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.