Disability Insurance - Protection for the disabled

Their first use is reported among the guilds of ancient history. Within these guilds, if one of the members became disabled, a series of procedures were executed in order to protect the affected person.

Hundreds of years later, after public and private health insurances were established, it was determined that the disabled also required some kind of protection, specially if we consider the millions of Americans that have some kind of physical or mental disability.

Only in the US, 20% of the population suffers from some kind of disability. According to statistics, there is a 30% chance that a person who works in America will become disabled before reaching his age of retirement. Disability insurance can provide you with 45 % to 60 % of your original income, tax-free. That amount of money should be more than enough for maintaining your family until better times arrive.

There are two kinds of disabilities, short term (STD) and long term (LTD). This is very important since you need to consider this when looking for disability insurance quotes. In STD, the insurance plan pays a percentage of your salary. Take notice that neither STD or LTD cover injuries or diseases that have been caused by the job per se. In those cases, there is another type of insurance, known as the workers compensation insurance otherwise STD or LTD would be quite sufficient to meet your needs. The principal cause of STD is normal pregnancy, which accounts for 20% of the total in US. Then comes complicated pregnancies, which add a total of 9%.

Injuries of any kind (except the ones related to the back) also share an important 9%. They can be the consequence of an off-site accident like a car crash. Finally, with 8% each, comes back injuries and digestive and intestinal problems. So, let's say that you had an accident while riding your bike and need to go to rehabilitation sessions. In those cases, the STD should be the ideal one. LTD is the step after STD. While STD can be extended up to a maximum of a year, LTD can go for many years. A typical LTD policy will cover half your salary up to $5,000 per month until you are able to go to work, until you reach the 65 years of age or the retirement age that is determined by the Social Security.

There are several things that an insurance company takes in consideration when determining an individual disability insurance or at a group disability income insurance negotiation. The first one is age. Younger people pay less money than older ones, who are more prone to "breaking". Smoking is also an important factor since it is proven that those subjects have a higher probability of suffering determined kind of diseases, like lung or throat cancer. This can lead to paying higher premium rates.

We often overlook other ways we can lose our homes... death or disability. Either event can stop earned income needed to make the mortgage payments.
State Farm's Mortgage Disability Income insurance is designed to provide people with funds to meet your mortgage loan responsibilities for up to three years should you become disabled. California State Disability Insurance (SDI) is a partial wage-replacement insurance plan for California workers. The SDI program is State-mandated, and funded through employee payroll deductions. SDI provides affordable, short-term benefits to eligible workers who suffer a loss of wages when they are unable to work due to a NON WORK-RELATED illness or injury, or a medically disabling condition from pregnancy or childbirth.