Disability insurance: Why it’s not just for your clients’ employees

You probably know that half of working Americans couldn’t make it a month without a paycheck before financial difficulties set in, and one in four workers would have problems immediately. But that’s just part of the story. Employees don’t have to live paycheck-to-paycheck in order for a disability to have grave financial and health consequences. And people don’t need to be sickly or accident-prone to become disabled. Take it from me and learn from my story.

On December 14, 2005, I was having a great day. Freshly back from vacation, I arrived at the office and was welcomed with a promotion. Later that day, I had a lovely dinner with friends. Walking out of the restaurant to my car, I was hit by a Jeep Wrangler, thrown 20 feet in the air, and crushed my leg. I ended up disabled for the next seven months and would need physical therapy for a year before I could walk normally again.

Related: 10 top causes of disability claims

Fortunately, I had three months of salary continuation. However, as the single source of income for a family of four, I had some tough decisions ahead of me. There was no way I could pay my medical bills, mortgage, preschool tuition and car payments for four months without dipping into my 401(k) or borrowing from family and friends. Neither of these seemed like viable options. I had a choice: go back to work, risk falling and never walking again, or listen to my doctor and recover for another three months without a paycheck.

Needless to say, I took the risk and returned to work in a wheelchair. Had I enrolled in supplemental disability insurance, I wouldn’t have had to make such a difficult decision.

What would you do if you were in my shoes? How long could you go without a paycheck? Three months? Six months? A year? And what if you had $10,000 in out-of-pocket medical expenses? No one plans on becoming disabled, but if it does happen, disability insurance helps—a lot.

Disability insurance pays employees the majority of their income in cash if an injury or sickness prevents them from going to work. Disability income benefits help employees stay current with their mortgage and rent, credit card bills, car payments, student loans, tuition and household expenses—plus, the out-of-pocket medical bills that can pile up.

May is Disability Insurance Awareness Month, offering a perfect opportunity to bring up the importance of supplemental disability insurance with your clients. One in four people entering the workforce today will become disabled before they retire.

In addition to income-replacement benefits you’d expect from a disability income product, there are also optional benefits for student loan repayments and retirement contributions to provide extra assistance for financial obligations. Carriers can also tailor products to provide income benefits to help employees when they are not personally disabled, but are out on leave to help take care of an ailing family member. There are also optional recovery benefits for rehabilitation programs and physical therapy.

I am passionate about telling my story and informing customers every day about the importance of disability insurance. I’ve been developing supplemental insurance products for 20 years, and I learned more about the need for disability and accident insurance from my accident and disability than from any and all statistics I’ve used in my career.

Here are three things you can do today for Disability Insurance Awareness month: 1. Share this article with colleagues and clients. We like to think disability can’t happen to us, but unfortunately, it happens to people like us every day.

2. Put yourself in my shoes. Think about what your life would be like without a paycheck. Would you go back and risk further injury, or would you recover without a paycheck?

3. Be sure to discuss disability income insurance with your clients.

Janet Buzil is vice president, marketing and product development at Chubb Workplace Benefits.