• What is Disability Insurance (DI)?

  • Answer - Disability Insurance, a type of insurance designed to compensate an insured person for a portion of the income lost because of a disabling injury or illness. Benefit payments are made either weekly or monthly for a specified period during the continuance of an insured’s disability.
     

• Why do I need it?

  • Answer - You probably take plenty of precautions in your daily life. Still, no matter how prepared you are, accidents and illness do happen - at home, on the road, at work and at play. And disability can be the outcome. A sports injury, a car accident, an illness, a problem pregnancy, a heart attack, a serious back injury - any of these situations can result in your not being able to work at your usual job, even if you have a relatively sedentary job. That in turn means of loss of income. Bottom Line: Could you afford to live without your income?

• Which product is right for me?

  • Answer - A Disability insurance specialist here at Castle Consultants can help you decide by calling us at 1-800-806-1859

• Isn't it more likely that I will die before I ever become disabled?

  • Answer - Two of the biggest myths about disability are that it doesn't happen to younger people and that it's largely the result of a work-related accident. The reality is, your odds of encountering a long-term disability - one lasting 90 days or more - before age 65 are*:
     

    Your Age	Your Approximate Odds	Average Duration
    30	1 in 3	32 months
    40	3 in 10	42 months
    50	5 in 22	50 months
    60	1 in 10	54 months

    Because the odds are so great that you could become disabled at some point, it's important to have a backup plan in place - a layer of protection for your lifestyle.

• What do you mean by total disability?

  • Answer - Total disability means that because of sickness or injury you are not able to perform the material and substantial duties of your own occupation.

• What does non-cancellable mean?

  • Answer - When the term "non-cancellable" is added to guaranteed renewable, the insurance company cannot change the provisions of the policy, and it cannot increase the premiums. As long as premiums are paid on a timely basis - and assuming that all underwriting information is truthful and accurate - the insurer cannot cancel the contract.

• What does guaranteed renewable mean?

  • Answer - If a policy is guaranteed renewable only, the insurance company agrees to keep renewing the contract for as long as premiums continue to be paid on a timely basis. While the insurer cannot change the provisions of the policy, it can increase premiums by state, occupation class or other categories with prior notification.

• What does own-occupation mean?

  • Answer - Your occupation means the regular occupation (or occupations, if you have more than one) in which you are engaged at the time you become disabled.

• Why do I need more disability insurance? I have group Long Term Disability at work.

  • Answer - Your group Long Term Disability Insurance may be terminated for one of two reasons: Your employment terminates or your employer ends the group Long Term Disability Insurance plan and doesn't replace it. Individual Disability Insurance belongs to you because you pay the premiums. So your individual Disability Insurance policy is completely portable - it goes with you no matter how often you change jobs.

• I have a business and someone told me I need disability buy-out insurance. What does that mean?

  • Answer - A Disability Buy-Out policy provides cash to assist in the purchase of a disabled partner's or shareholder's business interest by the remaining owners. The policy owner may be an insured's partner/co-owner or the business itself, depending on the buy-out agreement.

• I have a business and someone told me I need disability over head expense insurance. What does that mean?

  • Answer - An Overhead Expense policy provides benefits to reimburse the monthly business expenses of a professional or a business owner while he or she is disabled.

• What's a rider?

  • Answer - It's an additional optional policy benefit you can add to your policy for additional premium

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*Statistics from: Commissioner's Disability Table, 1985, and Commissioner's Standard Ordinary Mortality table, 1980. Statistics will vary depending on the applicant's gender, age, occupation and medical history.