• before age 65 you are more likely to be disabled then you are to die prematurely
• over 90% of all accidents and illnesses, which are the reason of disability are not work-related
• one in seven Americans will become disabled for at least five years before the age of 65
• disability after accident or illness very often is the cause of bankruptcy, in 50% of cases this leads to homes foreclosure
• death only leads to 2% of home repossessions

Disability Insurance guaranties replacement of ones income in case of his/her injury or illness preventing from work.
This policy will substitute anywhere from 60 – 80% of your gross income.

Can we depend on Social Security or Workers Compensation benefits?
No one should rely on Social Security for protection in case of disability.
It is very difficult to receive benefits under Social Security, the pay is low and the most important fact is that the disability have to be permanent, meaning you can not perform any kind of work available in USA, and not only your current occupation.

Workers Compensation on the other hand, covers injuries or illnesses aggravated at work or resulting from the course of employment.
In most small companies the employer purchases insurance to cover employees, excluding himself from it.

What will you do if you’ll have an accident or become seriously ill?
In what way you and your family, will be able to pay for your monthly bills and other everyday expenses?

It is very important to secure ourselves, because the loss of our income can lead to very serious financial problems.

It is wise to consider following steps

1) understanding the definition of – disability in your policy.

• the best policies, and most expensive, are those which will pay out benefits in situations if we can not perform our current job
• the policy which covers the least – covers only those situations when we are not able to perform any type of work.

2) inflation
If you are disabled for a short period of time, inflation is usually not a very important factor. However, you may need to consider the effect of inflation if you remain disabled for more than a few years.
Thus your policy should include annual inflation rate expected over the period you are disabled.

3) Guaranteed Renewability of your insurance in the future.
Before the policy can be issued, insurance company requires medical examination. If in the future we would like to increase our limits or renew the short term policy and our health gets worse the above mentioned guarantee with ensure our policy to be renewed without the need for proof of our health being in very well condition.

4) The benefit payout period
The benefits can be paid for a short period of time, until retirement or for the rest of our live.

Reviewing your policy, it is important that you pay attention to:

• what is the waiting period before benefits begin
• what is benefits payout period
• when do we lose the right to our benefits
• what will happen to our benefits, if we would go back to work and again become disable

For more information about disability and how to prepare yourself and family for it please visit www.disabilitycanhappen.org