Disability Insurance
Disability insurance provides policyholders with coverage that can replace a portion of their income if they become too sick or disabled to return to the work or their business. Long Term Disability coverage is arguably just as important as life Insurance.
Realistically, no working age individual should be without disability coverage. In fact, at any given time, one has a greater chance of becoming disabled than of dying. Disability plans provide income replacement and benefits continuation if one is unable to work for a period of time. This means that your clients and their families can maintain their standard of living.
Use our Disability Calculator to show your client how to protect their income.
What to Look For
When choosing a long-term disability policy, you and your clients should consider the following:
1. Elimination Period: The length of time between a claim being filed and payment being made. Typically, the longer the period between filing and payment, the lower the cost of the policy.
2. Monthly Benefit: The amount that is paid per month during the benefit period.
3. Benefit Period: This is the amount of time that the carrier will pay for a claim. The longer the period, the more expensive the policy.
4. Partial Disability: If you are partially disabled and the ability to perform your job is impaired, it is important to consider protection to supplement lost income in case you cannot return to work on a full-time basis. Some insurance companies offer an extended partial disability rider, allowing you to receive benefits while returning to work on a limited basis (based on an income loss of at least 20 percent).
5. “Own Occupation” and its counterpart, “Any Occupation.” The simple rule of thumb is that own occupation disability insurance is preferable, because it’s more likely to pay you a benefit if you become disabled as it is based on the occupation you were trained to perform, rather than just the ability to work.
Make sure that your clients never have to say, “What if…?” or, “If only…?”
Offer them disability insurance.
High Limit Disability Protection
Your client’s ability to earn a sizeable income is his/her biggest asset, yet it is often taken for granted. Traditional insurers are often unable to meet the income replacement needs of high earners in the event of disability.
Equitas provides high limit disability solutions for your very affluent clientele. Coverage is available above and beyond what traditional insurers offer.
Coverage Includes:
- Monthly benefits up to $500,000 per month
- Benefit periods up to 60 months, plus lump sum benefits exceeding $25,000,000
- Elimination periods of 90, 180, and 365 days
- Individual or Multi-Life Coverage
- Residual Benefit Rider and COLA available
- Own Occupation definitions available
Types of DI Coverage Available
Products available; Individual coverage; Business Coverage (Buy Sell, Business Overhead) and Multi Life coverage (Employee Marketplace).
Quotes available from the top disability carriers in the market.
- Allows the Trusted Advisor to sell multiple individual policies at the work site.
- Available to groups of at least 3 lives on a fully underwritten basis.
- Guarantee Standard Issue for groups of 10 or more
- Discounts up to 35%
- Non cancellable & guaranteed renewable coverage available.
Equitas provides high limit disability solutions for medical professionals.
Physician’s Edge 365 Coverage Includes:
Monthly benefits up to $150,000 per month
- Elimination periods of 90, 180 and 365 days
- Benefit periods up to 60 months, plus lump sum benefits to an aggregate of $10,000,000+
- Individual or Multi-life coverage
- Residual Benefit Rider & COLA available
- Own Occupation definition
CASE STUDY 1
A surgeon earning $900,000 per year obtained $20,000 per month of disability coverage through traditional outlets. Equitas underwrote an additional $25,000 per month followed by a lump sum of $900,000 to facilitate appropriate coverage in the event of a disability.
CASE STUDY 2
Six radiology partners required a disability policy to fund their buy/sell agreement. Equitas bound a practice owned Buy-Out Disability policy insuring each partner of the practice for an aggregate of $10 million of total coverage.
Excess Disability Buy Sell Insurance
Owners create a foundation of human capital that drives the success of the company. What happens to the company if one of the partners is disabled and their expertise is lost? The sophisticated advisor should consider Disability Buy-Out Coverage to protect such organizations and the remaining partners.
Equitas has designed a high-limit Disability Buy-Out policy to protect private and public organizations, law firms, and medical professionals from the risk of a career ending disability to an owner.
Coverage Includes:
- Disability Buy-Out – Limits to $75,000,000
- Lump sum payouts beginning after 6, 12, 18 or 24 months.
- Equitas’s experts can manuscript policy wording to match a client’s contractual obligation or other specific needs.
CASE STUDY 1
An organization had contractual Buy-Out Agreements with all 18 of its owners, ranging from $300,000 to $20,000,000Equitas wrote Disability Buy-Out coverage on all the owners with an aggregate benefit in excess of $50,000,000.
CASE STUDY 2
A large corporation with four equal shareholders wanted to protect against the disability of any of the four on a first to be disabled basis. With the business valued at nearly $60,000,000, Equitas designed a $15,000,000 Buy-Out Policy that would pay a benefit in the event of the permanent disability of one of the four principal owners.
High Limit Key Person Disability
All successful companies, no matter the size, have key personnel as the foundation driving success. What happens if those rainmakers are disabled? The sophisticated advisor should consider key person disability for all of their key person clientele.
Equitas provides high limit key person disability for private and public organizations, law firms, and medical professionals.
Coverage Includes:
- Key Person Disability – Limits to $75,000,000
- Buy Out Disability – Limits to $75,000,000
- Business Overhead Expense – Limits to $500,000 per month
- Total aggregate coverage exceeding $100,000,000
- Monthly benefits beginning after 30, 60, 90 or 180 days.
- Lump sum payouts beginning after 6, 12, 18, or 24 months.
- Individual or Group GSI Coverage
- Equitas’s experts can manuscript policy wording to match a client’s contractual obligation or other specific needs.
CASE STUDY
A large Advertising firm was in the final stages of acquiring a smaller marketing company in order to broaden their outreach. Equitas secured a policy for $7,500,000 on the marketing company’s President to insure his human capital and expertise for the purchasing company.