5 Benefits of Disability Income Insurance to Protect Your Earnings

Imagine this: You’ve climbed the business ladder, mastered your craft and built a career you can be truly proud of. Whether you’re a top-tier attorney, a savvy corporate executive or a brilliant data scientist, your journey has been marked by skill, hard work and smart decisions. Your dedication has led you to a position of financial stability. But how do you protect everything you’ve achieved while making sure your financial future remains bright?

The benefits of disability income insurance (DI) are key to safeguarding your income and continuing your path to success. It’s so much more accessible than you might think.

What is disability income insurance?

Simply stated, DI insurance is a type of insurance designed to replace a portion of your income if you become unable to work due to sickness or injury. It ensures that you can maintain your standard of living and meet your financial obligations, even when you’re not able to earn your usual income. DI policies can be tailored to your specific needs, offering various levels of coverage and benefits.

Read our blog to learn more about DI insurance.

Why add DI insurance to your financial portfolio?

1. Fill in the gaps of your current policy

Already have DI insurance through your employer? That’s an outstanding benefit, which you can enhance through a supplemental DI policy. Most employer-sponsored group disability plans cover only 60% of your base salary and often exclude bonuses and commissions, which make up a significant portion of executive compensation. Additionally, many plans have a capped monthly benefit amount, which would leave many executives with a substantial income shortfall in the event of a disability.

Individual DI insurance policies can supplement your employer-provided coverage, ensuring you maintain your standard of living if you can’t work. Read our blog to learn more about supplemental DI and see the difference it can make in protecting your income.

2. Leverage your career choice to get even more favorable terms

Given the type of work you do, you may qualify for better terms, higher benefit limits and more favorable underwriting, which leads to a more powerful financial tool for you. You’ve already done so much to ensure your future, and the safety net of a supplemental DI policy can give you income protection no matter where your career may take you.

3. Secure your future with a high-value tool

Perhaps more than any other financial product, it pays to do your research on the true costs of DI insurance vs. its proven benefits. Several factors influence the cost of DI insurance, including income, age and health, benefit period, coverage amount and optional riders. However, according to the nonprofit community Life Happens, a consumer-focused financial education resource of the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors (NAIFA), most policies carry an annual cost of only 1-3% of your annual income.

What’s the value of knowing your income is fully protected, no matter what? Only you can decide, but it’s worth learning more.

4. Give your entire portfolio a check-up

Adding DI insurance to your portfolio provides you with a new, powerful tool for long-term wealth building. It also gives you the opportunity to talk with a knowledgeable financial professional about other financial tools that you may not have considered—or which may now be a wise addition to your portfolio. These can include life insurance, long-term care insurance or business succession planning. The more you know, the better you can make the right decisions for your future.

5. Create a custom strategy

Depending on your unique circumstances, including your specific industry, you may qualify for specialized DI insurance that address needs unique to you and your colleagues.

For example, own-occupation coverage is a type of DI insurance that provides benefits if you’re unable to perform the duties of your specific occupation due to sickness or injury. This means that even if you can work in another job or field, you’ll still receive benefits as long as you cannot perform the tasks of your own occupation. This is an extremely valuable benefit in certain cases.

What’s holding you back?

You might have some reservations about picking up additional DI coverage. Ask yourself the following questions and consider the value of learning more.

Is there really a need? You might think your employer’s plan is sufficient, but these plans often have significant gaps that can leave you vulnerable. Individual DI policies can fill these gaps and provide comprehensive coverage.

Is there a plan that will actually work for me? Bonuses, equity and deferred compensation require a customized approach to DI coverage—but a knowledgeable financial professional can help you make sense of your options.

Do I have the time to deal with this? Navigating the DI landscape would take some time if you attempted it on your own. Fortunately, you don’t have to. Once again, a skilled financial professional can streamline the process and make it easy for you to understand and implement DI insurance coverage.

Is it worth the cost? This one, for most professionals, is an easy yes—especially once you understand the true value of these policies. Adding high-quality DI insurance to your financial portfolio is a powerful investment in your financial security. The cost is often much lower than you expect, especially when you consider the income protection it provides.

Ready to learn more?

Working with a financial professional who really understands DI insurance can help you see how valuable this financial tool is, and how easy it is to include in your overall financial portfolio. Ameritas is ranked as one of the best DI insurance companies¹ and offers comprehensive and tailored DI insurance options for high-performing, established professionals. Learn more about DI insurance from Ameritas and take the first step towards securing your financial future.

Disability Income Insurance policies are issued by Ameritas Life Insurance Corp. and Ameritas Life Insurance Corp. of New York.

Sources and References:
¹Good Financial Cents