633553504166942disability.jpgDisability Income Insurance protects your most valuable asset, your ability to earn an income. It’s easy to forget that your income is dependent on your ability to earn it.

When a disability leaves you unable to work for an extended length of time, you lose the ability to earn an income- the one thing you’ve always relied on to provide for yourself and your loved ones. Meanwhile, your living expenses continue-in fact, they’re likely to increase for a number of reasons.

You could need help around the house or have higher medical expenses, for example. That’s where disability insurance comes in. It’s designed to help you maintain your standard of living when you cannot work. If you don’t have much in the way of assets for a financial cushion, you need enough to cover costs and supplement your income until you can go back to work.

Individual disability insurance is truly a basic concept. It is an insurance product designed to replace anywhere from 60-70% of your gross income should a sickness or illness prevent you from earning an income in your occupation. All disability insurance quotes and coverage from every insurance company are very different; this is not a product to simply shop for the most competitive rate.

If you became sick or hurt and couldn’t work, how would you pay your bills? How would you maintain your living standard? If you’re like most people, your ability to get up each day and earn an income is one of your most valuable assets. Furthermore, your chances of becoming disabled at some time during your working career are probably higher than you would expect, so you also need more disability insurance information.

Read

To correctly determine the actual amount of coverage you would need if you became disabled, ask yourself how much monthly income would cover your living expenses. Would these expenses go up or down if you became disabled? These expenses must be carefully considered.

All disability income insurance policies have an “elimination period,” similar to the deductible for medical insurance. This is the length of time you must be disabled before you would become eligible for benefits, typically 30, 90 or 180 days. For this period you need to establish an emergency fund.

The policy has a “definition of disability” which defines disability relative to your ability to work and/or your ability to work in your current occupation. The definition of disability is one of the most critical features of a disability income policy, and is something you should review carefully before purchasing a policy.