Guardian Disability

Our Disability Program - Disability Insurance provided by Guardian

The Insurance Market is your one stop for all of your insurance needs including Annuities and Long Term Disability. We are known for providing our customers with a wide variety of options and choices, but as far as Annuities and disability insurance goes, we have decided to offer what we consider to be the best in breed in these two markets. This decision was made due to their excellent financial stability, high ratings, and the multitude of competitively priced products and options that they both offer to our customers. 

What is a long term disability?

When a disability leaves you unable to work for an extended length of time, you lose the ability to earn an income- the one thing you've always relied on to provide for yourself and your loved ones. Meanwhile, your living expenses continue-in fact, they're likely to increase for a number of reasons. You could need help around the house or have higher medical expenses, for example. That's where disability income insurance (DI) comes in. It's designed to help you maintain your standard of living when you cannot work. If you don't have much in the way of assets for a financial cushion, you need enough to cover costs and supplement your income until you can go back to work.

Disability income insurance is needed by just about everyone who earns a living. Surprisingly, single people often need it more than married couples because they don't have a spouse's income to fall back on if they are injured or become too sick to work. On the other hand, most married people have a hard time imagining what it would be like to live on one salary when they barely get by on two. And unfortunately, disability strikes more often than you may think.

FAQs on Disability Insurance

What is the Definition of Disability?
Disability is considered either "Own Occupation," which is the inability to perform the duties of your own specific occupation, or "Any Occupation," which is the inability to perform the duties of any job for which your education and training qualify you.

How Much is the Benefit?
Most policies have a fixed monthly benefit. Although the benefit doesn't increase over time, you can usually purchase extra coverage or cost of living increases.

When do I Receive the First Benefit?
There is a waiting period between the time you become disabled and the time you begin to receive benefits. Waiting periods can range from one week to two years. In general, the longer the waiting period, the less the policy costs.

How Long Will the Benefits Last?
The benefit period, which is how long you receive monthly benefits, can range from six months to the rest of your life, depending on what your company offers and the choices you make.

Who needs a disability policy?
The most common question I hear from my clients is "why do I need a disability policy?" I typically respond with the answer "If you had a magical box that printed money, wouldn't you want to make sure it's protected?" Basically, it makes sense to insure your ability to provide for your family and business in the event you become disabled. 

Professions that may need disability insurance:

Accountants
Architects
Attorney
Doctors
Consultants
Executives
Fiance Professionals
Realtors
Small Business Owners

Common terms seen in the Guardian Disability Policy

Non-Cancelable & Guaranteed Renewable to the Expiration Date
You may renew this policy at the end of each premium term until the expiration date. During that time, We cannot change the premium or cancel the policy.

Own-Occupation
Total Disability or Totally Disabled means that, solely due to injury or sickness, you are not able to perform the material and substantial duties of your occupation. You will be totally disabled even if you are gainfully employed in another occupation so long as, solely due to injury or sickness, you are not able to work in your occupation. Working an average of more than 40 hours in a week, in itself, is not a material and substantial duty. Your Occupation means the occupation (or occupations, if more than one) in which you are gainfully employed during the 12 months prior to the time you become disabled. If you have limited your occupation to the performance of the material and substantial duties of a single medical specialty or to a single dental specialty, we will deem that specialty to be your occupation.

Total Disability Benefit
When you are totally disabled, we will pay the monthly indemnity as follows: - You must become totally disabled while the policy is in force. - You must satisfy the elimination period - After you have satisfied the elimination period, monthly indemnity will be payable at the end of the month while you remain totally disabled. - Monthly indemnity will stop at the end of the benefit period or, if earlier, on the date you are no longer totally disabled. We will not increase the monthly indemnity because you are totally disabled from more than one cause at the same time.

Graded Lifetime Indemnity for Total Disability Rider
This rider is available on policies with a benefit period to age 65 or to age 67. It may provide a monthly benefit that starts when the benefit period ends. If you are totally disabled at the end of the policy benefit period, the lifetime indemnity amount will be determined by your age when the last continuous, total disability began in the same claim.

Recovery Benefit
Even if you have recovered from the sickness or injury that caused residual disability, we will continue to consider you residually disabled so long as your loss of income is still at least 15% of your prior income and such loss of income is solely because of sickness or injury.

Residual Disability Benefit Rider
Residual disability or residually disabled means that you are gainfully employed and are not totally disabled under the terms of the policy but, solely because of sickness or injury, your loss of income is at least 15% of your prior income. Residual Disability Benefit When you are residually disabled, we will pay a monthly benefit as follows: - You must become disabled while the policy is in force. - You must satisfy the elimination period. - After you have satisfied the elimination period, a residual disability benefit will be payable at the end of each month while you are residually disabled. For each month of the first 12 months that you are eligible for a residual disability benefit in the same claim, we will pay a loss of income indemnity. The loss of income indemnity is equal to your loss of income less any individual disability insurance benefits you are receiving, or that you are eligible to receive from us and all other insurance companies on policies that are in force on or before the effective date of this rider. In no event will the loss of income indemnity exceed your monthly indemnity. If you continue to be residually disabled in the same claim after the loss of income indemnity has been paid for 12 months, we will pay a residual indemnity. The residual indemnity will be payable monthly and will be a percentage of the monthly indemnity. Residual indemnity will be determined by the formula (a) divided by (b) multiplied by (c) where: (a) is your loss of income for the month in which you are residually disabled; and (b) is your prior income; and (c) is the monthly indemnity. If your loss of income is more than 75% of prior income in any month of residual disability while residual indemnity is payable, we will deem such loss to be 100%. We will not increase the residual disability benefit because you are disabled from more than one cause at the same time.

Cost of Living Adjustment Rider (COLA)
This is an optional rider you can choose to apply for with your policy. If you become disabled without this rider, your monthly benefit would never grow to keep pace with inflation. If your disability was resolved within a year, this would not be an issue. If your disability lasted longer than a year, then you would most likely want to have a COLA rider on your policy to make sure the monthly benefit continued to grow with inflation. You can choose from one of three options, all of which have a guaranteed minimum adjustment of 3%; 3% Compound, 6% Maximum Compound, or the 4-Year Delayed COLA. Our agency is a proponent of the 4-Year Delayed COLA rider. It is the least expensive, and still provides excellent protection against inflation for a long term claim.

About Guardian

Founded 150 years ago, Guardian and its subsidiaries are committed to protecting individuals, business owners and their employees with life, long term care insurance, disability income, medical and dental insurance products, and offer 401(k), annuities and other financial products and trust services. As of December 31, 2009, Guardian and its subsidiaries had $42.7 billion in assets (on a consolidated statutory basis).

Guardian operates one of the largest dental networks in the United States, and protects more than six million employees and their families at 120,000 companies. The company has more than 5,400 employees in the United States and a network of over 3,000 financial representatives in more than 80 agencies nationwide.

The information above was provided by our friends at Guardian Life.

For more information please visit them on the web.