Attorney Disability Insurance

A disability insurance policy is a legal contract, and every disability insurance company produces a different contract. As an attorney, if you take one look at a disability insurance specimen policy, you will understand that no two disability insurance policies are the same. Every definition in a disability insurance policy is different with different carriers, so we invite you to compare the language in ProVider Plus to any other policy on the market. ProVider Plus, offered by Berkshire Life Insurance Company of America, may indeed be the most comprehensive level of disability insurance protection an attorney can own. The fact that you are in our best occupational classification means you also get the best rate we can offer anybody.

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What to Look for In a Disability Insurance Policy as an Attorney

There a few key features that make ProVider Plus an excellent choice for attorneys.

1. Own-Occupation Definition of Total Disability

You must read the “Definition of Total Disability” in any company’s disability insurance specimen policy. Don't just rely on a proposal or quote, usually that language is just paraphrased. The definition of total disability, which obviously defines when you may collect benefits, in ProVider Plus is the most comprehensive definition available in the market today.

A lawyer may get a pure own-occupation definition to age 65, or lifetime if he or she chooses the graded lifetime indemnity for total disability rider. Not every disability insurance company has a definition like this, most of them start out the same way, and then insert language at the end that says “so long as you are not engaged in any other occupation.” The least comprehensive definitions in the industry will say that they will pay you so long as you can't perform “any other occupations” for which you are qualified by education, training, or experience.

2. Recovery Benefit For Up To The Entire Benefit Period

The optional residual disability rider is also a recovery benefit up to the entire benefit period. As an attorney, this may be the most important aspect of the contract. You are most likely a fee-for-service professional, and your income is tied to your billable hours. If you cannot work, you cannot produce revenue to the firm, and therefore will have difficulty generating income for an extended period of time. Depending on your current employment situation, some of you are going to be more exposed than others. If you are in a smaller firm, or own your own firm, when you come back to work full time after being disabled, your income may not shoot back up to what it was before you were disabled. You may have been totally disabled for a year, but you could be residually disabled for some time while you rebuild your practice.

When you are disabled, your clients get re-assigned, or go somewhere else for legal help. They don't have the ability of waiting around for you to recover from your illness. So when you do come back to work, you will need a residual disability rider like the one in ProVider Plus that does not have a loss of time or duties requirement. ProVider Plus may be one of two or three DI contracts left in the industry that does not require a loss of time or duties to pay a residual claim; it only requires a loss of income resulting from a sickness or injury. Therefore, when you recover from your sickness or injury, the recovery benefit is available up to the length of your benefit period until you financially recover as well, not just until you physically recover. Depending on your employment situation, this may be the most important aspect of the disability policy for you.

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Partner in a Law Firm

It is common for a partner in a law firm to have insufficient income protection, especially when the entire firm has group long term disability protection for all employees. While the group LTD may cover the first $5,000 or $10,000 a month in disability insurance benefits, there is often a gap with higher income earners. Our firm has custom solutions available for law firms of all sizes, and we have the ability to protect the highest income earning partners as well. We can put together a program of guaranteed issue supplemental disability insurance for the partners, which will reduce the gap in income protection many suffer from today. It is quite common for us to review a firm's LTD benefits to discover you are paying more than you need to on the LTD. We may recommend reducing the LTD, and using that money to purchase guaranteed issue individual policies for the partners. The end result is usually no reduction in benefits for employees who didn't need $10,000 a month in LTD, and increased protection for the highest earning members of the firm.

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