When purchasing a personal disability policy to protect your income, it is crucial to purchase a policy that properly reflects your specific needs as a dental professional. Within disability policies there are key features that your policy must include to make sure in the event of a disability, your benefit is paid properly, and you are protected in the way you deserve. What is The Most Important Feature? Own Occupation Rider This rider can be classified by several different names including True Own Occupation Rider, Regular Occupation, or Own Occupation. Own Occupation means that you are considered to be disabled and eligible for your benefit if you cannot perform the duties of your specific job. If you have a broader definition of disability, such as Social Security Disability, to receive your benefit you would have to be disabled to the point you cannot perform any job whatsoever. This is a crucial difference as you may not be able to perform clinical dentistry because of your disability, but you can receive the monthly benefit from your policy as well as performing another line of work, in most cases actually working as a professor at a dental school or residency! Won’t my benefit become less valuable over time due to inflation? Cost of Living Adjustment Rider (COLA) The COLA rider is a guard against inflation to protect your buying power while receiving your benefit. While on disability, your benefit will increase annually by 3% to ensure your benefit does not lose value due to inflation over the period that you are on claim. What if I am not fully disabled but still suffer losses from a long-term injury? Partial Disability Partial disability benefits pay out when you lose 15% of income, time, or duties due to a disabling event. For example, a dental professional hurts their hand and is only able to work 4 days a week instead of 5. This would be a 20% loss of income, time, and duties and would result in a 20% partial disability payout in proportion to your current disability benefit. The difference between policies is in how partial disability is calculated. In calculating your pre-disability income, carriers will refer to what is called a lookback period. A lookback period is the number of years that a carrier will take into account previous earned income to decide the amount of disability benefit given in relation to your total monthly benefit at the time of disability. Some carriers will offer longer lookback periods and take the average of the best two years of earnings. Other carriers offering disability may have shorter lookback periods offering less forgiveness to years with lower earnings. These are the key elements in a disability policy for dental professionals to be aware of when purchasing a policy or evaluating an existing one. There are however different supplemental benefits that the carriers offer with their policies to differentiate themselves. For more information on the key features to look for in a disability policy or the supplemental benefits offered by carriers, contact a CFS Agent, we’re here to help! Written by: Neal Cudahy