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Disability Insurance for Periodontists

March 5, 2013
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Disability Insurance for Periodontists

Periodontists have very specific needs when it comes to disability insurance.

First there is the need to protect their personal income. These premiums are paid for from a personal bank account and the benefits are paid tax free.

When periodontists are shopping for an individual disability insurance policy, it is important that their coverage provides an own occupation, specialty specific definition of disability. This means that, as a periodontist, if you become too sick or injured to work and can’t work as a periodontist, you will receive benefits even if you can practice general dentistry or another occupation. Depending on the insurance company, some policies will classify periodontists differently than general dentists which would make the policy more expensive. As such, it is important to work with an experienced broker who can comparison shop for you.

The maximum monthly benefit a periodontist can purchase with one insurance company is $15,000/month. This covers most periodontists who earn up to approximately $350,000/year of net income. If you are a periodontist earning more than $350,000 or potentially that amount, you may aggregate benefits from more than one company to acquire up to $25,000/month benefit.

Other riders to consider on an individual policy include a residual (partial disability rider), cost of living rider, the ability to increase the policy in the future and a catastrophic rider.

Additionally, it is important to look for a policy that is noncancelable, guaranteed renewable. This means that once your policy is in force, the company can never cancel or change benefits or increase premiums.

If you are a periodontist who runs a private practice, you may also need to protect your business expenses. This can be done with a business overhead expense policy. These policies are paid for through the business and are used to pay business expenses at the time of claim. Typically these policies have a short waiting period such as 30 days and pay for 12 to 18 months. They pay benefits to reimburse expenses such as rent, payroll and other operating expenses.

If you are a periodontist who is buying a practice, you may be required by the bank to protect your loan. There are very specific policies which can protect this specific need. The policy pays after a short period of time (approximately 30 days) and pays the duration of the loan period directly to the lender.

If you are a periodontist in practice with other periodontists, you may need to purchase a life or disability insurance policy to fund a buy sell agreement. These policies would activate at the time of claim. There is typically a written agreement in place along with the insurance policies.

For more information about disability insurance for periodontists, contact Set for Life Insurance today!