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3 disability insurance rumbles: Secura, Mutual of Omaha, Unum

By Allison Bell

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Secura Consultants is giving a series of presentations this month to prepare insurance advisors for Disability Insurance Awareness Month 2016 (DIAM).

DIAM starts May 1.

Secura is sending disability insurance specialists out to brief members of seven state and local chapters of the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors (NAIFA), including chapters in Arkansas, Minnesota, South Dakota and Wisconsin.

George Davidson, the chief executive officer of Secura, said that people often underestimate the full repercussions of a disabling event.

“They don’t realize it is not just financially devastating, but emotionally distressing as well,” Davidson said. “You don’t know how long you will be out of work, where your next paycheck is coming from, if you can stay in your house or send your kids to school.”

Disability insurers have been reporting a modest increase in financial professional interest in disability insurance products in recent years, as high interest rates and regulatory problems have disrupted the long-term care insurance market, and regulatory changes have disrupted the individual health insurance market.

In other disability insurance news:

  • Mutual of Omaha has introduced Priority Income Protection, a new individual disability insurance product. In an effort to simplify the underwriting process, the company is allowing just two areas of flexibility: the monthly benefit amount and the benefit period. The company will review the application without requiring the applicant to go through a medical exam or get information from a health care provider. Stephen Abels, a vice president of individual pre-retirement solutions, is one of the executives working on the product launch.  

  • Unum Group Corp. (NYSE:UNM) has brought in Briotix Inc., a disability and workers’ compensation services firm, to help them offer an onsite disability management program. If an employer chooses the option, a consultant will meet with an employee one-on-one before and after the employee goes out on a disability leave. The consultant could be a nurse, physical therapist, occupational therapist or ergonomist, Unum says. Randy Ford, a vice president in Unum’s national client group, is working on the program launch. 

See also: 

Disability insurers seek eye contact

Individual disability: What happened?

    

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