Find right disability insurance
Learn about workplace disability insurance, and individual packages.
Overview
In-order to help ensure that you protect and preserve all that you have worked to create: your home, lifestyle, retirement, children, etc, Great North/Hub International Insurance has partnered with knowledgeable Disability Insurance carriers.
Our team works closely with you to provide high-quality, highly competitive strategies, and protection. Great North/Hub will work along the side of your financial advisor. We will work together to cover you and your family so when you need it the most, you will feel confident about your choices and your future. Disability insurance is a critical base for the building blocks that form your comprehensive financial strategy. We believe our clients should know how important it is to protect themselves and their family.
If you are earning an income, your current benefits should be fully reviewed to ensure that appropriate coverage is in place for you and your family. It is common for employees to have some form of group coverage that may not completely protect your income. This is where Great North/Hub Insurance can help. We will work with a variety of professionals in the disability insurance marketplace and help provide a detailed comparison to help you make the best decision for your situation.
Great North/Hub Insurance helps guide clients from all walks of life; individuals, large groups, professionals and business owners utilizing a variety of outlets to ensure our clients are in the best hands.
Disability Insurance for Business Owners
Business Loan Protection
There are many ways to get into business or to expand the business you are in. One of the quickest ways is to get a Business Loan. Many times a banking institution or a 3rd party lender may require that you have Disability Insurance to protect you from defaulting on a loan if a disabling injury or illness were to occur. Business Loan Protection can pick up your payments where you left off ensuring your credit and your business stay intact while you are recovering. If you never recover then you can rest easy knowing that your loan will be satisfied even if you never continue to work in that business again.
Business Overhead Expense Replacement
Every business has some sort of overhead expenses. This could include a mortgage or lease payment, employee salaries and benefits, short-term equipment loans, insurance premiums, and much more. If you became disabled, how would you pay your employees? And for how long? Could your business stay in the space it’s in? Would a bank be willing to loan you any money if you were disabled? These are questions business owners face in the wake of a disabling injury or illness. Business Overhead Expense Replacement (BOE) insurance can help cover those expenses. BOE is designed to buy you TIME. Time to determine if you will be able to recover and return to work, ensuring your employees are paid and bills are managed so the business can continue to operate when you come back. In the worst cases, it buys you time to develop an exit strategy so you can find a suitable buyer for your business or assets at fair market value.
Buy/Sell Agreement Funding
When partners start or begin business relationships together, it is a good idea to have a Buy/Sell Agreement established. This agreement will identify what happens to an owner’s share of the business if departure is necessary and at what terms the sale of those shares takes place. This agreement will typically establish guidelines around Death, Disability, Disagreement, Divorce, and Desired Exit. The agreement itself is designed to determine when an exit by an owner will take place and how the valuation of the shares are calculated so a fair transaction takes place. What it does not address is how the transaction is funded. Of all the “D’s”, Disability is by far the most difficult to deal with. If one of the owners become sick or injured two things become of concern:
- Who will determine if the owner is disabled?
- The injured owner or the partner(s)?
- If the disabled owner must leave, how will the sudden need for funds become available to fund the transfer of ownership?
The use of disability insurance will provide a funding mechanism that pays for the buy-out without causing the other owners to come up with personal cash and without forcing the business to dip into cash-flow. The decision, as to whether or not the owner is disabled, is now transferred to the insurance company so the owners don’t have to determine this for themselves, avoiding any conflict or lawsuits.
Disability Insurance for Employers
Group Long-Term Disability Insurance
Quality employer offered benefits are among the most appreciated aspects when evaluating job satisfaction. Group Long-Term Disability Insurance is one of the most valued benefits next to health and retirement because employees understand the importance of having a pay check. Even though this type of policy is typically employer paid, it can be designed in a way to maximize the efficiency of the policy and yet keep costs down for the employer by doing a combination of employer/employee paid benefits. DID YOU KNOW: You can create a Group LTD policy with as few as 2 employees.
Executive Benefits – “Carve-Out”
Anytime an employer can offer unique benefits that the employees value, it will raise employment satisfaction and company loyalty. In particularly, compensating your executives for their hard work and loyalty can be difficult, especially when funds may be tight. Through an Executive Benefit Carve-Out plan, you can carve out those key employees that you wish to offer unique benefits to using disability insurance. The premiums for coverage are marginal and can be deducted by the company, but the benefits received if a disability occurs will pay them tenfold compared to if you paid them the premium amount in the form of cash bonuses.
Guaranteed Issue Coverage
One of the greatest challenges in obtaining individually owned insurance is qualifying based on health. One of the biggest deterrents to owning individual insurance is the lengthy process of going through medical underwriting and the risk of having specific conditions excluded from coverage. Nearly 1 in 10 individuals will not be eligible for coverage on their own. Another 3 in 10 will have some sort of exclusions because of a health condition. As an employer, you can offer individually owned disability insurance on a Guaranteed Issue basis, meaning NO medical history reviews or exams and NO exclusions. This could be employer or employee paid depending on the size of your company. The process to set this up is very easy and the enrollment process for employees is even easier.
Key-Person Replacement
Every employer relies on their key employees to be productive and drive revenue. What would happen if one of those key employees were to become disabled for an extended period of time? Key-Person disability insurance is a product designed to compensate the Employer when a disability happens to a key employee. It typically pays a lump-sum benefit and the cash can be used for whatever is necessary to offset the costs of losing your employee. Not only would the cost of replacing that person be expensive and time consuming, but the costs due to lost productivity and retraining could also affect the ‘bottom line’. And what about the costs associated with lost knowledge, skills, and relationships or the cost of PR to ease the minds of customers? After-all is said and done the costs could be hundreds of thousands, so the loss of a key employee is a risk worth insuring.
Disability Insurance for Individuals
Income Protection
Your greatest asset is your ability to show up to work and earn an income. Your income pays for your bills, your lifestyle, and even your future. Your income drives your entire financial livelihood and without it, what would you do? Disability Insurance helps replace your income during times of injury or illness that prevent you from being able to work. But not all disability insurance is created equally (read our advisor articles to learn more). In fact, disability insurance can be VERY complex and difficult to compare between companies.
Did you know?
1 in 4 people entering the workforce will experience a disabling injury or illness for longer than 90 days before age 65.
The average paycheck received from Social Security Disability is $1,148 in 2014, which is $13,776 per year. The poverty line for a 2 person household was $15,730.
Retirement Savings Protection
When a disabling injury or illness occurs, the first thing that usually goes to the wayside is your retirement savings. The recommended contribution to retirement can be anywhere between 10-20% (consult your advisor). This may include your own contributions or contributions by your employer through a 401k matching program or the like. Disability Retirement Protection can help replace what you and your employer were contributing to your retirement prior to disability so that you can stay on track with your planned retirement and prevent having to delay your Golden Years.
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