Why Your Workplace Disability Insurance May Not Be Enough

When you signed up for your employee benefits, you may have glossed over the section on disability insurance.

If youre healthy, its tough to imagine ever being unable to workeven for a short amount of time.

But disabilities can happen, and your workplace coverage may not be enough.

Even worse, most companies pay only thecost of insurance premiumsso workerswill owe taxes on their payments.

Plus, these benefits may be difficult to qualify for (well cover more on that later.)

If your company only offers short-term disability insurance, you may be at risk if you become permanently disabled.

The waiting period for long-term disability may be several weeks to several months.

It may be possible to shorten the elimination period by paying extra, though.

Disability insurance riders

Many disability insurance policies allow you to customize your coverage through riders.

A cost of living adjustment rider boosts your payouts every yearwhich is especially important for long-term disability.

You may expect to earn more money throughout your career.

The future increase option rider allows you to boost future coverage without proving your insurability through another medical exam.

This rider matches your expected annual income hikes for five or six years.

One of the most important parts of your policy is thedefinition of disability.

The best definition is own occupationwhich covers you if cant work in your current occupation.

The least generous definition, any occupation, only pays you if you cant workanyjobs.

TheSocial Security definitionof disability is any occupation, which can make it difficult to qualify for.

Disability insurance policies also offer a couple ofprotection features.

A non-cancelable policy protects you from having the policy canceled unless you stop paying the premiums.

You may renew every year without paying more.