U.S. Consumers Need a Disability Impact Reality Check : LIMRA

Many told a survey team that they thought the only way to get disability coverage was through an employer.

Here’s how many survey participants told LIMRA and Life Happens they would use some suggested financial options to cope with the financial effects of a disability.(Credit: LIMRA and Life Happens.

LIMRA is participating in Disability Insurance Awareness Month 2020 by releasing a new disability awareness fact sheet — and a batch of data from a survey it conducted with Life Happens.

Life Happens, the Council for Disability Awareness and other organizations organize the annual awareness month campaigns to try to remind Americans that the ability to earn a paycheck is the most valuable asset that most of them have.

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LIMRA and Life Happens have joined to field the 2020 Insurance Barometer Study survey.

At one point, the participants were asked how they’d cope, financially, with a loss of the ability to work due to illness or injury.

About 50% of the participants said they’d live off of their personal savings.

Given how little most Americans have in personal savings, “this statistic underscores consumers’ need for a reality check when it comes to protecting their family’s financial future,” LIMRA says in a comment on the results.

About 22% of the survey participants said they’d use the disability benefits provided by their employers.

Just 13% of the participants said they’d use individual disability insurance — and 45% of the participants said they thought the only way to get disability insurance was through an employer.

Individual disability insurance ranked below every other option in the LIMRA-Life Happens data, including “Don’t know.”

— Read Insurers Continue Fight for Disability Insurance Awarenesson ThinkAdvisor.

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