Insurance Flipbook 2019

If you wait until you are experiencing health problems to shop for life or disability insurance, you may find that the price is too high or you are no longer insurable. Insuring Your Income A 35-year-old worker who earns $80,000 a year could lose nearly $250,000 during a three-year period of disability, and $2.4 million or more if he or she were permanently disabled. Of course, older or highly paid employees stand to lose much more during their peak earning years and may also have higher living expenses to contend with. It could be difficult to support your family if a debilitating injury or chronic illness prevented you from working for an extended period of time. Disability income insurance replaces a portion of lost income, up to the policy limits. Benefits may be paid for a specified number of years or until you reach retirement age. Some policies may pay benefits if you cannot work in your current occupation; others might pay only if you cannot work in any type of job. Employers may provide short-term disability coverage (or sick leave) for a few weeks or months, but only about a third of employed consumers have disability coverage. Three in four owners attained their coverage at the workplace. You may want to purchase an individual disability policy if you are self-employed or your employer does not offer coverage — or to supplement group coverage so that benefit payments more closely match your current income. Source: Council for Disability Awareness, 2017 (most current data available)