Long Island Disability Income (DI) Insurance

Suppose you suffer an accident or major illness and are unable to work for an extended period of time.  During this time, your income lost from not being able to work will impact your monthly bills, your long term retirement goals and possibly even your savings. Perhaps you have group Long Term Disability (LTD) coverage through your employer, which typically covers only 50%-66% of your salary. Can you survive on a reduced salary for an extended period of time? This is where an individual Disability Income insurance policy can help you.

“The Forgotten Risk”

While most people think about life insurance to protect their spouse or loved ones, most of the time, people never stop to think about protecting their income. The frightening thing about this is that today, we live in an age where savings accounts are depleted or non-existent in the first place. The fact is that at any given age, the odds of becoming disabled are actually much higher than the odds that you will die.  Every year, 12% of the adult US population will suffer a long term disability. Approximately 15% of all workers will suffer a disability lasting more than 5 years before age 65. If you are age 35, the chances you will suffer a 3+ month disability before age 65 is 50%! Now if everyone had enough of a savings to sustain themselves in the event of disability, there wouldn’t be a need for disability coverage. But that’s the problem...we are not a country of savers.

Understanding Your Financial Needs

The easiest way to figure out if you truly need DI coverage is to calculate your monthly bills and multiply it by 12. That’s how much you will need for the year to sustain your current lifestyle. Next, you need to figure out how much Long Term Disability (LTD) coverage your employer gives you (if any). Most group LTD plans only cover up to 50%-66% of your monthly income. Can you sustain yourself at 2/3rds salary?  Can you sustain yourself at half salary? What about at no salary? Further, if your employer pays for your LTD coverage, the benefits you receive are usually treated as taxable income. Since individual DI coverage is paid for with after-tax dollars, benefits you receive from the policy are not taxable. These are the things you need to think about when considering individual DI coverage.