Anyone have disability insurance?

REK Knives

REK Knives

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Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
Joined
Apr 3, 2011
Messages
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I'm thinking about getting some... I'm the sole provider for my family of 8 so it just makes sense, should have looked into it years ago, fortunately I haven't needed it so far. I'm thinking short term up through 6 months, any thoughts?

If you have it, which do you have (short or long term) and did you have any issues with being a knife maker?
 
I would recommend that you get disability insurance. I always had it from the company I worked for, we had short-term disability for the first 6 months and then it would convert to long-term disability until you either recovered or were deemed a hundred percent disabled from Social Security. Should you become disabled without having insurance you will have to wait until Social Security approves you. That could take years. But if you're receiving disability you can wait as long as it takes to get your full benefits from Social Security. Solely because you will be receiving your disability while they're making their determination . I'm not a knife maker. I don't think that would have any thing to do with you getting disability insurance. but I'm not an attorney I worked heavy Industrial in the energy sector. And I've seen a lot of guys get crippled. I hope this helps
 
My disability insurance from The New England saved my butt! I have a permanent disability and was insured for about 50% of my income as a physician until I am 65. The policy pays out if I am unable to work as a physician, or as long as I make less than 20% of my baseline income in that career (inflation adjusted). If I had been insured for about 70-80% of my income I could have avoided bankruptcy in 1999, as shutting down a large medical practice overnight left me with a lot of debt as a sole proprietor.
 
DocJekl said:
My disability insurance from The New England saved my butt! I have a permanent disability and was insured for about 50% of my income as a physician until I am 65. The policy pays out if I am unable to work as a physician, or as long as I make less than 20% of my baseline income in that career (inflation adjusted). If I had been insured for about 70-80% of my income I could have avoided bankruptcy in 1999, as shutting down a large medical practice overnight left me with a lot of debt as a sole proprietor.
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The disability insurance company I had was called unum. They suck, I was supposed to receive my long-term disability until I was 65. However when I was approved for Social Security disability they stopped paying me. They got sued but I didn't get a dime. I have a permanent injury as well. I really don't want to get into the details due to contractual agreements. Let's just say it retired me.
 
Vlade said:
The disability insurance company I had was called unum. They suck, I was supposed to receive my long-term disability until I was 65. However when I was approved for Social Security disability they stopped paying me. They got sued but I didn't get a dime. I have a permanent injury as well. I really don't want to get into the details due to contractual agreements. Let's just say it retired me.
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They are one of the largest disability insurance companies

https://bryantlg.com/blog/unums-dir...pany-approaches-short-term-disability-claims/
 
Look into it, get quotes, read contracts and see what's covered
Insurance companies take your money, invest it and try to not pay it out.
You could do the same for yourself.


Read the books, audio books, whatever on Rich Dad Poor Dad

Create different income streams for yourself
Think about being "self insured"

Look at income properties, they pay you monthly, they go up in value with time.
You only have to have a fraction of the value in down payment.

Put the other family members to work.



I fell into the trap of stocks and mutual funds in a retirement account
..I think the brokers and managers are the only ones who make money on that.

Re Warren Buffet, Dragons' Den and Shark Tank.
They own over twenty percent of each company, which means they get paid out twenty percent of the company's profits.
It's not all "buy and hold" like the brokers tell you.
 
Vlade said:
They may be the largest but they're also the most crookedness. If you added up the money that I was supposed to get it would be hundreds of thousands of dollars. But without it I would have been pretty screwed. It got me through the hard times which was important. It's always the Working Man that gets hurt.
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Yeah I don't like big corporations... I feel like the individual gets squashed. That said most any insurance company will be pretty big I suppose. But I have heard that it works like that... Once social security kicks in they stop paying (or at least will only supplement what ss is paying)
 
Vlade said:
The disability insurance company I had was called unum. They suck, I was supposed to receive my long-term disability until I was 65. However when I was approved for Social Security disability they stopped paying me. They got sued but I didn't get a dime. I have a permanent injury as well. I really don't want to get into the details due to contractual agreements. Let's just say it retired me.
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Because of the terms of my policy, it covered me if I could not work as a doctor, but I could have other income. And I could still earn up to 20% of my base income as a doctor before they started to prorate my payout. So, if I earned 50% of my baseline income as a doctor during my disability, then they would still pay 50% of the benefits. But if I earned 50% selling car parts through my SubaruPlanet.com website it did not affect my payout (I got too sick to run the site in 2004 and gave it away after a failed sale).

When I shut down my medical practice in 1999 I went to work 2-days a week part-time in the next town over, at another medical practice, seeing my chronic and complicated diagnosis patients with diagnosis like ADHD, cystic fibrosis, diabetics, seizure disorder, birth and heart defects - kids that could not get by with the family practice docs in the small town I had been working. I earned less than the 20% as a doctor while I worked part-time until 2007, when I could not do it anymore. In 2008 I was awarded social security disability, and I still collect my private disability.

I guess I got lucky, combined with selecting the right terms for my disability policy. After 65 I will still have my Social Security, and my wife will have her pension; but the house will be paid off, the kids will be off the payroll, and we should be fine. I wont be buying watches or guns or knives or more audiophile equipment, so that we can afford to keep a nice car and maybe buy a trailer to travel around the country if we downsize the house (we wont need 5 bdrm, 5 bath).
 
DocJekl said:
Because of the terms of my policy, it covered me if I could not work as a doctor, but I could have other income. And I could still earn up to 20% of my base income as a doctor before they started to prorate my payout. So, if I earned 50% of my baseline income as a doctor during my disability, then they would still pay 50% of the benefits. But if I earned 50% selling car parts through my SubaruPlanet.com website it did not affect my payout (I got too sick to run the site in 2004 and gave it away after a failed sale).

When I shut down my medical practice in 1999 I went to work 2-days a week part-time in the next town over, at another medical practice, seeing my chronic and complicated diagnosis patients with diagnosis like ADHD, cystic fibrosis, diabetics, seizure disorder, birth and heart defects - kids that could not get by with the family practice docs in the small town I had been working. I earned less than the 20% as a doctor while I worked part-time until 2007, when I could not do it anymore. In 2008 I was awarded social security disability, and I still collect my private disability.

I guess I got lucky, combined with selecting the right terms for my disability policy. After 65 I will still have my Social Security, and my wife will have her pension; but the house will be paid off, the kids will be off the payroll, and we should be fine. I wont be buying watches or guns or knives or more audiophile equipment, so that we can afford to keep a nice car and maybe buy a trailer to travel around the country if we downsize the house (we wont need 5 bdrm, 5 bath).
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So that's the way it works if you turn 65 or receive Social Security they cut you off? I just got off the phone with them. They're going to investigate and see if there was an error. The representative told me that if they find an error they will Rectify it. According to my calculations they owe me $312,000. Just send the check that's all I'm not asking for much. I paid for that plan out of my paycheck every month. But I know it's probably futile
 
Vlade said:
So that's the way it works if you turn 65 or receive Social Security they cut you off? I just got off the phone with them. They're going to investigate and see if there was an error. The representative told me that if they find an error they will Rectify it. According to my calculations they owe me $312,000. Just send the check that's all I'm not asking for much. I paid for that plan out of my paycheck every month. But I know it's probably futile
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Not in my case. It's only cut off if I live to 65 years, or it starts decreasing proportionally if I earn over 20% of my inflation adjusted base income WORKING AS A PHYSICIAN. I can collect social security disability checks, or make income in another profession, and not lose my private benefits until I am 65.
 
DocJekl said:
Not in my case. It's only cut off if I live to 65 years, or it starts decreasing proportionally if I earn over 20% of my inflation adjusted base income WORKING AS A PHYSICIAN. I can collect social security disability checks, or make income in another profession, and not lose my private benefits until I am 65.
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I never got a policy. Personnel brought the crew in and explained the benefits. We never got any information other than what the personnel manager said. However when I spoke to unum today they knew who I was. I don't really need the money anyway I'm doing okay. But I didn't say I wouldn't like the money. And since I was vested I'll receive a pension when I'm 65. So if you add the pension and social security that would be good. The IRS is definitely going to tax me though. It'll throw me over the threshold. But there's two things in life you must do the first thing is pay taxes, the second thing is to die.
 
They very well may owe you, depending on the terms of the policy.

I paid for my personal disability with pre-tax income, so the benefits are not taxed. My business policy premium was tax deductible, and covered one year of operating expenses, so the benefit I collected was taxed.

I had business expenses for over a year that were related to shutting down, including keeping my office manager employed to track down accounts receivable, and to provide copies of medical records. So the business policy also paid out, but not until I shut down and realized 3 years later that my post-operating expenses were covered under the second policy - so they paid out the business expenses policy in a lump sum to reimburse me.
 
Hey Doc and Rek knives I just got the word. I spoke to an attorney in Florida. He explained to me that because I got Social Security unum has a right to offset there end of the payment. He explained to me that since I received the maximum social security benefit that basically released unum from paying me. Well there goes my new bass boat and a Z28. I really didn't think it was going to go anywhere anyway. But I did call the company to get the policy. Oh well sometimes you eat the bear and sometimes the bear eats you.
 
Update on this... I ended up getting a 2 year coverage policy that kicks in after 30 days and it covers 80% of my income... Runs about $130/mo but it's all I can afford atm. It covers me basically if anything happens to me that prevents me from doing knife making and I got a rider that will allow me to do other work though (if I could figure anything else out during that coverage time)
 
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REK Knives said:
Update on this... I ended up getting a 2 year coverage policy that kicks in after 30 days and it covers 80% of my income... Runs about $130/mo but it's all I can afford atm. It covers me basically if anything happens to me that prevents me from doing knife making and I got a rider that will allow me to do other work though (if I could figure anything else out during that coverage time)
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That's good Mr Rek. Hopefully you'll never have to use it. I always believed in preparing for the worst and hoping for the best. Best wishes to you sir.
 
REK Knives said:
Update on this... I ended up getting a 2 year coverage policy that kicks in after 30 days and it covers 80% of my income... Runs about $130/mo but it's all I can afford atm. It covers me basically if anything happens to me that prevents me from doing knife making and I got a rider that will allow me to do other work though (if I could figure anything else out during that coverage time)
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That sounds good. My policy was for a fixed monetary amount of income till I'm 65, not a percentage, but with a 6 month wait - it was not cheap. At the time in 1991 when I signed up, the amount I chose as a monthly payment was about 70% of what I earned in my first year as a Pediatrician. In my second year I left the group that hired me and opened my own practice, making 50% more, and I took out a second policy (same ins co) to cover the increased income; because my primary policy amount could only be increased by a few percent twice a year, and it could not keep up with my job change.

I had a huge essay typed up about everything, but it really looks like TMI, so zaap I wiped it out...
 
DocJekl said:
That sounds good. My policy was for a fixed monetary amount of income till I'm 65, not a percentage, but with a 6 month wait - it was not cheap. At the time in 1991 when I signed up, the amount I chose as a monthly payment was about 70% of what I earned in my first year as a Pediatrician. In my second year I left the group that hired me and opened my own practice, making 50% more, and I took out a second policy (same ins co) to cover the increased income; because my primary policy amount could only be increased by a few percent twice a year, and it could not keep up with my job change.

I had a huge essay typed up about everything, but it really looks like TMI, so zaap I wiped it out...
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Least ya zapped it on purpose. I ususally write out some tome and then it disappears by itself. Some wrong inadvertent click..........
 
I am 100% disabled under social security. That means I was put on SS disability way before retirement age. You have to apply, and there are law firms that will help you (but at a cost). I did it on my own, with my doctor's help. Military only classified me at 70% disabled.

So you can and maybe should get insurance, but just remember that SS can help you. And, no, I don't work for SS.
 
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