If I had a dollar for every potential disability insurance client I heard these words from, I would be a very wealthy man.  These words are further from the truth than you might believe.  Here are some sobering statistics:

• The Council for Disability Awareness** (CDA), an association of 16 insurance companies that comprise 75% of the commercial disability insurance marketplace, reports that 95% of all CDA Member Company disability claims are not work-related.  For the Social Security Administration, 90% of all disabilities are not work-related.

• 31.2% of individuals who received long-term disability benefits from CDA Member Companies in 2009 did not qualify for disability benefits from  Social Security.  While the number of workers receiving Social Security Benefits has increased, only 35% of workers applying for SSDI disability claim payments in 2009 were approved; 10 years ago, the approval rate for workers applying for disability was 52%.

• In spite of the limited protection afforded by Social Security and Workers’ Compensation, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in an April 29, 2010 press release* that 46% of full-time workers had short-term disability benefits and only 39% had signed up for long-term disability.

The conclusion:  Many of the disabling incidents that could keep you from earning an income are not going to result in payments from either the SSA or Workers’ Compensation.  If you don’t have disability insurance, you should definitely look at acquiring it to protect your income.

*April 29, 2010 Press Release from Business Wire, “Mos Americans Live to Work But Don’t Prepare for Illness or Injury that could Put Their Income at Risk.

If you ask this question of your agent or broker and the answer isn’t “YOU,” find someone else to work with.  Yes, a reputable disability agent/broker should represent the major disability insurance companies, but, as your representative, he/she should be working toward your best interests.

I was recently competing with another agent for someone’s business.  I presented 5 different options for this person, while the other agent represented one company.  While the other company is an excellent insurance company and offers a decent disability insurance policy, the premiums, if offered with all the benefits the client should have, would have been significantly higher than four of my offerings.

The only way this agent could compete was to strip the policy of some very essential benefits, thereby reducing the premium to a somewhat competitive level.  The problem with this strategy was that he was now offering a significantly inferior policy and, if he wanted to make the sale, he would have to convince the client that some of the stripped benefits were not essental.

As an example, he removed the Non-Cancellable clause of the policy, which means that the insurance company could raise the premium or change the benefits or even cancel the policy in the future.  He justified this by saying that the client didn’t need this feature because the insurance company has never raised the premiums on these types of policies.   Even if this was true, every agent knows that past performance is no guarantee of future performance.  This is terrible advice given to a potential client only for the purpose of making the sale – not for the purpose of doing the best thing for the client.

So my suggestion, when interviewing a new agent or broker, is to ask them who they represent.  Now you know what the correct answer should be…”YOU.”

Fourth of July, a day to celebrate our independence, a day of fun with family and friends, can often be marred by accidents involving fireworks.  I suppose, because of my role as a disability insurance broker, I watch with horror as many folks mishandle fireworks on this day.

According to a 2009 report issued by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) on non-occupational fireworks-related deaths and injuries:

• Fireworks were involved in an estimated 7,000 injuries treated in U.S. hospital emergency departments during calendar year 2008.  CPSC Staff estimated that there were 9,800 fireworks-related injuries during 2007.

• An estimated 5,000 fireworks-related injuries (or 70 percent of the total fireworks-related injuries) were treated in U.S. hospital emergency departments during the one-month special study between June 20, 2008 and July 20, 2008.  CPSC staff estimated that there were 6,300 fireworks-related injuries (66 percent of the annual total) during the 2007 special study period.

• Of the fireworks-related injuries sustained, 62 percent were males to and 38 percent were to females.

So, go out and eat all you want at the barbecue, have a few beers (but don’t drive afterward), play all the fun games in the park, but please, leave the fireworks to the professionals.