These are some of the things I tell a client when we submit an application for disability insurance (especially when they have purchased life insurance):

• A disability insurance application almost always takes longer to underwrite than a life insurance application.  If both life and disability insurance applications are submitted at the same time, the life application will most probably be approved sooner than the disability application.
• The maximum monthly benefit of a disability policy is directly tied to your income and the amount of individual and/or group disability coverage you already have.  You may have been quoted based on an estimated annual income, but the final amount approved for you will be based on financial documentation submitted with the application.
• Many medical conditions, while not life-threatening, may be disabling or present a risk of disability.  A bad back, for instance, probably wouldn’t affect life insurance underwriting, but in most cases would have an effect on disability underwriting.
• Life insurance underwriters assign health classes, thereby adjusting premium based on the risk presented.  A disability insurance underwriter might request a higher premium, but more typically will exclude a preexisting condition (temporarily or permanently) and/or adjust some of the benefits (e.g. shorter benefit period, elimination of some riders, etc.).

Complete your application thoroughly, informing the insurance company of any medical conditions, etc.  Your agent, upon reviewing your application, should have a pretty good feel as to how the insurance company will view your information and make any adjustments to your coverage.  We are always conservative in our estimates so as to minimize disappointment when the underwriter makes those adjustments.

1.  Don’t drink and assemble toys, especially those you need to plug in.

2.  Don’t stand under the mistletoe at an office party.  The spouse of the person standing with you under the mistletoe might be present, which might result in broken bones.

3.  Don’t decorate your roof alone.  Watch “National Lampoon Christmas Vacation” for details.

4.  If you’re weak of heart, avoid the mall on Black Friday or December 24th.  If you must go, don’t forget your flak jacket.

5.  Drive defensively INSIDE Costco.  Those flat carts really hurt!!

6.  No matter how anxious you are to set it up, that 60 inch Flat screen TV is really heavy.  Get help.

7.  STAND AWAY FROM THAT FRUITCAKE!!!

8.  Yes, the person who snuck into the parking spot at the mall you were patiently waiting for is a jerk, but it’s not worth a fist fight.  Get another spot.

9.  Do not look up the chimney on Christmas eve.  What if he really does come down there?

10. The Santa suit you rented?  Before you put the beard on, consider for a moment what must be living in there.

By following these tips, we hope your holiday season is accident and illness free.

Wishing you a Happy and Healthy Holiday.

Limit drinking; never have two drinks in a row

Alcohol is acutely toxic to the heart, Oz says.  It can literally irritate the heart muscle and increase the body’s autopilot response to boost your blood pressure and your heart rate.  The heart’s natural pacemaker gets thrown off, and so does your heartbeat.

“Have one drink of alcohol, then a glass of water,” Oz advises.  That will also make you feel better the next day. because hangovers are primarily the result of dehydration of the brain.

Avoid high-fat foods; never have food in both hands at the same time

Studies show a high-fat meal can lead to a dysfunction in artery lining for 6 to 12 hours after eating.  That dysfunction makes the heart vessel spasm, so if you already have a little bit of blockage, it closes off the vessel even more, and that can lead to a heart attack.

Oz advises avoiding fried appetizers and any fats that are solid at room temperature, such as frosting.  And he has a simple tip to avoid overeating, “Always keep one hand free to shake hands,” he says.  “At no time during a party should you ever have food in both hands simultaneously.”

Stay 6 to 8 feet from a burning fireplace

Fine particulates from fireplace smoke can lodge in your lungs and trigger a clot and a heart attack.  “It can cause spasm of some of the arteries,” he says.

There is no perfect distance because it depends on the room’s ventilation, but he says try to stand 6 to 8 feet away.

Know the Symptoms of Heart Attack

“If you think you’re having symptoms of a heart attack…call 911 and get a chewable aspirin, “Oz says.

For women, symptoms of a heart attack include indigestion, shortness of breath and sweating.  Men are more likely to get chest pain than women are.

And, finally, this is not from Dr. Oz – it’s from me.  The holidays should be a time of joy, so enjoy them.  If you’re feeling stressed during the holidays, take a long walk and appreciate the sights.  Or, perform a random act of kindness toward another.  It works for me every time.

There are several types of disability policies written specifically to cover the business in the event of the owner’s disability:

Overhead Expense Disability insurance, which I covered in an earlier posting, provides benefits to reimburse the normal and customary fixed monthly business expenses of a business or practice of a professional or business owner while he or she is disabled.  Overhead Expense insurance is intended to provide financial protection when the absence of a business owner would result in a significant loss of revenue.

Some other types of disability insurance for business are:

Key Person Disability Insurance protects the business from loss due to the disability of a key employee.  Business owners can suffer from a key employee’s total disability in several ways: Loss of management skill and experience; disruption of the business when clients withhold or delay their business until the impact of the employee’s disability is known; difficulties when cautious creditors wait until they can assess how the disability affects the business; increased expenses associated with the hiring and training a key employee’s replacement.

Business Loan Protection is often required by a bank or lending institution to cover the loan payments in the event of the business owner’s disability.  Dentists and Physicians, when opening a new practice, often secure loans to purchase the practice and/or new equipment.  Business loan protection will cover the loan payments in the event of a total disability.  These policies are written to cover the loan payments over a specific period of time, typically the period of the loan.

As you can see, business owners have several options to protect their businesses from loss in the event of a disability.  These policies are most often written in addition to personal disability coverage.

As there are many causes of disability, we often advise to purchase a good quality disability policy with the pregnancy exclusion and then ask the company to add pregnancy back into the policy after the birth.

Insurance companies do not view maternity leave as a disability.  If you are lucky enough to have a policy before you become pregnant, the policy will typically only pay benefits for complications due to pregnancy which prevent one from performing the duties of one’s occupation. Also, as the elimination period (or waiting period) is typically 90 days or longer, a long term disability policy would not be appropriate for your maternity leave needs.

We often advise as to the cost of waiting to purchase disability insurance and this is a great example of this.  The best time to purchase a disability policy is now.

If you were to become disabled, you probably wouldn’t be available to provide the essential services your customers/clients expect.  You also probably wouldn’t be there to provide the leadership and direction your employees need.  The revenue of the business/practice would most probably decline, but the expenses necessary to keeping the doors open would probably stay the same.

Business Overhead Expense (BOE) is designed to cover your overhead expenses and keep the business running so you would have a viable business to return to.  Without this coverage, you might be forced to consider laying off employees, borrowing money to keep the business alive or, worst case scenario, closing your business.

Overhead Expense Disability insurance can help you keep the business alive by paying ongoing expenses such as rent, utilities and taxes.  It can help pay the salary and benefits of your employees, as well as a portion of the salary of your temporary replacement.  It can also make payments to your existing loans.

The bottom line is a disability does not have to cause the cessation of a business/practice you spent so long to build.  By preserving your business with Overhead Expense Disability insurance, you will help preserve the continuity of your business, while retaining your customers.

When I got home that night, I sat down to digest the lab results.  While I did understand cholesterol and white blood cell count, most of the tests might as well have been written in Greek, as I had no idea what I was looking at.  After several hours attempting to decipher the information, I broke down and decided to call my doctor the next day to review the results with him.

While this never really happened to me, I’m sure, in this fast-moving world, there are a few of you to whom this story sounds familiar.  I experience a  similar scenario daily with people (professionals, mostly) who take disability insurance quotes I provide for them home to digest, without taking advantage of my knowledge and expertise.  While not quite as technical as a lab report, there are terms and provisions in every disability insurance policy that sound similar, but actually perform quite differently at the time of claim.

If you are working with an advisor who is well-versed in disability insurance, take advantage of his/her expertise.  Learn the terms and provisions so you can choose the right policy for your situation.  It might not be life and death as in my story about the blood test, but it can make a difference in whether you are adequately insured in the event of a disability.

The wording of exclusions is typically fairly general (e.g. lower back, as mentioned above) and is often an area of concern for policyholders.  While the concern is understandable, it’s important to understand why the exclusion is worded so generally and how the insurance companies adjudicate claims having to do with the exclusion.

Exclusions, like other policy language, have to be filed with each state’s insurance commission.  If each possible exclusion was included, the list would be far too long.  Therefore, “lower back” can include all the discs in the area, surrounding muscles and tendons, etc.

When evaluating a claim for benefits, an insurance company will determine if the medical concerns that necessitated the exclusion have any effect on the claim.  Specifically, they will determine if the preexisting condition is a contributor to the current disability.  For instance, a recent car accident would be looked at as the reason for the disability, even if there were lower back problems previously.  If preexisting history is, in fact, a contributor to the current disability, benefit would not be paid.

There are many causes of disability and, even with one exclusion, disability insurance, should be an important component of any financial plan.

1: Get your own credit history

2: Consider disability insurance

Your number one asset is your ability to bring home a paycheck. But what happens if there’s an accident, or you become ill, or maybe you can’t work anymore because of an injury?

That’s where disability insurance comes in. It provides you with a monthly income in case you can’t work. You may be able to purchase long-term disability insurance from your employer, or you can get it on your own.

According to an industry group, the Life and Health Insurance Foundation for Education, about one in five Americans will become disabled for one year or more before the age of 65.

Keep in mind you will pay more for a policy if you’re in a high-risk job or if you’re a smoker. And the younger you are, the cheaper the policy. To figure out how much you would need, check out a calculator at www.life-line.org and click on “disability insurance.”

3: Combine the best 401(k) features

4: Streamline your savings

I am happy to see that more and more financial writers are highly recommending disability insurance, as it is quite often overlooked by many people.  I firmly believe that disability insurance should be an integral part of most people’s financial plan.

Even prior to our current economic scene, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that there are more than 18.3 million home-based businesses in the United States.  There are as many as 43 million Americans running these entrepreneurial entities which range from business services to daycare to plumbing.  With increasing independence due to technology and growing income and tax benefits, The Home Based Business Report estimates that three in ten businesses are home based.

It’s a good thing, then, that disability insurers are finally recognizing the need this market segment has for disability insurance.   Up until recently, restrictions placed on these types of business made it difficult for home-based business owners to purchase this much-needed insurance.  Some of the insurance companies will now even recognize past income as an employee in determining the benefit amounts for these newly self-employed people.