In an article written by the Connecticut CPA Society about planning for risks, disability insurance is highlighted as follows: “Disability coverage is one area that many find themselves underinsured. Disability insurance replaces a portion of your salary if you become disabled and cannot work. Since people in the workforce are more likely to be disabled than to die prematurely, disability insurance is vital to financial security.” To read the whole article on planning for the unknown click here.

We get questions fairly often about disability insurance and some of the words and phrases used. Here are some disability insurance definitions that can help. For more detail you can see the disability insurance glossary at the www.protectyourincome.com website. Disability insurance, disability income insurance, income protection insurance are all synonyms for insurance that pays you a monthly income in case you can’t work because of sickness or accident. The definition of disability varies from insurance company to insurance company. The most advantageous definition is one that defines disability as the inability to do the major duties of one’s occupation. Partial or residual disability is coverage for when someone returns to work part time and is still partially disabled and has an income loss as compared to their pre-disability income. The amount paid is pro-rata to the loss and that same percentage of loss is applied to the insurance amount. For example, if there’s a 50% loss due to a residual disability with a $5,000 monthly policy then 50% or $2,500 would be payable for that month. A disability recovery benefit is similar to residual disability but differs in one important way: What if there’s an income loss after disability but no further medical problems i.e. the patient has been released from care without further disability? This is an important point that is often overlooked but without this could be catastrophic economically. At protectyourincome.com we represent the highly-rated disability insurance company that has own occupation coverage, residual and recovery benefits. If you have any other questions on disability insurance terminology, feel free to contact us.

Guardian Life Insurance Company and its fully owned subsidiary, Berkshire Life Insurance, have liberalized the own occupation definition for all physicians and dentists. Before this liberalization, many physicians had the own occupation definition of disability to age 65 in their contracts with Guardian and Berkshire but some physician specialties had a definition which limited the own occupation definition of disability to 5 years. The liberalization includes the extension to age 65 of the own occupation definition of disability to surgeons, cardiologists with invasive duties, anesthesiologists and any and all physicians of any specialty - period. Also, Guardian and Berkshire offer the own occupation definition of disability for dentists and the recent liberalization extended that provision to oral surgeons who previously had a 5 year own occupation definition. This own occupation definition is further amplified by Guardian and Berkshire to define own occupation as one’s specialty. Guardian has many other very well written and liberal provisions in their contract which make them a recommended insurance company for us at protectyourincome.com. A unique benefit offered by this policy is the liberal recovery benefit which you can read about on the site. To learn more or to request disability insurance quotes from Guardian Life or Berkshire Life, you can visit the informative authority on disability insurance - www.protectyourincome.com.