What’s yougreatest asset? Homes and vehicles are among the most common answers, yet it is your earning power that has the biggest impact on your financial resilience. In this article, we provide some important considerations in to help evaluate your coverage.
Disability insurance can protect your earning power during times of uncertainty, and it is important to make sure that you know how your existing coverage works.
Perhaps your employer provides you with group Long Term Disability (LTD) coverage. This benefit is a valuable component of most benefits packages but may not adequately cover the loss of income that results from a disability.
Here are a few LTD limitations you should know about when you’re evaluating the total insurance amount required to meet your needs if you lose your income due to sickness or injury.
LTD typically only covers base salary and not bonuses.
High income earners may be under-insured as most group LTD plans have built in maximums.
LTD usually does not include benefits for partial disability.
Most LTD plans include a two-year regular occupation definition of disability, switching to any occupation thereafter (any occupation means if you can work at any job you’re qualified for by education or experience, even for lower pay, your benefits will cease)
Employers review employee benefits regularly and adjust to contain costs, so at any time, your LTD plan can change, and your group benefits are not within your control.
You can’t take LTD coverage with you when you leave your employer.
These are just some of the LTD limitations that you should be aware of that could impact a successful claim.
A simple review of your benefits package and a review of the added security that comes with owning your own disability insurance will help you determine if integrating personal coverage into your overall benefits portfolio is right for you and your circumstances.
Book a meeting with us if you need assistance!