I chose a 180 day "deductible". Saved quite a bit on premiums. On the flip side, I have been paying premiums for 25 years and never put in a claim.
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Me too. I chose the 180 days. Anything else and I should have sufficient savings to cover. But it was a large difference.
 
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Ignatius J said:
Me too. I chose the 180 days. Anything else and I should have sufficient savings to cover. But it was a large difference.
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On average a 180 day wait is worth about 15-16% premium discount to the 90 day waiting / elimination period. Just be mindful that you are taking 3X your monthly benefit in extra exposure. An example would be $10k per month policy at $250 of premium on a 90 day waiting period would be around $215 with a 180 day waiting period so about $420per year savings but now you have an extra $30,000 exposure. Just make sure it is a good balance for you and your family. Many of our clients start with a 90 day waiting period and then as they build more assets we will extend the waiting period and get the premium savings. You can always reduce the waiting period down the road with no problem.
 
But when do you stop the policy? 45, 55, 65? I'm paying $600mo for 15k , 90day, no medical history. Own occ for pain. I want to stop paying this at some point, but what is that point?
 
lobelsteve said:
But when do you stop the policy? 45, 55, 65? I'm paying $600mo for 15k , 90day, no medical history. Own occ for pain. I want to stop paying this at some point, but what is that point?
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When you are self insured for the financial aspects of disability. Or you reach the age when the insurance company won't allow you to keep the policy. These policies only pay to a certain age not death ( unless you die young)
 
ColoradoScott said:
On average a 180 day wait is worth about 15-16% premium discount to the 90 day waiting / elimination period. Just be mindful that you are taking 3X your monthly benefit in extra exposure. An example would be $10k per month policy at $250 of premium on a 90 day waiting period would be around $215 with a 180 day waiting period so about $420per year savings but now you have an extra $30,000 exposure. Just make sure it is a good balance for you and your family. Many of our clients start with a 90 day waiting period and then as they build more assets we will extend the waiting period and get the premium savings. You can always reduce the waiting period down the road with no problem.
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Not sure it's an "exposure". It's just simply a period when your insurance hasn't kicked in. Most physicians should have a means to bridge the gap by savings or loans. Problem with the extra premium is now you're bumping up your premium based on a short term principle, when the point is that it's supposed to be for long-term reasons.
 
lobelsteve said:
But when do you stop the policy? 45, 55, 65? I'm paying $600mo for 15k , 90day, no medical history. Own occ for pain. I want to stop paying this at some point, but what is that point?
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I think there are a few answers for this question so let me give you two. First you can always think about the money you have saved times the rate of return you can SAFELY get in the market every year and if that results in the cash flow you need to pay bills then you can get rid of the policy. However once you get there one typically thinks about the fact your cash flow would probably be consuming all of the efforts of your savings account and so is it easier to just pay the policy? An example might be, say you had $4 million in the bank / savings account AND you received a 5% (not very likely in todays world but this is just an example) per year on that $4 million which results in $200,000 per year of taxable cash flow. If you choose this path what happens is you have now dedicated the whole $4 million to creating cash flow for your lifestyle in case of a disability, that may or may not be appealing to you (I know there are varying ways of cash distribution so don't crucify me for using just one example but that is all this is...an example). At that same point in your life you might say instead of dedicating my entire $4 million at 5% why don't I just dedicate $175,000 at 5% to create the cash flow ($8,750 per year) to pay the premium and now if something happens $3,825,000 is still at work doing what it is suppose to which is grow and you are getting paid $180,000 per year by the policy. The con to this is you still have to pay the premium, the pro is your cash can continue to grow. Now this is a VERY basic example of what could happen, the reality is not only should you visit with your Insurance Advisor but also your Tax Advisor as well to make sure whatever decision you make is best for YOU and YOUR FAMILY. My final point is there is no X date there are simply decisions that can be made but each decision comes with a trade off so think through this before you Keep OR Drop a policy to make sure that decision is right for you.
 
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dr doze said:
When you are self insured for the financial aspects of disability. Or you reach the age when the insurance company won't allow you to keep the policy. These policies only pay to a certain age not death ( unless you die young)
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What I will add to this is you can renew the policies past age 65 assuming you are healthy and still working, at that point the vast majority will have a 24 month benefit period for payouts so may not want to keep them at that point, most of my clients start to transition to Long Term Care at that point.
 
Ignatius J said:
Not sure it's an "exposure". It's just simply a period when your insurance hasn't kicked in. Most physicians should have a means to bridge the gap by savings or loans. Problem with the extra premium is now you're bumping up your premium based on a short term principle, when the point is that it's supposed to be for long-term reasons.
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When I mention 'exposure' what I am really saying is if a premium for $10,000 per month of benefit with a 90 day waiting period were to be $300 as an example then you could save $45, make it a $255 per month premium with a 180 day waiting period. When you do that you create an exposure to you (your savings) of an extra $30,000 ($10k X 3 months) that's it. Now if that individual is 35 years old thus 30 years to save $45 that turns into $16,200 in premium savings (I am not making investment assumptions or tax assumptions on those, just pure premium savings) so 1 claim in the policy life wipes out the premium savings thus be careful with this decision. Just the same but going to opposite way is if someone wanted to do a 60 day waiting period instead of a 90 day, that typically makes for a 35-45% hike in the premium. Once again using the $300 premium as a benchmark if you added 40% ($1200) to the premium so that you get paid starting at 60 days instead of 90 then your delta comes just 8.33 years....in other words if you did NOT do the 60 day waiting period and instead did the 90, kept the $1200 in your bank account then in 8.33 years (once again not making investment assumptions or tax assumptions on those, just pure premium savings) you will have that extra month ($10,000) in your account. There is never an exact answer on what you Should Do only what you Should Have because then we know what the results were!
 
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MD Financial Services Scott said:
On average a 180 day wait is worth about 15-16% premium discount to the 90 day waiting / elimination period. Just be mindful that you are taking 3X your monthly benefit in extra exposure. An example would be $10k per month policy at $250 of premium on a 90 day waiting period would be around $215 with a 180 day waiting period so about $420per year savings but now you have an extra $30,000 exposure. Just make sure it is a good balance for you and your family. Many of our clients start with a 90 day waiting period and then as they build more assets we will extend the waiting period and get the premium savings. You can always reduce the waiting period down the road with no problem.
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How did the poster in post 21 get own occ policy with no medical history?
 
criticalelement said:
How did the poster in post 21 get own occ policy with no medical history?
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I got own occ without a medical exam (can't remember if I had to fill out a medical questionnaire but I don't think so). It was a benefit/perk of signing up while still a resident. I'm with Standard.
 
There are a few Standard Insurance Company programs out there still that have a Guaranteed Standard Issue without medical exam and a VERY limited questionnaire (questions like are you currently disabled, have you missed work in the last few months due to an injury or illness, have you had a heart attack, cancer or major organ failure...major issues) simply as a gate keeper, when you can get them they can be very attractive, no doubt.
 
How many of you guys, or people you know that don't have a long term disability insurance policy? I am the type of person who wouldn't have car insurance if it wasn't a law to have it, and I didn't have health insurance until obamacare made it mandatory as well. Lots of people in other professions don't have disability insurance so what makes physicians so that much more at risk of becoming disabled? I am really struggling with the idea of getting long term disability or not.
 
RussianJoo said:
How many of you guys, or people you know that don't have a long term disability insurance policy? I am the type of person who wouldn't have car insurance if it wasn't a law to have it, and I didn't have health insurance until obamacare made it mandatory as well. Lots of people in other professions don't have disability insurance so what makes physicians so that much more at risk of becoming disabled? I am really struggling with the idea of getting long term disability or not.
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I have a partner who doesn't and has been investing what she would have spent on premiums in a taxable account. She has 100k or so after 10 years I think. She has no debt other than a mortgage and says if she were disabled and unable to work they would sell and move in to a trailer.

A calculated gamble for sure. I hate paying the premiums too, especially because we pay them for my wife too (also a physician). I think we will stop when we hit some number like net worth = 2m or something.
 
RussianJoo said:
How many of you guys, or people you know that don't have a long term disability insurance policy? I am the type of person who wouldn't have car insurance if it wasn't a law to have it, and I didn't have health insurance until obamacare made it mandatory as well. Lots of people in other professions don't have disability insurance so what makes physicians so that much more at risk of becoming disabled? I am really struggling with the idea of getting long term disability or not.
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I personally know 2 anesthesiologists now who had to exercise their disability policy, so no way would I ever go without it. One ended up being a more short term situation relatively speaking but one is permanently disabled. Both are in their 40s. You're really playing Russian Roulette to go without LTD. We make too much money not to IMO.
 
Add to the above post that we need 2 arms and 2 legs to do our job. It's not that tough to wind up disabled in a way that may leave you not able to practice despite being otherwise pretty much OK. after investing a few hundred K and 8 years of your life learning this trade which pays several hundred K/year it would be a little silly to not "invest" a few hundred bucks a month to insure your continued ability to do your job. If you reach a point at which you are able to self insure then by all means drop your policy. Before that I think it's a little penny wise and pound foolish (and I'm not a big fan of insurance either).
 
The reason most Americans don't have long term disability insurance is because they aren't aware of its existence, make so little that the premium would be a huge chunk of heir "discretionary" spending, or think Social Security disability will take care of them. Ignorant, maybe, wrong. Median income is $50-70K depending on state ... attained with little or no opportunity cost. They have less invested to protect.

I'm all for self-insuring as much as possible, but some things you're nuts to go naked.

RussianJoo ... you'd skip car insurance? That's insane. One accident, not even your fault, and if the other guy is injured, you're ruined. My wife was in a wreck about a year ago - the other guy ran a light doing 50 or 60 in a 35 zone but there were no witnesses - and a passenger in the other car was injured. Her lawyer has been after both insurance companies ever since. We've had to do nothing, despite 10s of thousands of dollars in bills her lawyer is demanding somebody pay. I don't even care what the outcome is because it's our insurance company's problem. If not for auto insurance, that crazy bitch would at minimum be costing us tons of legal fees, at worst she'd own a piece of us forever.

Everyone ought to have an umbrella policy for the sidewalk slipping gold diggers.

Disability? I know two anesthesiologists who've had career ending illnesses, and one with a career ending injury. All are going to live for many many years still. Until the day comes when I can quit working and not suffer, I'll gladly pay for my own occ policy.

It's crazy to not just accept these insurance premiums as the cost of our profession.
 
What are the career-ending injuries that everyone is so concerned about?

How often do they happen?

How do I trick anesthesiologists into paying thousands of dollars per year on a benefit they will never use?

How do I charge enough in monthly premiums so that I can have a padded retirement, and a healthy annual income of $150k doing nothing but selling insurance plans?

Whoops, I sound like I work for an insurance company.
 
Head injuries, cancer, any chronic illness, brachial plexus injury (nerve injuries which limit ability), a big car wreck resulting in injury (happens all the time), any major injury/break to either arm, complications from surgery, leg injuries which limit mobility, the list could go on and on really. Keep in mind that sometimes it is also a matter of malpractice insurance companies refusing to cover the doctor due to the nature of the injury or the hospital not allowing the doctor to return to work due to limitations even if he wants to (these apply to both anesthesiologists I know who were/are on disability). For such a small amount of premium money vs what we make per month, probably 1%, it's just silly to forgo it. Think about the stress it would place on your marriage and family to go through a career ending disability and losing your income stream over a few hundred bucks a month. Literally going from tens of thousands a month to zero. No health insurance, no way to pay your bills, etc. Not worth it at all.
 
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I'm very lucky in that my job provides a 15k post tax dollars to me if I were to become disabled. Additionally, I have a 6.5k post tax dollars personal policy. Despite having great coverage with my job I still don't think twice about my premiums. It's piece of mind. Everybody thinks about the cost of losing their income but what if you were to become significantly disabled and required significant monetary value for care on a monthly basis.
 
DI costs less than 1% of annual income. It's like an hour of work per month to pay. People spend more than that on trivial stuff like the newest iPhone and coffee.

None of my gas buddies are without DI.

One of my colleagues was out for 6 months due to unforeseen complications of routine surgery.

Other people don't have DI because if they lose a hand they can type and work with the other. If we lose a hand, something simple like putting in an IV would be a bloodbath.

That said, I only pay enough for a policy in which if I need to use it, my life would change, I'd sell my house and live more modestly, but I'd still be comfortable. I don't need $10K+ monthly if I could no longer practice. Maintaining lifestyle is costly but being comfortable is dirt easy.
 
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pgg said:
The reason most Americans don't have long term disability insurance is because they aren't aware of its existence, make so little that the premium would be a huge chunk of heir "discretionary" spending, or think Social Security disability will take care of them. Ignorant, maybe, wrong. Median income is $50-70K depending on state ... attained with little or no opportunity cost. They have less invested to protect.

I'm all for self-insuring as much as possible, but some things you're nuts to go naked.

RussianJoo ... you'd skip car insurance? That's insane. One accident, not even your fault, and if the other guy is injured, you're ruined. My wife was in a wreck about a year ago - the other guy ran a light doing 50 or 60 in a 35 zone but there were no witnesses - and a passenger in the other car was injured. Her lawyer has been after both insurance companies ever since. We've had to do nothing, despite 10s of thousands of dollars in bills her lawyer is demanding somebody pay. I don't even care what the outcome is because it's our insurance company's problem. If not for auto insurance, that crazy bitch would at minimum be costing us tons of legal fees, at worst she'd own a piece of us forever.

Everyone ought to have an umbrella policy for the sidewalk slipping gold diggers.

Disability? I know two anesthesiologists who've had career ending illnesses, and one with a career ending injury. All are going to live for many many years still. Until the day comes when I can quit working and not suffer, I'll gladly pay for my own occ policy.

It's crazy to not just accept these insurance premiums as the cost of our profession.
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I live in a no fault state, each person's insurance company pays for their own damage. If people get injured in car accidents, they still try to sue the other person, I don't think there's an insurance policy which will prevent a person who wants to sue someone. However, if my car is damaged in a car accident I will not be making a claim, I'll have the car fixed on my own. If some thing breaks in my house I don't make an insurance claim I fix it myself or hire someone to fix it. I feel that it's cheaper to fix the problem yourself than report to the insurance company and have my premiums go up. But I'll have to look more into DI because if the policies state that risky behavior is not covered then that might not be worth it to me either...
 
teeva said:
DI costs less than 1% of annual income. It's like an hour of work per month to pay. People spend more than that on trivial stuff like the newest iPhone and coffee.

None of my gas buddies are without DI.

One of my colleagues was out for 6 months due to unforeseen complications of routine surgery.

Other people don't have DI because if they lose a hand they can type and work with the other. If we lose a hand, something simple like putting in an IV would be a bloodbath.

That said, I only pay enough for a policy in which if I need to use it, my life would change, I'd sell my house and live more modestly, but I'd still be comfortable. I don't need $10K+ monthly if I could no longer practice. Maintaining lifestyle is costly but being comfortable is dirt easy.
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That's a valid point, and I'm probably over insured.
It's easy enough to downsize and still live quite well on 1/2 as much.
 
Everyone is different in how they look at risk they want to take on or risk they would like someone else to take on. The reality is any one individual will probably not need the coverage but as a group there will be a certain percentage that does need the coverage and that is how insurance works. If you think about a physician that buys $15,000 per month ($180,000 per year) and has a $5,000 annual bill the insurance company to be break even has to have 18 premium paying clients just to break even on the benefit to premium ratios. Now you have to ask yourself do you want the exposed risk? A good way to look at it I think is if you were offered, as an example, 2 jobs....Job 1 is $400k no coverage for a disability or Job 2 is $396,000 but if you can't do your specialty (specifically your medical specialty, not just being a physician) then you get $180,000 per year tax free to age 65, which job do you take?

As for claims we see them all of the time a thumb issue for any surgeon, anesthesia or invasive individual is pretty damaging, being able to stand for long periods of time, neck issues, and of course the normal things that slow one down, heart, cancer, major organ issues...all of those require time getting treatment and create lower productivity.

One last point on why other occupations do not buy disability as much; 1: not many carriers offer products to blue collar workers. 2: The carriers that do offer product to more blue collar occupations charge more for those occupations, as an example a LVN might pay 50% more per dollar of coverage than an MD or DO. 3: As a surgeon if you loose an index finger due to nerve damage you can be out of your job, I might just miss a few more key strokes...your disabled, I am not so it is harder for me to be disabled than it is you as a physician. Finally 4: discretionary income, when it costs more, you less educated about the product, less opportunity to buy it all creates a lower consumption of product thus physicians make up about 40% of all individual disability consumption in the market place.
 
lobelsteve said:
But when do you stop the policy? 45, 55, 65? I'm paying $600mo for 15k , 90day, no medical history. Own occ for pain. I want to stop paying this at some point, but what is that point?
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Normally most of my Physician Clients keep disability insurance until their last year of practice. Then, they decide to purchase long term care to use it as a hedge against health risks for retirement. Normally if you are under 40 years of age then 6 to 7 hundred dollar for $15.000 is very competitive rate for a Medical Occupation Disability. However, always make sure that you convert the ARDI premiums into level before age of 50 otherwise premiums tend to be in the high end and could be detrimental to your finances. Most insurance agents sell you the insurance and don't educate their clients with their contractual agreement within their policy. I can't say how many cases I have seen where doctors were misinformed or never educated with their insurance policies and believed that their agent had their best interest in mind. To answer you question- if it doesn't create a financial burden for you and your loved ones if you were unable to work then disability might not be so appealing. However, if it will be detrimental to your lifestyle and your well being then enough disability coverage should be kept in place until retirement.
I hope this helps!
 
RussianJoo said:
I live in a no fault state, each person's insurance company pays for their own damage. If people get injured in car accidents, they still try to sue the other person, I don't think there's an insurance policy which will prevent a person who wants to sue someone. However, if my car is damaged in a car accident I will not be making a claim, I'll have the car fixed on my own. If some thing breaks in my house I don't make an insurance claim I fix it myself or hire someone to fix it. I feel that it's cheaper to fix the problem yourself than report to the insurance company and have my premiums go up. But I'll have to look more into DI because if the policies state that risky behavior is not covered then that might not be worth it to me either...
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This is a valid point where a lot of insurance agents sell policies and don't fully understand the legal consequences of the policy contractual obligations and riders
I have had many cases where my Physician clients had purchased a well knows companies Disability insurance but not the right type of insurance tailored to their specific duties of their daily activities. Insurance companies are out here to make money and do anything they can to disqualify or deeming you not applicable to the intent of the language of the contract. Always make sure consult with your adviser and an attorney that they use to fully educate you. Most of advisers have credentials like CLU or CFP and all sudden they feel they are the experts in such insurance products. Let me say that sure they are experts in selling you these policies but not necessarily into educating and explaining the contractual agreements of such contract you are signing. There has been a big debate on whether insurance agents are acting within the scope of legal advise when having you sign such contract agreement but it has been undermined by insurance lobbyist. A good advisor always has an attorney that can recommend or will work closely to fully educate their clients. I hope this helps!
 
decided to buy cadillac long term care for me and my wife with 15 year payoff schedule. Pretty pricey, but allows payment for at-home care and odds are good one of us will need it eventually
 
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