Consider...what if you are disabled?

Talk about this at lunch with your staff members, would you?  It’s important, and EVERYBODY needs to know.  Someone who is currently in the hospital thanked me profusely for encouraging her to pick up disability insurance. I must admit…it did make me a bit teary eyed.

You’d think I would get a commission from Standard Disability considering the way I promote it.  I promote it because of the next paragraph.

Frankly, I say this every year.  Someone contacts me and says “I have _________ (think of a terrible illness).  I have a few sick days, I don’t have disability insurance, and I didn’t donate to the catastrophic leave.”  And then I get to tell them the bad news.  It is the worst conversation I ever have to have, and it seems as if I have to do it EVERY year.  So you know what happens, right?  Their paychecks stop.  And there is nothing I can do to help them.  That’s the most frustrating part.

This is how our disability insurance works.  The disability clock starts after your sick days are exhausted plus any catastrophic leave you are entitled to.  At that time, you are eligible for two years of full pay with disability insurance IF a doctor says you are unable to return to work.  But remember, you have to donate a sick day to the catastrophic bank to be eligible for that catastrophic leave.

So, if you have a year’s worth of sick leave like I do, you could be out 3 years.  Hey, I stayed home with my kids too when they were sick.  😊  I’m just old.  Save your sick leave if you can!  It also counts on your pension.  Every sick day is worth about $6 a month on your pension.  So if you have 200 days of sick leave, that’s worth about an extra $1200 a month…for the rest of your life!

Just because I’m a curious fellow, yesterday I checked Standard’s rates  and compared it to when I started.  It’s the same as it was 37 years ago.   Not only is American Fidelity more expensive but AF also limits the use based on the disability.  In other words, American Fidelity, based on their contract language, will determine how much of the plan you can use based on your disability.  Standard doesn’t.  If a doctor approves of your disability, then you are out.  No questions asked.  Plus, American Fidelity requires you to buy a separate policy for cancer coverage.

​If you want to switch from American Fidelity to Standard, it’s complicated, but I’ll review that in a separate email. 
Long email, huh?  Complicated stuff.  Got questions?  I’ll be visiting each site with our Standard rep to answer questions!  Attached is the Site Visit Schedule.