“Deb”, an employee, sat apprehensively at the meeting table for her turn to speak about her new employee benefits during her lunch break. The suspicion that this was going to be another“corporate formality” changed quickly when she became engaging, curious, thankful, and ultimately enrolled in some of the enhanced benefits including disability. This was made possible from her employer who allowed for such an offering to employees including one-on-one customization.

A few months later she was admitted into the ER with abdominal pain. Turns out she had an infection and was kept for a few days for observation. I was informed by her employer and went to visit her in the hospital to check on her and help her complete her claim paperwork. Her husband sat at her bedside with an expression of, “Please help!”. After getting her through the paperwork, her husband stood to shake my hand and through his proud, shaky voice, said, “Thank you. Without this coverage, we’d be lost.” 

1 in 4 adult Americans live with some sort of Disability (CDC.gov) 

Percentage of adults with functional disability types (CDC.gov)

• 13.7% - Mobility
• 10.8% - Cognition
• 6.8% - Independent living
• 5.9% - Hearing
• 4.6% - Vision
• 3.7% - Self Care 
• 5.6% percent of working Americans will experience a short-term disability (six months or less)due to illness, injury, or pregnancy on average every year (Integrated Benefits Institute). Almost all of these are non-occupational in origin (Group MarketShare, a disability-benefits market research firm) 
• More than one in four of today’s 20 year olds can expect to be out of work for at least a year because of a disabling condition before they reach the normal retirement age (Social SecurityAdministration) 
  

Don’t become a statistic. Plan for the unpreventable, the unthinkable. Protect what and who you work so hard for. Disability has the potential of doing more harm to your family financially than most other catastrophic events.