As a Lawyer/Attorney, you have invested a tremendous amount of time, money, and effort gaining the knowledge and skills you need to do your job. Disability Insurance for Lawyers is an essential piece of financial coverage in today’s modern world for your profession.
After making such a commitment to become a lawyer/attorney, you need to keep these questions in mind:
- “What will I do for income if I can
no longer see clients because of
an illness or injury?” - “How long could I and my family
maintain our current lifestyle if I couldn’t work?”
Disability Insurance For Lawyers – Why Do I Need It?
- Disability Insurance for Lawyers will enable you to continue paying for rent/mortgage, groceries, child care, tuition, entertainment, etc. while you aren’t able to work.
Critical Points To Remember As A Lawyer/Attorney
- If you stop working, the reality is that your primary source of income stops immediately. If you can’t work, how will you earn money? Disability Insurance for Lawyers will greatly help you.
- Lawyers went to school specifically to practice law so it is unlikely they will take any other job other than that of being a lawyer. This will extend the period of recovery from illness or injury.
- Attorneys with employer-sponsored group disability insurance almost always find the cap on monthly benefits to be significantly lower than their regular income, negatively affecting cash flow in the event of illness or injury.
Special Considerations For Your Disability Insurance Policy
- Total Disability should be defined in your policy as “Own Occupation”. This term means that you will be considered disabled and unable to work if you can not execute the duties of your own occupation instead of generalizing to any occupation. Considering this definition, an attorney should be able to collect benefits as long as that person can not practice law. This provision makes sure that you will be protected until you can do your exact job.
- The definition of Residual (or Partial) Disability should be “Loss of Income”. While more expensive than “Time & Duties”, Loss of Income ensures your benefit will make up the difference in your pre-disability income up to a set percentage (usually 80%-90%) until you can earn that amount on your own. Since it may take several months to rebuild a client base once you return to work, Loss of Income is necessary to cover your income until things improve for you in your business.
Depending on your specific circumstances and specialty, other provisions may be necessary to add to your policy to make sure that you are successfully protected when you can not work.
Disability Insurance for Lawyers is key to have in order to fully protect yourself in your profession. To discuss your options and customize a policy, please call us at (800) 788-8921 or fill out our brief Contact Form to be contacted by an advisor directly.