Q: Is there a fee to obtain my disability insurance through you?
A: No, the only thing you will ever pay is a premium to the insurance company itself.
Q: How do we know you have no conflict of interest in your recommendations?
A: We are an independent agency, meaning that we do not have an affiliation with any one company. We are looking out for your best interests as we don’t have to meet any requirements to do business with any specific company. We actually get a finders fee from these insurance companies and they are all the same, so we don’t have any financial conflict of interest either.
Q: Is it possible to get disability insurance if I'm on visa status?
A: Yes. We have worked with doctors on J1, H1b visas as well as green cardholders. We have full own-occupation policies available for either of those visa statuses.
Q: What modifications are there if I'm pregnant?
A: If you are pregnant, the insurance company will provide you a new policy as long as you are not in the 3rd trimester. Otherwise, they will postpone until you have had a normal delivery. The insurance company may also exclude any complications for this one pregnancy when you apply for coverage. Otherwise, in the future, any complications that are caused by pregnancy that would cause a disability would be fully covered on your policy.
Disability Insurance is a type of insurance that provides income in the case that you are unable to work due to an injury or illness, it is important because a disability ranging from a long-term illness to a disabling accident could take your career and your financial stability. To protect yourself and those who depend on you, it is important to have disability insurance to cover the loss of income you would face in these unfortunate circumstances.
Short-term disability insurance helps you during the start of an injury or illness but it usually doesn’t amount to more than a proper emergency fund. For doctors, long-term disability insurance is especially important because your career is dependent on your ability to perform your specific job duties. And that ability can very much be affected by small disabilities or injuries that wouldn’t affect people in other careers.
The definition of disability is the #1 thing to pay attention to when selecting a policy and it sets apart good policies for doctors from those that should be avoided. The best definition of disability is “own-occupation,” sometimes referred to as “true own-occupation.” It provides the strongest definition of disability and protection for physicians. True own-occupation pays you your full benefit if you can’t perform your specific duties or specialty, even if you’re employed somewhere else.
When starting to sculpt your policy it is important to pay attention to the riders and benefits you can add to your policy! You should pay attention to these 4 things:
Elimination Periods
Maximum Benefit Periods
Riders
Discounts
There are many companies that provide some form of disability insurance. When it comes to looking for disability insurance for a physician, however, there are only a few that provide the comprehensive coverage you need.
When a doctor is looking for disability insurance, they should use only the “Big 5” companies that provide true own-occupation coverage.
The “Big 5” insurance companies include:
Disability insurance costs an average of 1-3% of your annual salary. The cost of disability insurance can vary from person to person depending on your:
Income
Benefit Period
Coverage Amount
Medical History
Age
Health
Occupation
Discount
Location
Features and Benefits
Employer disability insurance policies, also known as group policies, and individual disability insurance policies are very different for many reasons. In this chapter, we will be covering the 4 main downsides to relying on group disability insurance.
Employer policies are NOT true own-occupation
Employer policies are non-transferable
The Employer policy is taxable!
Your employer can cancel or change it at any time.
Getting disability insurance shouldn’t be complicated, our 3 step process makes getting disability insurance quick and easy so you can have one less thing on your to-do list!
Request Your Quotes
Fill out a simple quote request form and we will get your quotes from the Big 5 own-occupation providers!
The quote requests will take less than 10 minutes and help you to get the best policy options.
Compare Your Options
Talk with us online to compare your quotes, and go over your options in order to purchase the best policy for you.
Our agents will help you to compare your options so you can understand what you are buying in order to give you confidence and peace of mind in your policy.
Buy Risk-Free
Let us handle the boring insurance paperwork so you can get back to doing what you love!
After you choose which company you would like to purchase your policy from, we will finish the rest to make sure you are insured.
Thank you for sticking with us to learn about disability insurance! Hopefully, you have a better understanding of the importance of disability insurance for your situation! If you have other questions or are ready to get started with your policy! Go to patternlife.com and we will get you started!