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Disability Insurance | Choosing an Elimination Period

November 7, 2014
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When structuring your individual disability insurance policy, one of the main factors affecting your premium is choosing the elimination period.

The elimination period is the amount of time that must elapse from the date of injury or diagnosis until the policy starts to pay benefits.

Most individual disability policies are designed to be long term disability policies. Therefore, their elimination periods are typically 60 days or longer.

The most cost effective elimination period tends to be 90 days.  A policy with a 60 day waiting period may cost almost twice as much as a policy with a 90 day elimination period. Moving to a 180 day waiting period does not typically save you as much premium with one exception. If you are over the age of 50, policies with a 180 day waiting period may save you significantly. Also, if you are in your 50s, you may have more assets available to draw from if a disability occurs.

It is also important to coordinate your individual policy with your group policy. If your group policy does not start for 180 days, you may need your individual policy to provide greater benefits from 90 days to 180 days.

For more information about choosing an elimination period or to request a quote comparison, contact Set for Life Insurance today!