Southwestern Financial Services LTD

Is Disability Income Insurance Right for You?

To find out, here are some questions you should ask:

• What are my necessary living expenses each month, such as rent or mortgage, utilities, food, etc?
• Can my personal savings cover my necessary living expenses? And if so, for how long?
• Does my employer offer long-term disability coverage, and what does it cover?
• What other sources of income might be available to me if I could not work and earn an income?
• What would happen to my retirement contributions if I was unable to work?

Preparing for the Unexpected

Disability income insurance helps you make ends meet until you’re able to return to work. Why risk losing the lifestyle you’ve worked so hard to create? To help you assess if the income protection you have in place is adequate, see what may happen if you were too sick or hurt to work.

• Income Gap Calculator

• HalfAPaycheck.com

• Understanding the Disability Income Insurance “Gap” (PDF)

Additional Resources

• Council for Disability Awareness

May is Disability Insurance Awareness Month

Your most valuable asset is not your home, car, electronics, or jewelry. It’s your ability to earn a living. Have you protected your most valuable asset?

Think about this: All your plans for the future: owning a home, paying for your kids college education, retiring while still young and healthy – all assume that you’ll continue to

to earn a paycheck until you reach your goals.  What if those paychecks stopped?

That’s where disability income insurance comes in. It pays you an income when you are unable to work due to sickness or injury.

Even though disability is the number one cause of home foreclosures and personal bankruptcies, protecting income has not been a high priority for many Americans.

People assume they are covered by:

• Social Security – Average wait for benefits is two years, and 70% are turned down when they apply for benefits. The average Social Security Disablity benefit is only $1,129 per month in 2013!
• Workers’ Compensation – Only covers work related injuries and sickness, yet the majority of disabilities (73%) happen off the job.
• Employer-provided group insurance – Can you handle a 30% paycut? The best group plans replace 70% of your paycheck, most replace less. Since employers deduct the premiums from their taxes, the benefits paid to you are taxable. What that means to you is that in the best case scenario, you will suffer a 30% cut in pay. To add insult to injury, the highly compensated are often subject to a monthly benefit cap, the most common of which is $5,000. Only one out of three employers offer group disability income.

What are your options?

If you’re fortunate enough to work for an employer that offers disability coverage, can you make ends meet after a 30% cut in your pay? If you can’t, then you should consider a personal Disability Income insurance policy to make sure that your take-home pay is the same when you can’t work due to sickness or injury.

If you have no group disability insurance coverage, then you should consider a personal disability income insurance policy to protect your paycheck.

May is Disability Insurance Awareness Month (DIAM), making this month the perfect time for Paycheck Protection checkup.

If you have further questions, contact disability insurance consultant Robert Kreimeyer at 1-800-800-7592, or 641-740-0754.