Author Archives: Billy Gwaltney

One question we hear often is, “Are my disability insurance benefits taxable to me?” If the premium for your disability coverage is paid with after-tax funds, then benefits received from a disability policy would not be taxable income. So the full amount of benefits received while on claim would be spendable money for you and your family.

However, if you deduct the premiums for disability insurance, or your employer pays for the policy and does not ‘gross up’ the premium to you, then benefits received would be taxed as ordinary income. A few employers ‘gross up’ the cost for disability coverage to their employees as income. This would allow the benefit received during a claim to be non-taxed to the employee. Knowing exactly how any benefits received would be treated for income tax purposes is important to know before a disability claim occurs.

Billy Gwaltney is a disability specialist who works with hundreds of physicians and business professionals across the country. If you would like him to help you maximize your net spendable income during a disability, please call or text us at (704) 707-5788.

One question we’re often asked is, “Do I pay an additional fee to use a broker to help me obtain disability insurance?”

In short the answer to this question is ‘no’. Disability policies, definitions and premiums are filed with each state’s insurance commissioner. As a result, the cost for individual disability coverage and the accompanying riders is the same if you work with a broker or go direct to the insurance company. However, the top insurance companies have discount programs they make available through their key brokers.

In other words, not all brokers are created equal. In fact, if you work with a disability insurance specialist who passes along these discounts to his or her clients, you can pay significantly less than the normal retail cost.

Billy Gwaltney is a disability specialist who works with hundreds of physicians and business professionals across the country. His focus is providing the best true specialty occupation coverage, with the maximum discounts offered by the top companies.

Make sure you have the best broker who also provides the lowest rates. Feel free to call or text Billy at (704) 707-5788.

A common question many people have is, “What is COLA and how does it work?”

COLA stands for the Cost of Living Adjustment rider. The COLA rider is designed to increase your monthly disability benefit while on claim to offset the negative impact of inflation over time. The benefit increase is calculated on either a simple interest or compound interest basis.

The amount of increase can be a fixed rate, such as 3 percent or 6 percent. Or the rate can be variable, in which case it’s usually tied to a national inflation gauge like the Consumer Price Index. The COLA rider does not become active until claim time. You pay for the rider from the outset of the policy. It can add 15-20% to the cost of coverage.

If disabled when younger, the COLA rider would be helpful to have. However it’s an optional feature that is not a requirement for quality coverage terms and definitions.

To be sure your specialty coverage is designed to fit your needs, please give us a call or text us at (704) 707-5788.

A common question we’re asked is, “What is a future insurability option?” A future insurability option is a rider on a disability policy that allows you to increase your coverage in the future as your income increases. Structured properly, this rider gives you the right to this additional coverage without any further medical underwriting.

In addition, this additional coverage should contain the same specialty occupation definition of disability as the original purchase amount. And lastly, any discounts contained in the original purchase amount should also be included in the future insurability amounts.

While the future insurability option rider can add to your policy’s cost, it’s highly advisable to include this rider in your policy if it’s available. Over the course of your career, it’s important to have the ability to easily increase coverage as needed regardless of your health at that time.

To be sure your specialty coverage contains the future insurability option, please give us a call or text us at (704) 707-5788.

We are often asked “What is a residual benefit and what makes it important?” Being residually disabled is often defined as having a loss of earnings because of an illness or injury, yet still working in your job because you’re not totally disabled.

In a disability policy, a residual benefit rider is designed to provide supplemental income to a partially disabled person who is still working. It pays if you are residually (or partially) disabled, unable to work at full capacity and suffer a loss of income of 15 to 20 percent or greater. Structured properly, it can pay benefits for the full policy period ,usually to age 65 or 67.

It’s important to know that with many association policies, a residual benefit rider can require a period of total disability before the partial disability. In such policies, if a total disability does not occur first, policy benefits would not be paid. Because a large percentage of disability insurance claims can either start or end in a residual claim, a solid Residual Benefit Rider is an integral part of specialty occupation disability coverage.

To be sure your specialty coverage contains the long term residual benefit rider, please give us a call or text us at (704) 707-5788.

A common question we’re asked is, “Once my specialty disability policy is issued, can the insurance company ever cancel my policy or raise my rates?”

With the top-tier disability insurance companies we broker, policies cannot be cancelled and premiums cannot be increased by the company. This is commonly referred to as a non-cancelable policy and is typically the most desirable long-term approach. Another type of policy is called guaranteed renewable, which means the insurance company cannot cancel the policy, however they do have the right to raise the premium for an entire occupation classification in the future.

It’s important to know that with many association and group disability policies, the insurance company can actually cancel the policy at any time in the future. Furthermore, they could also raise the premium and/or remove discounts at any time as well. It’s wise to confirm your policy is non-cancelable or at least guaranteed renewable. If it isn’t, it might be worth exploring a better option.

To be sure your specialty coverage is what is needs to be, please give us a call or text us at (704) 707-5788.

A question we’re commonly asked is, “What happens to my coverage if I decide to work outside the United States?”

With the top-tier disability insurance companies we broker, benefits would typically be paid if someone is disabled while working overseas. However there’s usually a 12 or 24 month limitation on how long benefits would be paid if you remain overseas. In order to continue receiving benefits beyond 12 or 24 months, you’d be required to move back to the United States to live.

The exception to this coverage while overseas is if the policyholder is not a United States. citizen, in which case the insurance company may exclude paying any benefits at all to the policyholder while not living in the United States. In most of these cases, the policyholder would be able to receive benefits if they moved back to the United States to live. However there can be additional travel exclusions as well.

Please know these are general rules. It’s important to confirm in your policy how international work and travel would be treated. To be sure these details are what you expect and need them to be, please give us a call or text us at (704) 707-5788.

A question we’re commonly asked is, “What is the ‘own occupation’ or ‘specialty occupation’ definition of disability? This is an excellent question and it’s at the heart of quality disability coverage.

The true own occupation definition means that you’re considered totally disabled if, due to illness or injury, you’re unable to perform the material and substantial duties of your occupation, regardless of any income you later earn in a different occupation. If you’re a physician or dentist, your occupation can mean a specific, professionally recognized specialty or subspecialty. Because of slick marketing from insurance companies with inferior policies, as well as misinformed benefits staff, there’s a lot of misinformation in the marketplace regarding this definition.

Many physicians and professionals think they have the true own occupation definition but they don’t. Most group and association policies will penalize you for earning other income and/or impose a limit on how long the own occupation period lasts. Most disability policies don’t contain the true own occupation definition. There are only a handful of top-tier companies that provide it. This is an important definition to have.

To be sure you obtain this true own occupation definition, feel free to give us a call or text us at (704) 707-5788.

Billy Gwaltney’s focus is providing specialty occupation disability insurance protection for physicians. His firm serves hundreds of clients from coast to coast, and he’s been in the insurance business since 1991.

Here’s what one client said about Billy: “I met Billy over 6 years ago when I was finishing my OBGYN residency. He took the time to explain disability insurance without making me feel pressured to purchase. His honesty, availability, and genuine concern for my financial security has ensured my customer loyalty. I have recommended him to many of my friends.”

An orthopedic surgeon client said: “Billy, I feel amazingly comfortable working with you. All we want is to make sure that should we need to use the coverage, someone like you will hold our hand through the process. Over the years you’ve worked with me, I have come to know that I have NO DOUBT that you will be that kind of friend. Thank you.”

If you would like Billy to help you get your specialty disability protection exactly right, feel free to call or text him at 704-707-5788.

A question we’re commonly asked is how much life insurance should I have? There are three primary approaches to calculate how much life insurance to buy.

The first approach is mirroring your colleagues/friends. Ask around to find out how much others have and buy a similar amount. This is the easiest approach but often results in too little coverage.

The second approach is buying a multiple of income. Insurance companies will offer up to 25 times someone’s annual income in life insurance. But this approach still works off of an estimation and not specific calculations.

The third approach is calculating how much income you want to provide for your family, how long you want the income to last, factor in inflation, taxes and investment return, add in any extra expenses you need to cover (like children’s college education), bring this to a present value, and then subtract out any assets.The remaining gap is how much life insurance is advisable. This obviously is the most detailed calculation by providing the most accurate amount based on your situation.

If you would like to explore the best approach for your life insurance, feel free to give us a call or text us at (704) 707-5788.