Disability
If you can't work, the household income stops but the bills don't. This coverage replaces part of that income for as long as the disability lasts.
What disability insurance is
Disability insurance, or income replacement, pays you a regular benefit if an injury or illness keeps you from doing your job. It's the most overlooked coverage there is and probably the most important for anyone who lives on what they produce: your ability to earn is the asset holding up everything else, including the premiums on your other policies.
Policies don't replace a hundred percent of your income, only a share of it, and they start paying after a waiting period. Two definitions change the value of the coverage completely: what counts as disability — being unable to do your own occupation, or any occupation — and how long the benefit is paid.
How it works, no fine print
We look at your real fixed costs, not your gross income: the number it takes to keep the household running.
Definition of disability, waiting period and benefit duration. Those three decide whether the policy is any use to you on the day you need it.
Your occupation, your income and your health history are all assessed. On this product your occupation weighs heavily on the premium.
If you start billing more, the coverage should rise with you. We check that periodically.
- Self-employed professionals and small business owners.
- Anyone who depends entirely on being able to work.
- Anyone without an emergency fund that would last several months.
- Anyone who is the only source of income in their household.
- It replaces a percentage of your income, not all of it. That's deliberate.
- There's a waiting period before the first payment: you have to be able to cover those first months.
- The definition of disability decides everything. A policy that requires you to be unable to do any occupation is far more restrictive than one based on your own occupation.
- Pre-existing conditions are usually excluded or subject to underwriting.
- The premium depends heavily on your occupation and your history. Approval is the insurance company's decision.
Let's talk about whether disability coverage is right for you
I walk you through your options openly, compare the insurance companies I work with, and tell you plainly if a different coverage suits you better. No obligation and no pressure — the decision is always yours.
About disability coverage, specifically
Partly, and with conditions. The State Insurance Fund answers for workplace accidents, and Social Security disability has strict requirements and long processes. A private policy fills the gap between what those programs cover and what your household actually needs each month.
It depends on the contract, and it's one of the first things to check. The fuller policies cover both; the cheaper ones sometimes stop at accidents. I tell you which one you're looking at before you decide.
That's where the definition of disability decides everything. Under an own-occupation definition, a surgeon who loses precision in their hand collects even if they can still teach. Under an any-occupation definition, probably not. I'll walk through your own case in the consultation.