Long-Term Disability Policies (Part One)

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Private School News//

December 9, 2009

Determine how your policy handles partial disabilities, which are defined as an inability to perform some (but not all) of the material duties of one's regular occupation, and earning at least 20% less than his/her pre-disability earnings. Different policies handle this situation in different ways, so contact your provider to determine exactly how your insurance company handles it.

Is disability contingent upon loss of both earnings and occupation? Better LTD plans use loss of either earnings or occupation as their parameter, which can result in substantially more income for your partially disabled employees.

Check your policy's definition of "gainful occupation," which is defined as an occupation in which a disabled employee could be expected to earn at least a certain percentage of indexed monthly pre-disability earnings. Most LTD policies set the percentage at 60, which means that carriers will terminate the claim if an employee can earn 60% of indexed pre-disability earnings. Better plans set this number at 80%.

Make sure your policy provides adequate income for key administrators who regularly work substantially more than 40 hours per week. Higher-quality LTD policies recognize that key employees work longer hours and will pay benefits if the administrator must reduce hours below 75% of his/her normal work week.

Did you know that an employee under age 65 is four times more likely to become disabled prior to retirement than he or she is to die while under your employ? That is why ISM has focused on LTD insurance for more than 30 years—to ensure that independent school faculty and staff have the very best in long term disability income protection through our Independent School Group Life and Disability Insurance Trust. With nearly 350 member schools, the Trust protects close to 19,000 faculty and staff members.

For more information, click here!

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