If you‘re like most dentists, you bought a long term disability insurance policy years ago when you started practicing, stuffed the policy in a filing cabinet and forgot about it. Long term disability insurance policies are treated like life insurance policies – you’re glad you have it, you hate paying the premiums, and you’d rather not think about it.
This all changes when something happens – an accident, an illness, carpel tunnel or a back injury that stops you from practicing dentistry or forces you to curtail your practice.
That’s why you have long term disability insurance coverage. But do you have any idea of what your policy is worth? Will it cover your bills if you have to stop practicing? What do all these terms mean? Or worse, will the insurance company deny your claim?
Do you know what your Long Term Disability policy is worth?
I met a lot of your colleagues at the Greater New York Dental Meeting a few months ago. I might have even met you. Almost every dentist told me they knew they had a policy, maybe a few policies, but few had any idea what the policies were worth, or even who the coverage was with. And they didn’t expect to need them.
As it happens, I’m married to a dentist who had to stop practicing because of a disability. She had the same years of undergraduate and dentistry school training that you did. But after a few years in a successful practice, she experienced a disability and could no longer perform the tasks required to be a full time dentist. Our own experience was one of the reasons I focus on long term disability insurance matters, and why, for more than twenty years, I have represented many dentists, oral surgeons, periodontists, and others in the dental health community.
You might be less stressed about a reduced practice or stopping practicing altogether if you knew you’d be receiving $8,000 to $10,000 monthly from your Long Term Disability policies. You might be even less stressed if you knew these policies stashed in a file have a total value of $5 to $10 million over the course of your illness.
We know you won’t look at the policy until you have to, but we’re still going to ask you to consider the following:
- Every time you pay a premium, you’re counting on your long term disability insurance policy, delivering benefits when you need it.
- If you’re a corporate dentist, every time your disability insurance premium is deducted from your paycheck, you’re also counting on your disability insurance policy paying benefits when you can’t work.
- If you have both Individual (or Private) Disability Insurance and a group policy through your employer, the combination of these two kinds of policies could be more than enough to maintain your lifestyle in case of a severe illness or injury… if the insurance companies approve your claim.
Not knowing the potential value of your long term disability insurance policy may be easier than taking the time to find the policy and read it. But the time to do that is actually before you need to file a claim. Knowing what you can expect from the policy’s coverage will undoubtedly impact your decision if something bad should happen and you need to file a claim.
I can tell you the value of your policy and what you can expect from the insurance company in a quick, free, no obligation phone call. I hope you never need my services, but if you do, at least you’ll know what your policy is worth.
You are invited to call my office at 877-406-7883 or send me an email – jason@newfieldlawgroup.com. Thanks for taking the time to read this email.
