During this week, I have received several calls, texts and emails asking if they should purchase their disability insurance right now as a medical or dental student or wait a few weeks until they start their residency. We refer to this as the disability insurance dilemma limbo.

The question comes down to where you are graduating from and where you will be doing your residency. If there are discounts available at your medical school or dental school and not at your residency or new hospital,  purchase it now before you move to your residency. If you graduated this week, you have until the end of the month to still obtain those discounts. For example, I have several clients graduating from Tufts University School of Medicine this week who took advantage of these discounts. This is especially crucial for the students who are moving to California where the discounts don’t exist at their new program, but the rates are also significantly higher.

If you are moving from a non discounted medical school or moving to a state with less expensive rates, you are better off waiting until your residency starts. For example, I have a client graduating from medical school in California and moving here to Colorado to practice her residency at University of Colorado Hospital. By waiting until she arrives in Denver, she will save substantially.

If you are staying put where you are or if there are discounts at both places (or neither), your timing will depend on when you have the time to complete the paperwork and take the blood and urine test.

The best thing to do is to contact us here at Set for Life Insurance and we can walk you through the process and help you determine the best course of action.

Congratulations again graduating class of 2013!

The post Disability Insurance for Medical Students and Medical Residents in Limbo appeared first on Set for Life.

The discounted disability insurance is also available for affiliates of Maine Medical Center, including:

• The Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital
• Cancer Institute
• Cardiovascular Institute
• Emergency Medicine
• Family Birth Center
• Joint Replacement Center
• Neuroscience Institute

Other affiliates include Tufts University

For more information about the disability insurance discounts please follow this link to go to our discounts page.

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The first client, “Heather” is a CRNA in Boston and was interested in increasing her existing disability insurance policy and called with a few questions. Heather purchased an individual disability insurance policy when she graduated from her CRNA program in North Carolina back in 2010. When Heather purchased her policy she was newly married and healthy. Her policy was issued without any exclusions on the policy. Heather just received the letter from the company informing her of the need to submit updated financial information to see if she was eligible to increase her policy. Heather contacted me with some concerns.

Heather is currently getting fertility treatments and is not yet pregnant. Her income has substantially increased since she purchased her policy in 2010. She was concerned that if she were to get pregnant, would that be a covered condition?

The answer is “yes.” Since her policy was issued without any exclusions on the policy, pregnancy would be covered. However, it would need to cause her an inability to work as a CRNA, such as being on bedrest. Furthermore, since she was increasing her policy using the disability rider she put on the policy, she did not need to disclose any changes in her health or the fact that she was getting fertility treatment.

The 2nd call I received was from a CRNA client in Philadelphia. I’ll call her “Annie.” Annie purchased her policy two years ago when she started her new job working as a CRNA at a local hospital. She found out this week that at 9 weeks, she is going to be put on bedrest for a prolonged period of time. Annie was in a panic an not sure how they were going to be able to pay her bills. Annie’s policy does not have any exclusions on the policy and this condition would in fact be covered. I told her to keep track of the date of diagnosis and we sent her a claim form in case she is out for at least 90 days-the waiting period on her policy.

Most individual disability insurance policies will cover pregnancy just like any other medical condition. However, if you are pregnant at the time of application, chances are that an exclusion will be placed on the policy.

For more information about disability insurance for CRNAs, or to cover pregnancy, contact Set for Life Insurance today!

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I immediately informed her of the way her policy works and assured her that she would be covered. Her response to me was surprising. “I don’t want to file a claim. I’m afraid that I will use up my benefit and nothing else will be covered.”

When I first met Dr. Gyn, she was a graduating medical resident from University of Colorado. We took care of her individual disability insurance policy at the time. When she applied for coverage, she was healthy and had no pre existing conditions. Her policy was issued as an own occupation policy without any exclusions.

Over the years, we increase her insurance and took care of her life insurance needs when she had children. A few years ago, she was diagnosed with MS multiple sclerosis. She has never missed a day of work—until now.

Dr. Gyn’s main concern is that she will need her policy in the future as her MS progresses.  I assured her that her MS, too, will be covered. Since her policy is noncancelable, guaranteed renewable, the company can never cancel or modify her policy in any way. If she files a claim for the breast cancer and later goes back to work, the policy will resume an not have any exclusions. Both the MS and breast cancer will be covered.

Dr. Gyn was very relieved. Her family relies on her heavily financially and this took away a huge burden that was hanging over her.

Once again, I was reminded of the power of disability insurance. One never knows what the future holds and when/if they will ever need to file a claim.

The lesson to be learned is to purchase a disability insurance policy while you are healthy with as many increase riders as possible. This will allow future benefits despite an adverse change in health.

Contact Set for Life Insurance today for a customized quote comparison designed to suit your needs!

The post Should I Resist Filing a Disability Insurance Claim? appeared first on Set for Life.

If you don’t have a policy through work or if you need to supplement the one you have, here are some guidelines to consider:

Do you have short-term disability insurance? If not, choose an elimination period that matches the size of your emergency fund. The elimination period is how long you’d have to go before the long term disability coverage kicks in and is typically about 90 days. If you don’t have 90 days worth of savings, you might want to choose a lower elimination period. On the other hand, if you have more savings, a longer elimination period will reduce your premiums.

Do you work in a highly compensated field?If so, you may want to choose an own-occupation policy that pays benefits if your disability prevents you from working in your own occupation even if you can work in another job. These policies are expensive but can make sense if your income is high enough to afford the premiums and to be worth the special protection.

How much coverage do you need? Start by looking at your expenses and think about how some of them might change if you weren’t working. Keep in mind that the benefits from a policy you purchase won’t be taxable and that companies generally won’t insure you for more than 70-80% of your income.

How long do you need the coverage? Make sure the benefits last until you can retire and that the policy is non-cancelable and guaranteed renewable as long as you pay your premiums on time. You may also want a future increase option that allows you to increase the coverage with your income regardless of health changes and a cost-of-living adjustment for your benefits to grow with inflation, especially if you’re young.

Consider a social insurance offset to reduce the cost. This feature reduces your benefits by whatever you’re able to collect from programs like Social Security and workers’ compensation. While the extra income would be nice, it’s probably not worth paying more for benefits you don’t really need.

Shop around. Once you know what features you’re looking for, get quotes from for the best price from multiple carriers since insurers have different ways of rating various occupations and health conditions.

Don’t forget the legal side. Insurance isn’t the only thing you’ll need if you’re incapacitated. Get legal documents like a durable power of attorney and advance health care directive in place before you need them.

Disability doesn’t get the attention of other financial issues like debt, retirement and college expenses or even other types of insurance like health, life, and long term care. Perhaps it’s because the cost is high for something we hope we’ll never need. But the only thing worse than paying for it and not needing it is not paying for it and needing it.

The post What’s So Different About Disability? appeared first on Set for Life.

If I were to ask you what your most valuable financial asset is, what would you say? Your home? Your 401(k)? For most people, it would be their ability to earn a living.

What if I asked you what the biggest threat is to that ability to earn a living? You might think of various ways you could kick the bucket, but it’s been estimated that over the course of your career, you’re 3.5 times more likely to become disabled than to pass away prematurely. In fact, one of our own planners recently experienced a disability in his own family.

Unfortunately, workers’ compensation doesn’t cover the 95% of disabilities that are not work-related and only about 40% of people who apply for Social Security disability benefits are able to qualify due to their notoriously strict standards. Hopefully, you have disability insurance through work, but there are several reasons why this still may not be enough. First, make sure you have a long term policy. Short term policies that cover up to a year are nice to have but according to the American Council of Life Insurers, about 1 in 7 workers will be disabled for more than 5 years. Second, your policy may only cover you if your disability makes you unable to perform any suitable job even if that job pays considerably less than what you make now. Group policies generally cover 60% of your income but there’s often a dollar amount cap on benefits of about $5k a month so you could actually receive less than 60%. Any benefits you receive from an employer-paid policy will also be taxable. Finally, if you leave your job, you generally can’t take your policy with you and you may no longer be able to qualify for an individual policy if your health deteriorates.

The post The Biggest Threat To Your Biggest Asset appeared first on Set for Life.

Students in their last two years of veterinary school may purchase up to $2000/month benefit regardless of income. Students may also choose to purchase the minimum size policy of $1000/month benefit with the option to increase it in the future without further medical underwriting.

Veterinarians in their first year of practice may purchase up to $4000/month benefit without any income verification.

Special discounts are available exclusively to applications submitted through Set for Life Insurance. The discounts range from 15-55% depending on gender. Rates are unisex. Since women typically pay 40% or more on their gender distinct rates, the premiums are significantly reduced. The net effect is a 55% reduction.

Policies through Set for Life Insurance have an own occupation definition of disability. This means that if you can’t work in your veterinary specialty, it will pay benefits regardless of income received elsewhere.

Set for Life understand the unique needs of veterinarians. Policies vary for small animal vs. large animal specialties. Additionally, Set for Life can help veterinarians with their business disability insurance needs to cover a loan to purchase a practice or to cover business overhead expenses.

Since Set for Life Insurance is an independent insurance brokerage, they have access to most of the available companies in the disability insurance marketplace and can help you objectively compare the right amount of benefit for your situation.

For more information about disability insurance for veterinarians, for veterinary students at Colorado State University or to request a personalized disability insurance quote comparison, contact Set for Life Insurance today!

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Over the last decade, term insurance rates have been at an all time low. In 2012, new term insurance policy premiums rose on average 3%.

The main reason for the increased rates are the poor yields on bonds and low interest rates where the life insurers place their premium dollars.

The hardest hit sector for term life insurance is the longer, 30 year term policies. Rates for 30 year term policies are up approximately 5%. Some companies have pulled out of the 30 year term insurance market completely.

When shopping for term insurance, it is important to work with an independent brokerage such as Set for Life Insurance where you can spreadsheet the lowest premiums available.

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