Disability Insurance: All You Need To Know And How To Get it

In today's world, you will come across hundreds, if not thousands of insurance policies. This can be confusing and overwhelming if it's your first time or you lack an able hand to guide you through the process. What would happen to your finances if you become disabled? Disability insurance will help to take some stress off your shoulder by substituting a given percentage of your salary. It is inexpensive and can change your world if required.

Disabilities are very common. Statistics show that one in every four men and one in three women suffer from a disability that will make them absent from work for at least 90 days at some point in their lifetime. Disability insurance will shield your income, especially during your peak earning years. When you earn more, you can pay your debts and save for your retirement. Furthermore, it will also tell you how you can get it so that you remain protected in the event that you become disabled.

You will come across numerous disability insurance service providers claiming to offer the best coverage. However, this is not the case. The firms are not created equal. Furthermore, Jeffrey Preszler says in this article from PreszlerLaw.com that disability-insurance companies often try to use highly technical or confusing language to avoid keeping the promises in their policies when you try to follow up on your compensation without getting expert legal assistance. And that is not all! Most insurance providers don't want to offer disability insurance to people over the age of 60 as they are at high risk of getting disabled.

You can consider getting a disability insurance policy when you get employed so that you can remain covered until you reach retirement age. Just like with life insurance, the older you get, the more expensive disability insurance becomes. This means that you must part with more for your monthly or yearly premiums. If you have health complications, securing disability coverage can be next to impossible. If you succeed to get a policy, it might not cover health issues like illnesses related to hypertension or back problems for which you have frequently sought treatment.

Types of Disability Insurance

Short Term Disability Insurance Policy

Short term disability cover replaces your income until you start suffering from long term disability. A short term insurance policy will replace up to 80% or more of your gross income for a duration of about two or six months.

Long Term Disability Insurance

You can go for long term insurance coverage after you have been away from work for over 180 days. Long term policies cover about 60 % of your salary and can last for years or the rest of your life, depending on the terms of the policy you pick.

How to Get Disability Insurance

Disability Insurance for the Employed

If you are hired you should speak to your employer to discover if they offer group policies. If that is the case, then you might be able to secure coverage without having to undergo a medical examination. This will help you to save time and money. If your company doesn't provide supplemental disability insurance, you can find an insurance service provider. Experts recommend that you should get disability insurance coverage that will replace about two-thirds of your salary.

Self-employed Disability Insurance

If you are self-employed, you will earn only if you put in lots of effort and action. Building your brand will give you lots of financial freedom, but you must be responsible because you are in charge of everything. All that you earn will depend on your ability to work hard every day. This exposes you to risks in highly uncertain working conditions and life in general. For this reason, you should get a self-employed disability insurance policy. It will protect your financial future if you get sick or injured to the extent that you are not able to work and your business makes losses.

While you might never predict when you will suffer from a serious disease or get injured to the point that you can't run your business when you do it might affect your income flow for an unknown duration. If you are self-employed, the odds are that you handle your daily or monthly expenses without any assistance. Thus, having an alternative way to cater for your expenses when the unexpected occurs is critical. Self-employed disability insurance will give you the financial backing that you need to stay afloat for the entire period that your business makes losses. Ensure that you protect everything that you have struggled to build over the years.

Other Ways to Get Disability Insurance

Apart from getting disability insurance from your workplace or purchasing your coverage directly from an insurance firm, you can consider getting disability insurance through professional associations as most offer group coverage at affordable rates.

Buying your insurance coverage gives you the freedom to add extra features like the annual cost of living adjustments, keep your coverage when you lose your employment, let your coverage stay intact as long as you pay for it and collect tax benefits once you become disabled. If you get your coverage from your employer, you will have to part with money for paying taxes on the benefits.

If you decide to go for long term disability coverage, you will have to part with between 1-3 percent of your annual income. Several factors will affect the price that you will part with for your coverage. For instance, if you are over the age of 60, the odds are that you will have to pay more for your disability insurance since you are likely to have other health complications. Women also part with more cash for their disability insurance policy because statistics show that they tend to file more claims, unlike men. If you don't smoke your premiums will cost less.

On the flip side, smokers pay more as they are at risk of suffering from numerous health complications. Those who work in areas with a high risk of injuries also pay more. The more income you want to protect the more you will pay for your coverage. Extra features like cost of living adjustments that protect you from things like inflation will raise your premiums.

Disability insurance replaces a certain percentage of your earnings in you become disabled for some reasons. It offers a wide range of gains to meet the requirements of the disabled. Most plans will include things like sick leave and long term or short term disability benefits. Statistics indicate that work-related disability happens every second and this calls for you to take action by picking the ideal disability insurance for your case. Nobody wants to pay extra for anything that they already have, particularly when it comes to insurance. However, with disability insurance, pay more as you will profit more when you get disabled.