Disability Insurance Plans

Disability Insurance Plans

One of the most important parts of financial planning is making sure that you have some type of disability insurance plan. The reason is simple:

You never know when an injury or an illness will make you so sick that you can't come to work for a period of time. And after all your sick leaves and vacation leaves are exhausted, do you still have money incoming to pay for your daily living expenses? Enough savings to last you a month? Six months? A year? Even if your answer is yes, just one year of not being able to work could mean 10 years' worth of savings for you.

The solution to this problem is disability insurance. A disability insurance plan could help protect you against a loss of income due to a disabling injury or illness.

Basically, a plan works by providing you with monetary benefits representing a portion of your salary. For someone forced to depend on his savings due to his being unable to work because of his disability, a disability insurance plan is a good way to help ensure that all monthly bills, mortgage payments, car payments, and living expenses are covered.

What are covered under disability insurance plans?

There are many different types of disability insurance plans available. Each plan usually provides a different coverage. Whether you wish to take advantage of the coverage offered by one plan or that of the other depends entirely on you. Several other factors have to be considered besides mere competitive rates.

For purposes of this article, we shall discuss three types of disability insurance plans, which are the most common.

First is short term disability insurance plan. Coverage under this plan usually includes basic benefits if you are unable to work due to a non work-related disabling injury or illness. The plan is based on a percentage of your earnings for a certain period of time, usually up to six months.

Some insurance companies put a limit on how much monetary benefits you can receive in a month. For instance, your disability insurance plan may cover you for up to $800 a month for six months.

The second type of disability insurance is supplemental disability insurance plan. This also pays benefits if you are unable to work due to a disabling injury or illness. If combined with short term disability insurance plans or retirement income, a supplemental disability insurance plan could pay up to 70% of your eligible earnings. Most supplemental plans pay only until you are age 65. After that, you are no longer eligible for coverage under the plan.

The third type of disability insurance plan is worker's compensation. This provides benefits to workers who are injured on the job. This plan helps pay your medical bills and provides compensation to help replace your lost income until you can return to work.