Author Archives: Billy Gwaltney

Summary

In this episode, Billy Gwaltney breaks down the essential details physicians and medical trainees should understand about securing disability insurance discounts, including grace periods, medical considerations, and tips for locking in rates early.

Key topics

• The importance of securing disability insurance coverage before or shortly after graduation
• The four top-tier carriers offering trainee discounts: Mass Mutual, Guardian, Principal, and Ameritas
• Grace periods: 90 days for Mass Mutual and Guardian; 180 days for Principal and Ameritas
• How health and moving during the grace period can impact your rates
• Strategies for starting coverage at lower amounts and scaling later
• Why it’s crucial to act promptly to secure discounts and maintain favorable rates
• Additional resources and ways to connect for personalized advice

Key Takeaways

1. Residents and fellows may still qualify for trainee disability insurance discounts after graduation, but the window depends on the carrier.
2. MassMutual and Guardian currently offer a 90-day grace period after training ends.
3. Principal and Ameritas currently offer a 180-day grace period after training ends.
4. Waiting too long can create risk if health changes, new prescriptions appear, or medical screening becomes more complicated.
5. Moving to a different state may affect disability insurance rates and should be considered before delaying coverage.
6. Once a trainee discount is secured, it can typically be kept long term.
7. Physicians may be able to start with a lower coverage amount and increase coverage later using a benefit increase rider.

Transcript

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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.

Hi there, welcome to today’s episode of the Cover Your Assets podcast. I’m your host, Billy Gwaltney, and it’s good to be with you as it always is. In this episode, we’re going to cover trainee discounts. I work with physicians nationwide, helping them secure their private specialty disability coverage. And a common question for residents and fellows is, hey, is there a grace period for getting the discount? A lot of planning and transition and

moving across the country and other things are going on as people approach graduation. Sometimes they’re hoping to take care of this sooner than later. Other times they’re wanting to wait as long as they can. So it’s a very valid question. There are four top tier specialty carriers, Mass Mutual, Guardian, Principal, and Ameritas. They’re all four excellent. They all four offer trainee discounts. They vary in the grace period that they will give you in terms of how long after

graduation, post graduation, you can still access the trainee discount. Mass Mutual and Guardian are currently 90 days from the date that you finished training, your last day of training. So if you finished June 30th, you have until September 30th to get the trainee discount. If you apply in October, you don’t get the trainee discount. So that’s just how that works. Principal and Ameritas have a

180 day or six month grace period. So again, same example, you graduate June 30th, you have until December 30th or 31st to get the trainee discount. Now, of course, if you’re going through medical screening, you know, you’re kind of rolling the dice as far as being healthy ish, you don’t start any new prescriptions, you don’t have any health conditions that pop up, anything new on your chart that could make the medical screening more muddy.

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Also, if you’re moving, then the state you live in when you buy the insurance can change the rates. You want to check the details of that. I’ve got other podcasts that I’ve covered in that on that topic. And also, you know, it just depends on whether or not you’re disabled, I mean, or whether or not you’re at work. Those are some of the questions that are required. You know, they don’t seem like they’re all that big of a deal, but.

They can be, if you back yourself into a corner, waiting as long as possible. So once you get the discount, you keep the discount forever. That’s the key. So it is important to try to get the discount if you can. You don’t have to buy the maximum amount of coverage up front. Depending on the carrier, you can start at $2,500. You can start at as low as $1,000. mean, some carriers will let you go lower.

as a trainee so that you can check the box, get the discount, take care of the coverage and making sure it’s in place and then use the benefit increase rider to scale coverage higher later once you’re an attending based on your attending income. So there are lot of ways to secure the coverage and get what you need and your family’s counting on you having if you can’t do your specialty and put that in place without waiting until the last minute.

and trying to squeeze in the door under the deadline. But happy to discuss your situation in more detail if it would help. Love answering questions. Message me here 704-270-2376. Again, 704-270-2376. Thank you. Look forward to hopefully speaking with you.

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Subscribe, rate and review this podcast. For more tips and advice, visit the website and YouTube channel. Check the show notes for links. Join us next time for another episode dedicated to helping physicians like you get your disability insurance right and protect your way of life.

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If you have more questions, please feel free to visit my website. You can also find me on LinkedIn and all major social media platforms. If you need to call my number again, in case you missed it during the episode, is 704-270-2376. Again.

That’s 704-270-2376. My name is Billy Gwaltney and I hope you have a great day. Thank you.

In this episode of Cover Your Assets, disability insurance specialist Billy Gwaltney addresses whether physicians should prioritize paying down debt or increasing private disability coverage. He emphasizes the importance of having adequate insurance before debt repayment, especially for physicians facing high student loans and career uncertainties.

Key  topics

• Importance of disability insurance for physicians
• Risks of relying on employer policies
• Timing of insurance purchase relative to debt payoff
• Balancing debt repayment with insurance coverage

Key Takeaways

1. Physicians often face a real tension between paying down debt and increasing disability coverage.
2. Billy recommends having adequate disability insurance in place before aggressively paying off debt.
3. A physician’s ability to work in their specialty is their most important financial asset.
4. Employer disability policies may not provide the same claim protection as private specialty coverage.
5. Waiting to increase coverage can be risky because illness or injury may make it too late to qualify.
6. Strong disability coverage can help protect income, debt repayment plans, family needs, and long-term financial goals.

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.

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Hi there. Welcome to this episode of the Cover Your Assets podcast. I’m Billy Gwaltney, your host. It’s great to be with you. Today’s episode, I’m going to answer the question, should I pay down debt or increase my private disability coverage? I’ve gotten this question a number of times, sometimes from people in training, other times when they’re thinking about buying insurance at all, other times

from new attendings who really want to pay down a lot of debt as soon as possible because they’re finally making an attending income and they really would like to put off increasing their disability coverage. And I totally get that. It makes sense to me. I would be tempted to do that as well. Put everything else off and throw every nickel I can towards the debt.

Obviously getting rid of the medical school debt, is massive. It’s one reason I love working with physicians. I admire what you ladies and gentlemen have to go through to get where you are. And then for the privilege, when you come out of training and start making a decent living, hopefully to then have to pay down a lot of debt that got you there. So I understand that.

I do have some words of caution and that is whether you’re thinking about it as a trainee or an attending, not getting insurance, the issues with that, either not buying it or not having enough, is that if the bad day shows up, your plan B has to be in place prior to that day occurring. You can’t fix your plan B once plan A is not working.

So plan A is to have a long productive career, pay down the debt and save money and never need insurance. But plan B needs to be the best insurance on the planet so that if you did become disabled, you can still pay down the debt and you can still live in the house you live in and hopefully your children can go to the school you want them to go to and your dreams don’t all disintegrate in front of you. And if you don’t have insurance, those dreams are likely going to disintegrate.

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relying on an employer policy. Some new attendings think that, I’m going to work at this employer where they say they’re going to pay me 15 or 20,000 a month in my group disability. Good luck collecting on that. Our clients on claim, over half of them never see a nickel from their employer policy just because the definitions are so bad. Even if they call it own occupation, they define that very differently than how this private specialty coverage defines it.

I’ve got plenty of podcasts and happy to discuss in as much detail about the difference in the definitions and private coverage versus group or employer coverage. It’s like night and day in terms of actually what happens at claim time. But staying to the point about should you increase versus paying down debt? I would say that to the extent you want to have insurance in place,

to be able to maintain your way of life and hopefully also pay down debt, whether it’s through a student loan repayment rider or whether it’s through just having enough disability coverage to still pay down the debt and save for retirement and so forth, then yes, you need to buy it and not put it off. Because if you put it off and the illness or injury shows up and you can’t do your specialty, then you’re toast if you don’t have enough insurance.

The category that this falls into, if you’re not careful, is the same penny wise and dollar not so wise, where we can get so focused on maximizing every nickel and dime towards the debt that we shortchange smart and prudent financial decisions that we need to make. And your number one asset as a physician is your specialty, your ability to do your job and do it well and make a good living doing that.

And that’s going to produce a paycheck every two weeks or once a month or however frequently you get paid. And that’s a nice paycheck that your family’s counting on. So ensure that Warren Buffett insures his most important assets. Insurance makes sense. Whether you’re a billionaire or not a billionaire. Insurance is just smart business when it comes to your most important assets. So bottom line, yes, I would, I want to go on record recommending that you

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increase your disability coverage or buy disability coverage and not put it off until you’re debt free. It’s a risky approach. Obviously if it works, more power to you. But if you’re Plan A, it doesn’t take much for an illness to hurt back or herniated disc and you can’t do your job and then it’s too late to add to it at that point. So factor that in. I certainly understand the

kind of the angst behind making that decision. makes sense. So consider this as food for thought. I would love to discuss your situation in more detail. Message me here. Text me 704-270-2376. Once again, 704-270-2376. Thank you as always. See you next 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. Join us next time for another episode dedicated to helping physicians like you get your disability insurance right and protect your way of life.

In this of Cover Your Assets episode, host Billy Gwaltney clarifies how disability insurance rates are determined, why they vary between brokers, and how to ensure you’re getting the best coverage without overpaying. Physician listeners will learn what to look for in policies and how to compare offers effectively.

Takeaways

• Insurance rates are fixed and do not vary between brokers for the same coverage.
• Always compare apples to apples; differences in coverage or riders cause rate variations.
• Beware of fluff riders and unnecessary add-ons that inflate premiums.
• The devil is in the details: coverage definitions and benefits matter most.

For more tips and advice, connect with the CYA Podcast on YouTube and visit the Professional Planning Group online. Stay up to date with Billy on Facebook and LinkedIn.

In this episode of Cover Your Assets, host Billy Gwaltney addresses whether residents and fellows should wait until graduation to purchase guaranteed standard issue disability insurance. He covers the benefits, timing, and strategic considerations for securing disability coverage during training using his expertise in disability insurance.

Key  topics:

• Eligibility and timing for guaranteed standard issue disability insurance
• The importance of securing disability insurance during training
• How insurance carriers manage growth and risk with GSI
• Strategies for affordable coverage as a resident or fellow
• Long-term benefits of early disability insurance purchase

Transcript:

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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.

Welcome to today’s episode of the Cover Your Assets podcast. I’m your host, Billy Gwaltney, and it is good to be with you as always. Today’s topic is covering a question that I was asked recently by a resident, which is, is it OK to wait until I get to graduation before I buy guaranteed standard issue disability insurance? And that’s a good question. It’s a valid question.

And I went over the answer and I think they were slightly surprised because some of the answers are not necessarily intuitive. And so I give them credit for wanting to know. The answer is technically you are eligible for the GSI, guaranteed standard issue, which is the best disability insurance on the planet, best contracts where the insurance carrier completely waives the medical screening component of it.

And this is eligible for you if you are a resident or fellow at the facility where they are allowing it to be purchased as long as they allow the program to exist. What’s important to know is that insurance carriers are not required by law or statute or any other reason to offer guaranteed standard issue. The only reason they do it is to incentivize growth over a period of time. And there will be a time when they will shut it down.

not shut down the access to their disability insurance, but shut down the no medical screening component of it. There are actuaries at insurance carriers that are essentially nervous all the time. And they are going to reach a point where they’re just too concerned about adverse selection, which means when there’s no medical screening, the people that know that they have medical history

Patrick Childers (02:11.544)

a lot of times the most significant medical history. Those are the ones that are first in line typically as soon as they find out about it. And that scares insurance companies. can bankrupt insurance companies if they had to pay out too many claims. Now these carriers have been around for close to 200 years, so they know what they’re doing. And so they’re gonna spur the growth. They waive the medical screening. They allow you to have access. And it’s there until they decide not to allow it. Technically,

They don’t have to announce it. They could stop today. There’s no, they generally would give an off ramp of maybe 30 days or to the end of the month, or sometimes they’ll announce it, hey, this is the last resident graduating season, we’re gonna do this. But generally, they’re shorter on the announcement because they’ll just make a decision that says we have enough growth and we’re gonna kind of turn back.

the spicket, the water spicket, so that the water doesn’t come out as fast, so that we’re not growing as fast, because their actuaries actually get nervous about that. So it’s not necessarily intuitive. People tend to think insurance carriers are greedy. They want your money. They’ll always take your business. They do want to grow, but they want smart growth. And so there are actually times when they don’t want your money. They don’t want your business, unless you go through their medical screening, which is where you sign a HIPAA and they ask 30

you know, 25 or 30 medical questions, they do a script check and they reserve the right to decline you or rate you or exclude pre-existing conditions. So yes, technically you can wait. Is it wise to wait? That’s an entirely different discussion. And I know that residents and fellows, clients we work with, the budgets are really tight typically. And so they’re just looking to kick the can down the road if they can. And I would too.

And so that’s why I think that’s a valid question to at least understand. The other thing to understand is that the insurance carrier may not require you to buy 5,000 or 7,500 or 8,000 or whatever of initial benefit. Maybe you could start lower. One carrier we work with will let you go down to $1,000 a month. Another one will let you go down to 2,500 a month if you’re a resident and 4,000 a month if you are a fellow.

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So you could start off lower and one carrier offers a graded or increasing premium that starts off cheaper and gets more expensive. Now you ultimately overpay for that, but that would allow you to on a tight budget get the coverage without having to wait. The key to understand is that once you get the insurance, they can never take it away from you. Okay, so if you buy the insurance on Monday and you pay the premium for that,

and the insurance carrier says on Tuesday we’re no longer offering this to anyone, you’re in. You’re in forever. It’s non-cancellable and guaranteed renewable. They can never take it away from you. They can never cancel the policy. They can never change the rate or the definitions. So the key is just getting it. Find out what that entry point is that your budget can handle and check the box.

because then you can, number one, you have coverage in case something happens in the meantime while you’re still in training. We have had clients get disabled in training. So it’s, you know, there’s no suspension of the risk of life until you become an attending, as if being disabled in training is impossible. And I think obviously, you know that, but so you have the coverage, but also you have the ability to flip the switch and increase up to 15,000. Once you become an attending with the same definitions, the same discount.

no medical questions, and so you’re securing your future. Your most important asset will always be, as a physician, your ability to earn a significant income over your career. Ensuring that is just smart business. It’s the key. It’s the foundational piece to any financial plan, making sure that your private specialty disability coverage is in place. Your employer group long-term disability policy is much more difficult to ever collect.

it would be unwise to assume that you’re going to get anything from that. You want to base your plan on can your bills and your dreams and your retirement be funded with your private specialty disability coverage benefit. Technically you can wait, there’s no law that requires you to buy it now, but it is buyer beware. It will also cost more if you’re older when you buy it. If you’re disabled then you no longer can get it.

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If you apply elsewhere, you’re forever removed from eligibility for the GSI. And if you miss any work, one carrier has a six month, if you miss any work in the six months leading up to the application, they reserve the right to remove your eligibility. Now, if you miss a sick day or take a long weekend, that’s okay probably. But if you are out on maternity leave, if you’re out for surgery, if you take an extended vacation, those can be deal killers for the GSI.

So get it while it’s there, put it to bed, and then move on down the road. That’s the wisest approach that I can advise someone to take. I’d be happy to discuss your situation in more detail. Every situation is unique. So message me here if you’d like to discuss further 704-270-2376. Again, 704-270-2376. Thanks for your time. I appreciate it.

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

On this episode of the Cover Your Assets podcast, Billy Gwaltney dives into a crucial topic for medical professionals: the eligibility rules for Ameritas GSI, or Guaranteed Standard Issue, disability insurance for residents and fellows. If you’re a physician in training, knowing the nuances of this insurance can provide the financial security you need. In this episode, Billy uses his expertise in disability insurance to break down the key eligibility requirements and tips to avoid common pitfalls.

Key Takeaways:

• Ameritas GSI may provide eligible residents and fellows with private specialty disability coverage without medical screening.
• The policy can include strong features such as true specialty own-occupation coverage, enhanced residual benefits, full recovery benefits, and future increase options.
• Eligible physicians may be able to increase coverage up to $15,000 per month.
• Residents and fellows generally need to be currently training at a facility where Ameritas GSI is available.
• Applying for disability insurance elsewhere through medical screening can remove eligibility for Ameritas GSI.
• Trainee discounts may apply to coverage purchased through the GSI opportunity.
• Because there may be no exceptions after applying elsewhere, residents and fellows should understand the rules before starting the application process.

Transcript:

(00:01.848)

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.

Hi, welcome to today’s episode of the Cover Your Assets podcast. I’m your host, Billy Gwaltney, and it’s really good to be with you as it always is. Today we’re covering the topic, we’re answering the question, what are the eligibility rules for the Ameritas GSI, or guaranteed standard issue, disability insurance for residents and fellows? I’m an independent disability broker, work with physicians nationwide.

And I’m one of the endorsed brokers for the Ameritas GSI at a particular facility and can get access to numerous facilities across the country to the GSI. This is their best coverage, the true specialty on occupation definition of disability, the enhanced residual or partial benefit, the full recovery benefit. You can increase coverage up to a total of $15,000 per month.

The benefit period is to age 65 or 67. It’s fully portable, non-cancellable, guaranteed renewable, which means you can cancel at any time, but the insurance carrier cannot. They can’t change the rate or change the definitions. You get the trainee discounts on the coverage on everything you buy up to the $15,000. And there is no medical screening required. They completely waive the medical screening.

There are a couple of gatekeeper questions where you need to be actively at work performing your duties. You also need to be currently employed at the facility where you’re a resident or fellow. The biggest eligibility deal killer is if you have applied for disability insurance with any company via medical screening. If you do, then you cannot get the guaranteed standard issued.

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is just not available. So the only eligibility requirements are currently in training at a facility where it’s available to you, where you’re eligible for it as a resident or fellow there, and you cannot apply for disability insurance anywhere else. You would be surprised how many people don’t know that that’s a rule. And so they just apply and it doesn’t go the way they expect. And so they start looking for the GSI and they can’t get it.

Make sure you do your due diligence. Ignorance is not, unfortunately, a valid reason or excuse. And that is something that you can’t recover from. There are no exceptions to it. So message me here if you’d like to discuss your situation. If you want access to the guaranteed standard issue, I can certainly help you do that and at least point you in the right direction as well. 704-270-2376. You can text me and then we can schedule a time to talk.

Again, 704-270-2376. Thank you for your time. I’m grateful for that. Take care. 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. Join us next time for another episode dedicated to helping physicians like you

Get your disability insurance right and protect your way of life.

This episode of Cover Your Assets with your host Billy Gwaltney explores the eligibility rules for Guardian’s Guaranteed Standard Issue (GSI) Disability Insurance for residents and fellows, clarifying common misconceptions and providing practical guidance. 

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. Welcome to today’s episode of the Cover Your Assets podcast. I’m your host, Billy Gwaltney, and as always, it’s good to be with you.

Today’s topic is what are the eligibility rules for the Guardian Guaranteed Standard Issue or GSI Disability Insurance for residents and fellows. I work with physicians across the country and one of the endorsed brokers for Guardians Guaranteed Standard Issue at a number of residency and fellowship training facilities across the country.

And it is a common question. There’s a lot of misinformation out there about how do you stay eligible, who is eligible, who isn’t eligible for it. And so we’ll cover that today. First, the key to remember is that this is the best coverage on the planet with one of the four top tier carriers that offer the best specialty coverage for physicians. And every now and then a top company will want to increase their growth.

sooner rather than later and one of the easiest ways to do that or quickest ways to do that most effective ways is to remove all of the medical screening required that’s typically required for their best coverage. And that’s what Guardian has done is called GSI, guaranteed standard issue, where they pick certain locations across the country. There’s no rhyme or reason as to how they pick them from a

you know, what would be intuitive for an average person to think about. So they pick these locations and then they say, okay, residents and fellows, if they’re in training here and they meet our guidelines, they can get our best coverage with the best definitions, the true specialty on occupation definition of disability, the enhanced partial benefit, the long-term recovery benefit, the future increase option or benefit increase rider. You ultimately can end up with 15,000 a month of

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private specialty coverage and they completely waive the medical screening. In order to get this, there are a few things you have to adhere to. One is you have to currently be a resident or fellow at that facility, at that employer, and there’s no negotiating that. You can’t have been a trainee there last year. You can’t be a trainee that’s going to be there next year. It needs to be current. That’s the first thing. The second,

metric is that you cannot have applied elsewhere first. If you have applied for disability insurance with any other insurance carrier, then you are removed from eligibility for the guardian guaranteed standard issue policy. Technically, it goes back five years, I believe, but for most trainees, that means that that five-year window will not pass with you being able to say you haven’t applied in the last five years while you’re still a trainee.

So effectively, if any trainee applies with a different company, they’re just removed from eligibility. You can apply with Guardian and still have access to the guaranteed standard issue disability insurance if you’re working with an endorsed broker. That’s the key. You need to work with someone who has access to the GSI. This is a one-shot deal.

If you apply for the guaranteed standard issue or ask for it and they issue the policy and you don’t sign for it within the allotted time that they typically allow which is usually 30 days or so Then that’s it. You can’t come back and get it later So let’s say you decide in January you want to do it then you get sidetracked you forget and you’re like, well I still have

a year left of training, I’ll revisit it later, you come back in six months and want to get the GSI, you can’t do it. They won’t let you do it. So you get one window and once that window closes, that’s it. Lastly, and this is kind of the one that sneaks up on people, is that there is a knockout question. And the question reads, I wrote it down so that I can read it exactly, have you been continuously at work full-time performing the usual duties of your occupation for the past six months?

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you want to check yes to that. If you have been out of work, like a day or two here or there for PTO or a sick day or a long weekend, that kind of thing is okay. Usually a week’s vacation would be okay. But if someone takes a month off to leave the country and go somewhere else, or if someone starts maternity leave or someone’s out for surgery and they come back, Guardian

reserves the right to not allow you to access the GSI. And I’ve seen situations where they won’t let you do it. And then in order to able to access it later, that answer needs to be yes. You need to allow six months to have passed since you missed a day. And so if you try to time that toward the end of your graduation, you can back yourself into a corner and not have access to the GSI because there’s not enough time for six months to pass before you graduate.

There is a grace period of 90 days after you graduate to access the GSI, but it is a hard stop at 90 days. So if you do the math on the missing work in the last six months, if someone, let’s say is out on maternity leave and they come back, they graduate in June, they’re technically finished with maternity leave in June.

They will not be able to get the GSI because they’ve got a 90 day grace period and they need six months of not missing work before they can access it. sometimes the GSI can have little bit of walking through a minefield feeling to it. And it’s because they’re waiving all of the medical screening. The only required question is, are you currently disabled? That’s essentially it.

pre-existing conditions, whether it’s diabetes or past cancer or anything, they’re going to fully cover with no medical underwriting. You get the trainee discounts. It’s the best definitions. It’s private, it’s portable, it’s non-cancellable, guaranteed renewable, which means you can walk away at any time, but the insurance company cannot. They can’t increase the rate or cancel the policy. So it is their best coverage. So they reserve the right to

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to create the rules and guidelines about what it required that you have to meet in order to access the no medical screening component. There’s more to this. Perhaps for your situation, I would be happy to answer it. I went through this fairly quick, but there’s a lot of misinformation out there. So I want to put this out there so you can listen to it. And then if you want to discuss your situation, I would be happy to do that.

Feel free to message me at 704-270-2376. Again, 704-270-2376 and happy to arrange a time to chat. Thank you as always 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. Join us next time for another episode dedicated to helping physicians like you get your disability insurance right and protect your way of life.

Summary:

In this episode, Billy Gwaltney delves into the complexities of disability benefits, focusing on the implications of having insufficient coverage when faced with disability. It highlights the importance of understanding policy features such as cost of living adjustments and the limitations that come into play once a person becomes disabled.

Takeaways:

• A lot of times in life, things don’t go according to plan.
• Once you’re disabled, you stay where you were in terms of benefits.
• The cost of living adjustment rider can help increase benefits over time.
• Benefits will increase starting in the second year of the claim.
• Inflation factors usually compound at around 3%.
• Understanding your policy is crucial before becoming disabled.
• You cannot bump up your coverage after becoming disabled.
• Planning ahead is essential for financial security.
• Disability benefits require careful consideration of coverage options.

Transcript:

00;00;01;23 – 00;00;19;09

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.

00;00;19;11 – 00;00;49;07

Hello. Welcome to today’s episode of the Cover Your Assets podcast. I’m your host, Billy Gwaltney, and I’m excited about today’s topic, which is answering the question, should I increase my coverage to the maximum if I don’t need it? And that’s a really good question. It came up in a conversation with a new attending physician. I work with thousands of physicians across the country and generally start working with them, while they’re in training, and then they transition to becoming an attending with a much higher income.

00;00;49;07 – 00;01;14;03

And this particular client, he had his himself and his wife on the phone, and we were just kind of walking through the options. And based on his new income, he had, he had 5000 a month from his trainee benefit original policy. And through the benefit increase rider, he was eligible to increase to about 18,000 a month. And his initial thoughts as he was saying, hey, that that’s good.

00;01;14;06 – 00;01;41;07

I don’t think I need that much because, our overhead is very low right now. We may buy a house in the next handful of years. But we haven’t bought one yet. And so is it possible? Is it doable to increase, maybe by half way, and then revisit it in the future and increase further once we have a bigger mortgage and our expenses are higher?

00;01;41;10 – 00;02;01;19

It’s a very reasonable question to ask for someone who’s planning, their future, and I thought was. So to answer that question the first thing, and I thought I would bring it here to a podcast to to chat about it, because it does come up more than once, like, okay, if if this is the max, how much do I really need?

00;02;01;21 – 00;02;25;09

And so a few thoughts on that. One is the benefit increase rider. If you have that on your policy, it does require you to increase by at least 50% of the additional eligible benefit that you that you can buy. So if you had 5000 a month and let’s say you’re eligible for 15,000 a month, then you would at least need to increase up to 10,000 if you increase at all.

00;02;25;09 – 00;02;48;01

Okay. In order to keep the benefit increase rider on the policy, if you increase to something less than 10,000, then they would take the benefit increase rider off the policy. So again, check your contract to be sure. I’d be happy to chat with you about it if you wanted to. But those are the kind of the guidelines that that most people are thinking about.

00;02;48;01 – 00;03;06;26

So I shared that with this client, and, and they were like, okay, we we were thinking about halfway anyway. And I said, well, that’s certainly an option. You can do that. That is doable. I said, but as your insurance advisor, I just want to make sure you’re aware of what happens if you actually need to file a claim.

00;03;06;26 – 00;03;29;27

Okay. So your plan works great if you don’t need to file a claim, like if if things go according to plan, then then do that plan all day. But a lot of times in life things don’t go according to plan. So the question will become, what happens if you’re disabled and you have a lesser benefit? Because once you’re disabled, you cannot increase coverage after that point.

00;03;29;27 – 00;03;56;20

So if you don’t have the maximum, and you become disabled, your you stay where you were. Now, if you have the cost of living adjustment rider on your policy, that benefit will increase starting in the second year of the claim and each year thereafter by the inflation factor, usually 3%. And it would compound, but once you’re disabled, if you had, 12,000 a month and you were eligible for 18,000, you can’t then bump up to 18.

00;03;56;26 – 00;04;20;25

Okay. The second thing to keep in mind is that expenses go up during a claim, at least statistically speaking. As for medical care, for rehabilitation services, trying to just figure out life medications, expenses are going to go up. Almost always. So it’s not like your, your budget, stays the same. It actually takes a hit and goes up.

00;04;20;27 – 00;04;46;04

The next thing to keep in mind is that you may never go back to earning the income you were making before. You may stay disabled for the full benefit period to age 65, or whatever your benefit period is. And you still need to save for retirement. People on claim again, most disabilities are not catastrophic, so life expectancy is still similar to what it would be for someone who wasn’t disabled.

00;04;46;04 – 00;05;06;11

If you hurt your back, you know that if you, maybe if you’re not exercising as much and you don’t eat well, then then your life expectancy would be shorter. But in a lot of cases, you’ll still live well into the normal retirement years. And so you need to save enough for retirement. You need to have enough disability benefit to still fund that.

00;05;06;14 – 00;05;26;10

Also, hopefully you still are able to do some things if you do your again, if you do your disability insurance correctly to still send your children to the school you want to send them to, to still take some vacations, to still have a lifestyle, that you’ve started to get accustomed to as an attending as your income is expanded.

00;05;26;13 – 00;05;49;18

And so as I discussed it with this, with this client and his spouse, you could just see the light bulb coming on, going, okay, okay, okay. Okay. So yeah, it they actually mentioned that sounds like it might be Pennywise and Dollar foolish. And I was like, yeah, I couldn’t have said it better. I would say Pennywise and Dollar not so wise.

00;05;49;18 – 00;06;08;19

Okay. A little more politely, but their response was a good response. I thought I would say this whether I’m the broker or not, it’s not about me somehow. Making more money because you buy more insurance. So of course that would happen. The broker gets paid a small percentage of the premium. You pay for the life of the policy.

00;06;08;21 – 00;06;30;13

The point and behind that is to incentivize me to to treat you well. One of the things to treat you well about, or regarding is making sure you have enough. We do have clients on claim. Okay. We do. They were all healthy enough to get the insurance when they got it. The only complaint we’ve ever gotten from anyone on claim is they should have had the max.

00;06;30;15 – 00;06;49;26

Okay. And I have one client in mine in particular, who was a young physician. She got disabled. Never thought she would need it. She had not increased from the trainee benefit. Even, and and she was like, that was a gut punch. And, the first thing she did when she recovered quickly, she was out for two years.

00;06;49;26 – 00;07;09;08

But when she recovered, she bounced back her income bounced back, and she was eligible to increase. And she did that stat right away. The first thing she did was increase to the max. And she has stayed at the max sense because she knows the way the policy works is that if she she had cancer or she gets it again, she’s going to get that higher benefit.

00;07;09;11 – 00;07;28;04

She did some really good planning. And so, as a disability specialist, as an advisor, I have a, I have an obligation to make sure it’s on the record that you consider the maximum. I cannot be the one that’s going to explain to your family why I didn’t tell you. You should have bought the maximum. Just not going to do it.

00;07;28;06 – 00;07;52;18

I’m not going to answer that question. So my job, if you want to work with me is to make sure you consider it. And then also, you know, make sure you understand that it’s ultimately your call. I’m not. I’m not you. I think one of the, one of the things that that, has become apparent to some clients is that, the money that they’re saving by not getting the maximum sits in their checking account.

00;07;52;18 – 00;08;26;21

Anyway, there’s this idea that, oh, I can invest that and do better. Well, first of all, if you’re disabled, you can pay this premium for 25 years and be disabled. And and if you collect for one year of a claim, you will win financially. You clobber the insurance carrier if you’re disabled. Okay. The second thing is that most people do not fully invest all their income to the point where they’re literally going to take that last 300 or $500 a month that they’re not paying in disability premiums and allocate it to a mutual fund.

00;08;26;23 – 00;08;54;11

It’s going to sit in the checking account doing nothing, earning nothing. So why not allocate it towards something that is protecting your most important asset, which is your ability to make a really good income over the long term. Your most valuable asset will always be you, doctor Smith. Doctor. Tom. Doctor. Sarah, you’re. That is your most important asset.

00;08;54;11 – 00;09;24;05

It’s not going to be your home. It’s not your investment portfolio. It’s not your retirement account. It’s your ability to generate a monthly income every two weeks or twice a month or once a month, whenever you get paid, that your family counts on. And so ensuring that is just smart business. So don’t don’t be penny wise and dollar not so wise by letting that $200 that you’re saving by not getting the max, just sit in a checking account doing nothing while your family’s exposed.

00;09;24;05 – 00;09;52;13

And then if you get disabled, you’ll regret it. There’s a there’s a high likelihood you’ll regret it. So obviously your decision. Food for thought I’d be happy to discuss your situation in more detail if you’d like. Please, text me (704) 270-2376 again. (704) 270-2376 And until next time, thank you for carving out a few minutes.

00;09;52;13 – 00;10;13;13

I’m grateful for that. Yeah. I look forward to seeing you next time. Take care. Thanks for listening to the Cover Your Assets podcast and art 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.

00;10;13;17 – 00;10;21;21

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

In this episode, Billy Gwaltney discusses the intricacies of insurance coverage during claims, particularly focusing on the limitations of increasing coverage based on salary changes. He explains the formula used by companies to determine eligibility for coverage and the stipulations surrounding benefit increase riders.

Takeaways: 

• You cannot add coverage if your salary as an attending.
• There’s a formula that companies use to calculate coverage eligibility.
• You may be eligible for a higher coverage amount after training.
• Benefit increase riders have specific stipulations.
• You need to increase coverage by at least 50% of the max eligible amount.
• If you increase coverage, it affects your claim duration.
• Understanding your coverage options is crucial during claims.
• Insurance policies can be complex and require careful navigation.
• Disability insurance is essential for financial security.
• Consulting with an expert can clarify insurance options.

Transcript:

00;00;01;23 – 00;00;19;23

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.

00;00;19;26 – 00;00;44;19

Hello. Welcome to today’s episode of the Cover Your Assets podcast. I’m your host, Billy Gwaltney. It’s good to be with you. Thank you for your time. The topic today is, can I increase coverage? While I’m on a disability claim, I work with thousands of physicians across the country helping them secure their private specialty on occupation disability coverage.

00;00;44;19 – 00;01;23;21

The good news? Well, the not so good news is we do have clients on claim. They they all were healthy enough or healthy ish enough to get the coverage when they started. But they never they never thought they’d need it. But they did need it. And, it’s been, a privilege. And, I’ve worked with clients during the claim process, helped them navigate that to make sure the check shows up when it’s supposed to, to make sure that anything that is, needs to be cleared up with the claims people is cleared up to make sure they stay the top priority, kind of at the top of the the

00;01;23;21 – 00;02;02;15

list of claims that they’re working on to make sure that this gets handled. In a, quick way. So that’s not so good news that they were on claim. The good news, though, is that every one of our clients has gotten paid. We’ve never had a client not get paid for a disability. We’ve never had one need to hire an attorney or go into some kind of, third party arbitration hearing or whatever you might think of to be sure they got their benefit if if your doc, if you have this coverage and you’ve done it right, if your doctor says you cannot perform the material duties you were performing before

00;02;02;15 – 00;02;25;21

the event, before the diagnosis or the event, the illness, the injury, then, they’re going to have to pay you and they know that. Now, can you increase coverage while you’re on claim? Generally, no. You cannot add coverage if your salary as an attending, there’s a formula that the companies used to calculate how much you can buy.

00;02;25;23 – 00;02;55;05

And let’s say you start in training at 5000 a month of coverage. And then when you become an attending, you’re eligible for 20,000, a month of coverage. And you say, well, I don’t need that much yet. I think I’ll just bump it up to 12,000. And you, you do that or you stay at five. But let’s say you do increase it some you just because the benefit increase rider you may know has, stipulation that you need to increase by at least 50% of the max that you’re eligible for.

00;02;55;07 – 00;03;18;18

So, if you had 5000 a month and you’re eligible for, 20,000 a month, that’s a $15,000, a month increase, you need to increase by at least 7500. So let’s say that you increase to 12,500, and just did the 50%, and you become disabled. Then the 12,500 is what you’re getting for the duration of that claim.

00;03;18;20 – 00;03;41;16

Now, if you have the cola rider cost of living adjustment rider on your policy, that amount will increase starting in the second year. Based on the the calculation for the Cola rider that you have is usually 3% somewhere in that range. And that will compound over time and in most cases, and so there will be an increase off of the 12,500.

00;03;41;20 – 00;04;05;27

Okay. What you can’t do is once you start getting the 12 five to say, well, I was eligible for 20, can I bump up to 20 now that I’m disabled? The answer is no. You can’t do that. And so it is important to make sure that you have the maximum coverage before the claim is filed. Because once it is filed, you’re, you’re you’re at that amount.

00;04;05;29 – 00;04;25;20

Again, the adjustments for the cola, but that’s it. So I wanted to answer that question. It does come up. It’s not intuitive necessarily for people that haven’t dealt with insurance. In the past, much if at all, to, to, to assume or to think that they can’t increase once they’re disabled. You can’t adjust it later.

00;04;25;20 – 00;04;49;27

So you got to plan before the event happens. Once the event happens, you just get what you have. You can’t plan much after that. Planning is about before the event. Then what happens? You’re just dealing with whatever you did or didn’t plan for before it happened. So I hope you found this helpful. Quick podcast. I wanted to just get to the point of message me here if you’d like to discuss.

00;04;49;29 – 00;05;16;29

I’d be happy to do that. Or you can text me at (704) 270-2376. Again (704) 270-2376. I look forward to seeing you next time. Thank you, as always, for your time. I’m grateful for that. Take care. Thanks for listening to the Cover Your Assets podcast and Art Conduit Media Production. New episodes drop every two weeks. If you’ve enjoyed the conversation, subscribe, rate and review this podcast.

00;05;16;29 – 00;05;30;06

For more tips and advice, visit the website and YouTube channel. Check the show notes for links. Join us next time for another episode dedicated to helping physicians like you get your disability insurance right and protect your way of life.