Life & Disability Insurance Mistakes to Avoid

One of the most common ways physicians get disability insurance is through their employer. While employer policies provide basic coverage, there are many issues with relying only on this policy for full coverage.

An employer or group policy is not as comprehensive as a private policy from one of the own-occupation “Big Five.” It also has the following downsides:

1. Taxable benefits, so if and when you collect your benefit from your employer, you have to pay income taxes on it.

2. Not own occupation, so if you are doing anything else, you will not get your full benefit.

3. Non-portable, so if you leave that employer, you can not take the policy with you because the employer owns the policy.

4. The employer owns the policy, so if they want to change, cancel, or modify it at any time they have the right to do so.

A good way to avoid having the problems listed above, most physicians get disability insurance is through private companies.

There are many options and often doctors often choose the wrong policy because of lack of time to research or misinformation.

At Pattern, we are focused on education so that you have the knowledge and resources to make the best choice for you and your situation.

One of the most important things to confirm, before you decide on your policy, is if it is your own occupation. If you are a doctor and you are looking to protect your specific specialty and the duties you do on a daily or weekly basis, you have to have own-occupation coverage.

Essentially an own-occupation policy says that if you get disabled and you can’t perform your specific duties, but you can do some other job, they will continue paying you the full benefit.

If you don't have that kind of coverage but are able to do any kind of job, such as working at a library, teaching, or anything else, you will find your benefit decreased. They may even stop paying you altogether.

There are some companies that claim to have own-occupation coverage that doesn't, and the big sticking point is if you can do something else!

One thing that you might have heard of before is the “Big Five” companies or the five companies that have own-occupation coverage. Those companies are: Ameritas, Standard, Guardian, Principal, and Mass Mutual.

In order to avoid this, it is important when looking into policies through private companies,be sure that you are getting an own-occupation policy. be sure that you are getting an own-occupation policy.

One big mistake physicians make when purchasing life insurance, is not looking into each option. When it comes to life insurance there are 6 main types.

• Term Life

• Permanent Cash Value

• Whole Life

• Universal Life

• Variable Life

• Index Universal Life

Which is why at Pattern, we are focused on education so that you have the knowledge and resources to make the best choice for you and your situation.

Another mistake physicians make when it comes to life insurance, is getting too much or too little amount of coverage.

Choosing the right amount of coverage is tricky with life insurance, in order to choose the right policy amount there are a lot of things to pay attention to.

When purchasing life insurance through Pattern, we ask the most important questions in order to get you the right amount of benefit with accurate quotes right away.