How and Where to Buy Disability Insurance

There are a number of different places to get disability insurance from. You should first check and see if your employer offer any. If not, or if it is not enough, then check into getting more coverage yourself.

From Your Employer

Many people can get disability insurance from the companies they work for. This has its advantages and disadvantages. The advantages include that it may free or really cheap, easy to get even if your health is bad. Disadvantages are that it will only be good for as long as you work for that company and you may not get much if any choices of options.

Other Places to Get Disability Insurance

If your workplace doesn't offer any disability insurance, or not enough - there are many other ways and places to buy it from. These include finding insurance agents that sell this type. If you belong to some type of professional or trade association they may offer disability insurance also.

Some companies providing this type of insurance are Principal Financial Group, UnumProvident Corp., Hartford Life Insurance Co., CNA, Standard Insurance Co., MetLife, Jefferson Pilot Financial, Guardian Life Insurance Co., Prudential, Reliance Standard and Aetna US Healthcare.

Additional Information

- If your employer offers short term disability insurance, keep in mind that it may not be enough - you may want to check into long term insurance also. Check to see if it pays for non work related injuries and illness too and for how long the coverage lasts.

- Group coverage may be cheaper - but may be more restrictive and price may go up a lot.

- Don't forget that disability insurance isn't just for accidents - many people, even ones who are otherwise young and healthy can still get serious illnesses that could prevent you from working.

- Even if your employer pays long term disability it may not cover you if you have only a partial disability. If this case you may still be able to work - but not make as much money as before and have difficulty supporting your children.

- If you buy supplemental disability insurance to add to what your employer offers - try to find something with residual coverage, a future purchase option and the ability to increase your coverage if needed.

- A long term policy will start to pay you after your short term policy period ends. And it will pay you some percent of your regular salary, for example, 50, 60 or 80% of what you would otherwise make.

- Some long term policies may have premiums as low as $180.

- If you are paying for the insurance yourself, rather than your employer paying it, you won't pay taxes on your benefits. If your employers it, they will most likely pay it in pretax money, so you will have to pay taxes on the benefits.

In summary, if you are looking for good disability insurance try to find something that:

- will cover you until you are 65

- Has a COLA option

- has a future purchase option

- has residual disability coverage

- has a longer waiting period

Want to learn more? See Part 1: Disability Insurance - What is it and Why in the World Should Any Woman Care? and Part 2: disability insurance glossary.