Your ability to earn income is among your most valuable assets, and yet very few people have disability insurance. According to a recent survey by Northwestern Mutual, less than half of all adults age 21 or older have disability insurance.
The non-profit Life and Health Insurance Foundation for Education provides helpful information about disability insurance, walking you through the key things to look for in a policy such as the definition of disability, percentage of income replaced, length of benefit, and more.
If you don’t have disability insurance, check with your human resources department to find out what’s available. If you are self-employed and are shopping for coverage, two of the largest providers of disability insurance are MetLife, and Northwestern Mutual. Some online brokers of disability insurance include Disability Insurance Update and EZDIQuote.com.
Brad – Your example really makes the need for disability insurance vivid. And great point about making the premiums more affordable. Thanks!
thanks for mentioning DI. Someone who is 45 making $50,000 per year stands to lose $1M if disabled without coverage. If people have saved a big emergency fund as you have suggested before, that will enable them to take a longer elimination period and make the premiums affordable. As usual it gets back to having 6-9 months cash in savings. Good job Matt.