On this episode of the Cover Your Assets podcast, Billy Gwaltney explores critical financial strategies for physicians, focusing on an often-overlooked topic: the knockout questions related to missed work when applying for Guardian’s Guaranteed Standard Issue (GSI) disability insurance. As a disability insurance specialist, Billy breaks down the crucial aspects of GSI, including what you need to know to safeguard your coverage.

Key Takeaways:

  • Guardian GSI may provide eligible residents and fellows with strong disability coverage without medical screening.
  • One key eligibility question asks whether you have missed work in the last six months.
  • A sick day, long weekend, or typical short vacation may not be an issue.
  • Extended time away, such as maternity leave, surgery recovery, or a month-long vacation, may affect eligibility.
  • Timing matters because trainees may only have a limited window before graduation or after training to access GSI.
  • Applying elsewhere first may remove eligibility for Guardian GSI.
  • Residents and fellows should understand the rules before delaying the application.

Transcript:

(00:01.836)

Welcome to the Cover Your Assets podcast, a show for the physician who understands the importance of protecting everything you’ve worked so hard to achieve. If you’re ready to find the peace of mind that only financial security can bring, let’s get started. Here’s your host, Billy Gwaltney.

Hello, welcome to the Cover Your Assets podcast. I’m your host, Billy Gwaltney. And as always, it’s really good to be with you. Today’s topic is making sure you’re aware of the knockout question regarding missing work when you’re applying for guardians guaranteed standard issue or GSI disability insurance. I am a disability insurance specialist. work with physicians nationwide.

one of the endorsed brokers for Guardian’s Guaranteed Standard Issue or GSI, Disability Insurance for Residents and Fellows at numerous facilities across the country. And a common mishap that can occur is when Guardian is making their best coverage available with the best definitions, everything that you would normally have to go through a deep dive into your medical history to be approved for,

They’re making it available with all the discounts without any medical screening whatsoever. There are a couple of gatekeeper questions. And one of those is, have you missed work within the last six months? If you answer that you have missed work, it can knock you out of the GSI until the answer to that would be no. So in other words, until a six month period has passed where you haven’t missed work.

Now, taking a sick day is not the issue. That wouldn’t kick you out. Taking a long weekend wouldn’t kick you out. And likely, if you took a week’s vacation, that wouldn’t kick you out. if you miss work, if you go on a month vacation, that’s a problem. If you go on maternity leave and you come back, that’s an issue until you can answer that you have not missed work for 180 days.

(02:14.988)

you would not be eligible for Guardian’s GSI. The issue with that is, obviously, if a disability occurred in the meantime, there’s no coverage. you cannot, another knockout question or removing eligibility is if you apply elsewhere. So you wouldn’t want to go get disability insurance somewhere else, unless you know you can get it. You would not be able to then apply for the GSI ever.

But if you’re nearing the end of training, if you’re nearing graduation and someone is coming back from maternity leave and they have only 90 days until they’re no longer eligible for the GSI, then they would not be eligible for the GSI because they need the answer to be that they’ve not missed any work in the last six months. Again, if someone took a month’s vacation, that would be a concern.

If someone had surgery and was out for two to four weeks or something like that, that would be a concern as well. So the key is to get the insurance when you haven’t missed any work for 180 days. To kick the can down the road, and this is one of those unexpected, kind of like a landmine that you can step on something and the result is not good and it’s not an intuitive thing to think about.

So just trying to get the message out there for clients and physicians who are looking at the GSI to make sure that you take care of that prior to missing work, a significant amount of work, or it may not be as significant as you think. A couple of weeks can kick you out. So I hope this has been helpful. I’d be happy to discuss your situation in more detail. The devil is in the detail. So I want to help you if you need it. Feel free to message me here.

at 704-270-2376. Again, 704-270-2376. Thank you for your time. Thanks for listening to the Cover Your Assets podcast, an odd conduit media production. New episodes drop every two weeks. If you’ve enjoyed the conversation, subscribe, rate, and review this podcast. For more tips and advice, visit the website and YouTube channel. Check the show notes for links.

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Join us next time for another episode dedicated to helping physicians like you get your disability insurance right and protect your way of life.