By Phil Bruen, Vice President, Group Life and Disability Products, MetLife As the annual enrollment period takes place in workplaces around the United States, human resources teams and employees have benefits on their minds. During this time, it’s important for employers to educate their workforces on how the benefits they provide can help workers achieve…
By Ted Norwood, General Counsel and Director of Representation, Integrated Benefits, Inc. The United States Social Security Administration offers two programs—confusingly named Social Security Disability Income and Supplemental Security Income—aimed at providing or supplementing the income of people who are unable to work. SSDI (also called Title II benefits) provides disability coverage for individuals who…
By Larry Alkire, Senior Vice President, Chief Marketing Officer, American Fidelity Assurance Company When Congress passed the Affordable Care Act (also known as Obamacare), the term—”pre-existing conditions”—became a household word. The ACA prevented health insurance carriers from denying you coverage, charging you more money, or refusing to pay for essential health benefits for any…
Part of the American dream is being footloose and fancy free…and whether you are relocating to be nearer family, to find a place with a lower cost of living or just to see some new scenery, you probably will move at some point in your lifetime. But in the midst of the goodbye parties, the…
When most people consider disability, they picture something catastrophic happening—an ill-timed dive off a high rock, or a speeding car hurtling into theirs—and, for the most part assume it can never happen to them. That’s why human resources experts often find it challenging to convince their employees of the importance of disability insurance even though…
Like many others in their 20s, I remember not being thrilled about the chunk of income that was taken every month by insurance. It always seemed like money that was going out and would never come back in and felt especially significant at a time when my income was low. The temptation was always to…
Disability insurance is one of the most important forms of insurance for working Americans. The financial expert Dave Ramsey calls it “a necessity.” It has been described as a valuable benefit by NPR while NBC News calls it “more important for singles than just about anyone.” Having a form of income protection for when you’re injured, ill…
Disability insurance provides critical financial protection that is very different from other insurance products. Millions of working Americans don’t have it, and many don’t fully understand what it protects. A 2017 report from LIMRA revealed that 65 percent of respondents thought that most people need disability insurance. Yet only 48 percent thought they personally needed it, and a…
By Andrew Melnyk, Chief Economist and Vice President of Research, American Council of Life Insurers Last week, Fred Schott of The Council for Disability Awareness outlined an approach to answering the following question: how many working Americans have (or don’t have) some form of private disability coverage? It is an important question because, as we know, Social…
At least 35 percent of working Americans don’t have private disability insurance. And what that means is approximately 50 million people won’t receive a paycheck if they leave work to have a baby, or are recovering from an injury or an illness. Working adults need disability (or income protection) insurance because people regularly leave work…
