Guardian Disability Insurance Brokerage

When is the right time to buy disability insurance? Do I need disability insurance?
by Anthony Delvecchio

Should I hold off until my income grows? I am only 25 years old. Is it necessary at my age to have a policy? These are some of the questions I encounter on a daily basis as a broker in the insurance business. They are not that simple to answer but I will try. Let’s start with the first one:

When is the right time to buy?
I would say that the right time to buy is at the point when you realize that if you could no longer earn an income you wouldn't know what would happen to you. Would you lose the house? Go into debt? Become depressed? I don’t know when the right time is to buy disability insurance, but I know I could not survive without a steady income. I guess you have to ask yourself if you could survive. What sacrifices would you have to make if your ability to earn an income was taken away from you. This leads us into the second question

Do I need disability insurance?
We insure everything; our health, cars, house, heck even our pets. I still find it hard to believe that a large portion of the working population does not protect their income. Why is the one thing that provides all the luxuries we enjoy left uninsured? Yes disability insurance can be on the expensive side, but is it a price too steep to pay? I do not think so. A good disability policy should cost you about 1-3% of your income. For a small piece of your income you can buy a great policy that protects your income and gives you the comfort of knowing that if something were to happen to you there is a safety net for you and your family. I do not need to bore you with disability insurance statistics about becoming disabled before retirement age. If you are reading this article I’m guessing you have been down that road already and know the odds. In today’s world with the technological advances we have made many illnesses and injuries that once killed are now curable. That is not to say you will be able to continue to work and earn an income either. Summing this question up, I think we all can find more positives in having this valuable insurance as opposed to not having it.

Why should you buy insurance while you are so young?
More and more I am seeing “twenty somethings” interested in disability insurance. I can’t express how happy I am to see this trend. Typically you are at your healthiest in your twenties. Your income may not be as high as it will be in the future, but with age can come changes in health as well. With the market today for disability insurance and the way policies are written, a 25 year old can buy a great policy for a minimal amount and have all the Future Increase Options which allows the insured to purchase additional coverage later without medical underwriting (subject to financial underwriting). By locking yourself into a non-cancelable, guaranteed renewable policy you are helping protect your insurability in the future, regardless of changes in health. A great example is of a good friend of mine who bought a policy while in his mid twenties. He was working at his desk one day when his vision started blurring up. Trying to shake it off he kept to his task. Without warning he lost total eye-sight. Luckily there was a doctor’s office nearby. He was diagnosed with diabetes. At the age of 27 he was considered uninsurable. Since he had a policy in force already and had purchased the maximum future increase option available, he was able to increase his benefits to full potential despite the fact he was considered uninsurable to all other carriers. Do you think he ever thought he was going to have to face this health issue at such a young age? Most young people don’t think so, but at any age health concerns and accidents can happen.

I hope this article helped point out some of the major reasons why it is so important to protect your income. There are some situations you just can’t control but you can at least protect yourself from losing everything. Why should you buy disability insurance? Why wouldn’t you?