Disability Insurance Rates
When shopping disability insurance rates, there are at least three factors you should consider.
You need to decide how much of your income you need replaced. Normally, even the best insurance providers only cover 60 to 65 percent of the wages you currently earn.
Do you need that much of your income replaced to survive while you are on the road to recovery? How much of your income goes toward the family’s monthly budget; for home rent or mortgage, utilities, gasoline or transportation, food, phone and clothing.
The next factor you need to consider is how long a time period you are going to need insured replacement funds. This sometimes is hard to calculate, but you need to stay conservative in your calculations.
Do you need it for a year, or until you reach retirement age. These factors affect the cost of insurance premiums. If it is offered, do you want a cost of living increase built into the package, as this also ads to the cost of the insurance premium?
The other piece of information you’ll need to know is how long is the waiting period going to be before you will be sent any of the policy monies. That is the grace period in the policy that a person has to wait before the disability insurance plan starts paying you, if you incur a disability.
The longer you can wait, the less expensive the premium is going to be. Most financial experts
recommend that a family have a minimum of three to six months worth of family budget funds set aside in a special account just in case of emergency.
However, with the current state of the economy, many families have been forced to tap into those accounts just to survive during this recession. And, the vast majority of families today are predicted to be just three paychecks from being homeless.
There is another option, and that is Social Security Insurance benefits. Each U.S. worker must work for a certain period of time before they build up enough credits in their SSI accounts to allow them to take advantage of this program.
It would be a good idea for you to check with your local SSI office to see if you have enough credits to be eligible for this program. Even if you are eligible, you have to have 100 percent disability before you can qualify for the payments, and even then it is a difficult process.
Additionally, you should be aware that all disability insurance benefits are subject to taxation. So, it is a good idea to pay the tax on premiums once you have disability insurance in place.
Otherwise, you could find yourself only receiving 50 percent of your salary while you are disabled, and then having to pay income tax off the top of that which would further reduce your benefit.
It appears that Zurich Direct disability insurance rates are the lowest for the coverage offered.
AFLAC is another very competitive firm. However, it is an excellent idea to call an independent insurance agent.
An independent insurer can offer your coverage to several companies at once and ask that they bid on your policy. That should insure you getting the best disability insurance rate.