Podcast Center
Video Center
Webcasts
Resource Center
Events
July 28, 2002 at 08:00 PM
Many employers recognize the risk of disability that their employees face and offer a 60% long-term disability income replacement plan for all employees. But for some employees–often those executives and other key employees responsible for the companys success–that 60% income replacement plan provides a much lower level of coverage.
Group LTD does a great job of providing a layer of income protection to all employees at reasonable rates, and for many employees paid on an hourly or salaried basis, this level of protection is enough to weather a disabling condition. However, for those employees who earn more than the LTD plans covered earnings or derive income from bonuses or incentive compensation, group LTD alone may not provide adequate coverage.
Traditionally, individual disability insurance (DI) has been a good solution for under-insurance, but it is not always affordable and applicants must complete an exhaustive underwriting process that may ultimately result in a declination.
A recent development in disability insurance is executive DI, which works with group LTD. Offered on a multi-life basis–usually 10 or more employees–executive DI, like individual DI, provides flexible individual disability coverage but also offers affordable rates, streamlined underwriting and guaranteed issue–characteristics normally associated with group coverage.
The starting point for an executive DI plan is determining if a class of employees would receive a lower disability income replacement ratio than rank-and-file employees. This class of employees may be defined by earnings, title or other criteria. Once the need for additional disability income replacement is determined and an executive DI plan is chosen as the right approach, insurance carriers can craft coverage meeting the specific needs of an employer group.
Executive DI plan designs include all the features of an individual disability contract but use consistent provisions and unisex rates for all participants. Plan provisions such as elimination periods, maximum benefit periods and limitations should dovetail with the LTD plan to produce consistent results at claim time.
