Let’s say that you’re walking down a sidewalk on your way to your favorite store to buy a new outfit and you come across the infamous banana peel on the ground. Of course, you’re not paying too much attention to where you’re walking and you step on it, which causes you to slip and hit your head on the concrete.
Perhaps this injury causes any number of problems which prevents you from working. What do you do? How do you support your family? How do you pay your bills?
Disability insurance is an area where I find most people are not properly protected. You’re more likely to become disabled prior to age 65 than to die. According to the Social Security Administration, 1 in 4 of today’s 20-year-olds will become disabled before they retire.
If something happens to you (you hurt your back, disease/illness, car accident, etc.) and you’re not able to earn income, then how are you going to support your family?
The devil is in the details when it comes to disability insurance policies. Most policies I see issued have a definition of disability of “any occupation”. This means that the policy will only pay if you’re not able to perform any occupation. If you’re a nurse and lose the use of your hands or an accountant and become mentally disabled, but you can still go be a greeter at Walmart, then the policy won’t pay.
On the other hand, an “own occupation” definition of disability means that the policy will pay if you aren’t able to perform your own job duties, no matter if you could still perform another job.
If you have a disability insurance policy, did you read through the details when you took it out? If you don’t have a disability insurance policy, why not?
