Protecting Your Most Valuable Asset with Disability Insurance!

Good morning all, Steve Parisi here with IBC Global. Today we've got a fun podcast lined up. We've got someone that I've known for 10, almost 15 years now, Vince. That's right, yep, time flies. It does, I don't know where it goes. I was like young, young, it was before I was married. Vince Gallo, a disability insurance specialist with Guardian, but you know all things disability, and we're gonna have a nice conversation about all things disability insurance today. Absolutely. All right, so we'll have some fun, but before we get into that, can you just share a little bit about yourself, how long you've been in the business? I think that'll be a good intro, and then we'll get into the fun questions. Yeah, sure, I've been in this business as a disability income specialist with Guardian since February of 2001, gosh, time flies. I actually got into this business a little unique way than most people is that my background used to be in physical therapy. I actually went to school for physical therapy at Misericordia College, which is now Misericordia University, and during my internships, my mother-in-law got disabled, and unfortunately she had dropped some of her disability coverage before it happened, thinking she never needed it and it never happened to her, and I saw firsthand what happened, and I decided to basically leave that industry and become basically a specialist, so I help advisors design plans to make sure the same things that happen to her doesn't happen to anybody else. Look at that, I didn't know that you went to Misericordia, it's been a while. I went to Moravian, so we competed with them all the time, track and field and such. So when you got into the business, since I've known you, you've talked about Guardian Disability Insurance, which when you look at disability and contract language, they're very good, but have you always been with them, or did you start somewhere else? No, I've actually always been with Guardian. Wow, yeah, very nice, but you learned about other companies. Yeah, so absolutely, you have to. There's no way one company can be the right fit for everybody. I fully agree with that. So let's start with a basic question, like what is disability insurance? Well, disability insurance is actually a relatively simple concept. It's something to protect your most valuable asset when you're in your accumulation phase of your financial life, and that is your ability to earn an income, because without the ability to earn an income, nothing else can happen. That's the foundation of everything. Protects me if I can't work. All right. Absolutely. So super simple example. Let's say I earn 100 grand per year. I have a disability policy. I got it five years ago. Something happens. I can't work. I get in a car accident, get sick, whatever it might be. How would it actually work? Like what do I have to do, and how much money would I get? Well, it depends on a number of different factors. Okay, so disability policies vary greatly in language. They vary greatly by the financial strength and reputation of the carrier, and there's just so many variables that we can't really get to. So what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna answer that question as if we're talking about an individual, non-cancelable, guaranteed renewable policy. Now, I'll talk about what those things mean probably a little bit later on, from a reputable carrier. So you got the policy from Guardian. Okay, well, yeah, specifically from Guardian. So basically what you're doing is you're buying a policy with a guaranteed rate and guaranteed structure, so the insurance company cannot change your language until the end of the contract, which is typically be around retirement age. Okay. Okay? So you buy the policy, it's a fixed indemnity benefit where you will have a benefit that you've been paying for, and if you are deemed totally disabled by the contract language and the carrier, then you would receive the full benefit that you had been paying for. Okay, got it. So if I get that policy, so again, I'm making 100 grand per year if that's my income, I buy a policy, how much would it cost? Ballpark. I'm 35 years old when I get it. It's really hard to say, again, because things vary greatly between what features you design, what your benefit period, what policy language, your occupation, your age, your gender, a million different factors, but I'm gonna oversimplify, just to kind of give you a range, okay? Generally speaking, if you had no other coverage and you're not supplementing something you're getting through your employer to make up a gap, you have no other coverage, and you're buying a quality product covering you typically to retirement age with the most common features, you might be in a range, say maybe between two and 5% of your income. That's a big range there, but it also factors in people much older buying a policy and things like that. So if it's, call it three grand per year, again, super simple, it could be higher or lower. Okay, and I get disabled, so what would that policy, like what would it pay me if something happened to me? So say I got in a car accident, contract language says, yes, you're totally disabled, you can't perform your job right now, I earned 100K before, and if I didn't have anything through work, like what could I expect to get in terms of benefits? Like how would that work? Well, the policies are actually, unlike group insurance, which is something you typically would get from an employer, individual policies have what's called an indemnity benefit. That means the policy benefit is determined at time of issue, not at time of claim, in a total scenario. So basically, let's just say it was a $5,000 a month benefit, someone making 100,000, could be a little bit more than that, but let's just use that for simplicity. If you're deemed totally disabled, you would get $5,000 a month cash, and when you factor in that that's not a taxable event when you're getting benefits on a policy you've been paying for, it actually winds up being a much higher replacement ratio in terms of what you're getting. But in addition to that, that's under a regular disability where maybe you become too stressful to work, or maybe your back hurts, you're going through cancer treatment, et cetera. But if something really bad happens, there may actually be scenarios where they pay you 100% of your income through a catastrophic scenario. Like in a long-term care situation, blindness, can't speak, can't hear, inability to use any two limbs, things along those lines. And there is something actually that I really like, it's called Supplemental Term. And what that rider does is that it actually helps people in the worst possible time. And the worst possible time would be if someone became disabled while they were young in their career. You know, if I were to ask you, which is worse, becoming, from a financial perspective, becoming disabled at 35 or disabled at 60? No, at 35. Yeah, exactly. Because you didn't have enough time to build all the things you would have done had you continued to work. What the Supplemental Term rider does, it's unique to this one carrier, it provides extra benefits over and above anything else you qualify for for the first 10 or 15 years of the policy to basically give you an extra cushion because you didn't have enough time to do all the other things you wanted to do. Got it. Look at that. And then the other piece you mentioned there, so with an individual policy, so again, assuming I don't have it through work right now, if it costs $3,000 per year, that's not tax deductible, correct? Generally speaking, no. So I'll get into the technicalities of that. Yeah, we'll hit on that later. If you were paying for a disability policy for one of your employees. As a business owner, yeah. As a business owner, yes. You can take a full deduction for that. Yep, but as an individual, generally no. But the benefit there, so you said the 5K per month, like if that's my benefit, that generally is not taxable income. Well, let me kind of go back and kind of get back into that. So for an employee, if you pay for the premium as you're paying for it as a benefit to an employee, you take a tax deduction. The benefits are gonna be taxable. Right. For that employee upon claim. Right. However, as a business owner, unless you own a C-corporation, which is the only business entity the IRS allows you to take a tax deduction for paying a disability premium for an owner, then you cannot take a deduction for it. So you're paying for it with after-tax dollars, which then makes the benefits tax-free. I got it, cool. And if it's just an individual policy that I'm not a business owner, when I pay for it, I typically cannot deduct the premium, but that benefit is tax-free. That's correct. That's nice, yeah. So that piece I learned, which I like a lot. So how about this question? If I've got disability insurance through work already, do I need a policy? Because I would think no, like if my employer pays for it or comes in on a paycheck, why would I get more on top of that? Well, a lot of people don't realize that there's actually, almost never is group insurance really providing enough coverage. There are a few exceptions to the rule, and the only way to really know is to look at it. But in general, okay, and maybe people can comment on this, but who here would be completely happy with an unexpected 40% pay cut while your expenses are higher, right? And that's typically, people hear, oh, I get 60% coverage through my employer. Okay, well, is that going to be enough? Do you not need 40% of your income? And on top of that, for most people, it's just your base salary. Bonuses and commissions are often not factored in as part of your income for calculating disability benefits. So that's one factor where it might be an issue. But the other bigger issue is actually the benefit cap. And people don't realize this until often it's too late. I don't even know what a benefit cap is. Okay, well, I'm going to tell you. Yeah, that's why I asked. So if someone is making, let's say they make $200,000 a year, okay? And their employer, they ask their person at HR, it says, hey, how much benefit do I have? And they go, oh, well, you got 60%. And they might think, okay, so if I become disabled, 60% is going to be $10,000 a month in benefit, okay? However, there's always a cap to the maximum benefit per the employer. So if that individual had 60% coverage to a $5,000 a month benefit cap, that person in reality only has 30% coverage. Okay, look at that. And this is very, very common, a five, sometimes 10, maybe if you're lucky, a $15,000 a month. So even though 60% isn't enough in most cases, most people are affected by that cap if they have a higher income, and often they don't learn until too late. Until too late, yeah. So, okay, I like how you answer that question really just by building awareness about things that I would have no clue about if I've got a policy through work. Thank you for going through that. I appreciate it. Hey, no problem. Yeah, so here's a question that I've always had, and I think a lot of people have, is why should I have disability insurance, especially if I'm healthy? Like I run every day, work out, try to take care of myself, and a lot of times I think, like, do I really even need it? Like, I'll just keep on taking care of myself. Okay, well, I can understand that perspective, you know, why pay for something that you don't really need, right? Okay, well, I'm gonna ask you kind of a silly question. I know you're also a car guy, okay? When you drive, do you wear a seatbelt? I do every time, yeah. Okay, well, why do you wear your seatbelt? You might not need it. Just in case something happened. Exactly, well, that's the same thing, is that your most valuable asset is your ability to earn an income. If you're in the stage of your life where you're acquiring and building wealth, and driving or living your life without protecting your income in the event of disability is like driving around in your car with no seatbelt. You're fine until you have an accident or until something happens, and then it's too late. Right, got it. Yeah, good use of question is to help build that awareness, because I have thought about it more since talking to you. So how about this? Can you give me an example, just over the years of doing this, because you've been doing it for a while, of someone that had a desk job, so someone that's not at risk of getting hurt on the job. Sure. They might've thought, ah, do I really need disability initially? But they did get it, and then they used it because something happened. Oh, gosh, there's been so many examples. There's anything from someone getting cancer to someone being robbed and shot, to someone having a depression issue, to having back issues, to getting multiple sclerosis. There's even one scenario where someone who was very hesitant of buying a policy actually purchased a policy, and out of nowhere, the person was on vacation, overcome by a wave, and hurt their neck. I've heard that story. There's so many different things that can happen. In fact, many people don't realize this, but these individual policies are priced with approval by the states, and typically, they're priced with a 55% loss ratio. That means 55% of all the policy's premiums are expected to be paid in benefits to insurers. Wow, okay. And the rest of that is, the rest of the cost is this administration of getting the policies issued and whatnot and the carriers really only make about 6%, give or take, on that premium. Got it, so it's a volume play, really. Yes, absolutely. Got it. So you mentioned something, depression. So is that something that can be covered in a disability policy, if someone? Well, it depends on the options. What carrier or what design the client chooses, but there are some carriers out there, Guardian being one of them, that does have the ability to issue full mental and nervous, which is what the industry terms depression, anxiety, full mental and nervous coverage on a disability policy. Yeah, have you seen that more people exercising that? Because I know over the past three, four years, mental health has become a big thing, and more and more people are affected by it. Have you seen people going clean because of that? Yes. You have, yeah. Yes, I have. I can't go into details. No, no, no, yeah. But yes, I have seen numerous claims. Yeah, I mean, that's nice that they offer that. And you know, it depends on the client. I mean, I always like to say that in an ideal policy, or the best design you can get is to have full coverage for that, if you can, because bad things happen to good people. You know, you could have a spouse die in a car accident suddenly. You could have a kid get diagnosed with cancer, and you just can't concentrate at work. And you can save typically 10%, give or take, on the policy if you choose a 24-month maximum in those claim scenarios. But it depends on what's needed for the client. And individual policies are all custom-tailored to meet exactly the needs of the client and what the client chooses to buy. Yeah, that's nice. We can customize it and choose if you want that mental and nervous feature attached or not, and then it might cost a little bit more. That's nice, though. It's not just a fixed price. You can actually choose what you want. So let's say I have a health issue, or I had one in the past. Maybe I had depression, or I hurt my back in the past. Can I get a disability policy to cover that specifically, like if I'm already injured or I've got a disability? Well, it depends on the scenario, okay? And again, things vary greatly depending on how long ago something happened, or if it's current, or how severe it happened to be. But generally speaking, disability policies are there, and they're designed, excuse me, to cover things that haven't happened yet, which is why you wanna get a policy as young as you can before you develop certain conditions as we get older. Now, with that said, if you have certain conditions, they really wouldn't care. Like, for example, I wear glasses, okay? They would not say, we're not gonna cover your eyes because you wear glasses. It's typically that nothing they're gonna do. People also take, I take blood pressure medication. People take a cholesterol medication and things along those lines, and as long as it's under control, the carriers typically are not gonna say, we're not gonna cover your heart because you're taking a cholesterol medication. So it depends on the severity of the item. But if someone has more of a medical condition, like they go see a chiropractor and their chiropractor medically diagnosed certain problems with certain parts of their back, that's likely going to be excluded because they're getting treatment for that and it's diagnosed in their history. Yeah, and can you just explain a little bit like what that means? So if I get a disability policy, let's say I had a back injury and I'm treated for it regularly and I'm approved for the policy, but then in the language it says exclusion for back or something related, what does that actually mean for me buying that policy? Like, how would that work if I can't work Well, the way it works is that the policy is there, they're trying to contain the risk and issue a policy on as many people as they can, okay? So it depends on the situation. They're always gonna look back and see what was the original intent, least equality carriers and look to the original intent of the exclusion. And you never wanna not file a claim. I always encourage anyone to file a claim if they have a condition, even if, I'm sorry, if they have a covered condition, even if it's specifically excluded, because you wanna make sure that you wanna have the carrier tell you no, you don't wanna just assume they're not gonna pay you if you have an exclusion, always do that. But in terms of how it would work is that you file a claim, they're gonna look and they're gonna say, okay, you have this preexisting condition that we specifically excluded on your policy and they may or may not cover that back claim if it was that specific area. Now, in most scenarios, exclusions tend to be somewhat specific. So while it is possible to have an exclusion for your entire spine, more often than not, it's limited to a certain area. Like for example, if you had a low back injury and it was between L4 and L5, one part of your spine, just that particular component may be excluded. And there's also something called except fracture wording, where basically, if you can't say, oh, my back hurts, pay me $20,000 a month, okay? But it says, except fracture, if you break your back, there's no limitations on how they would pay you. Look at that, right? All the small details in the contract. It's all in the fine print. It is. Which is why you need to make sure you buy a good policy. I fully agree with that. Yeah, like my biggest fear, I think everyone's fear would be you don't wanna pay for anything and then have the insurance company try and get out of paying it clean. Because that's where people feel hurt, right? Or it can be a lot worse than that. But that's always the fear. But really, it's the contract language. And I think awareness too. Well, also the claims paying reputation of the carrier itself is a factor. Awareness, like if you tell me up front, hey, you have an exclusion on your back and went through it, you just went through there, I'm gonna know, okay, if something happens to that specific area or I can't work because of this injury I've had for the past 10 years, then I might not get the claim and I'm still okay paying for it knowing that. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, if you've ever seen, people don't really use them anymore because internet age, right? But there used to be something called a physician desk reference guide. It was a really small book with really, really tiny print that was maybe 1,000 pages thick. And it listed all the medical conditions so a physician could quickly look them up if they needed to. And basically you're not covered for a line or two in there but everything else you're covered for. So it's just another way to look at it. Okay, got it. And just from experience, very rarely do the things that wind up being excluded actually result in someone becoming disabled. Usually it winds up being something unexpected and something else. Yeah, that makes sense. So let's shift a little bit. I wanna talk about getting policies for businesses. I wanna talk about business owners and then also employees too. So let's start with the business owner. An owner is considering getting policy for himself and for some executives or employees. But starting with themself, he or she, if they get a disability policy, can that cover their salary and distributions or bonuses that they take? Because a lot of business owners will typically take a small salary and then big distributions if they have a good year. Yes, while many group insurance plans won't, all quality individual carriers out there would cover your full income, the W-2 that you pay yourself plus whatever distributions are there. And in fact, even RSUs, Restricted Stock Units, many of those can be covered as income as well in many situations. Look at that. So how would they, how do you price it if my distributions vary? Last year it was 100 grand, the next year it was 700 grand. How do you factor that in when you deal with someone that? It's always a case-by-case basis. Now, I'm oversimplifying here, but if someone is slow and steady going up in income, they're gonna go by the most recent year. Now, if someone has a crazy jump, like in that example you made before, the year before they made 100 and then the most recent year they made 700, that's a big jump. They might do an average on that. But then if there was 700 or 800 the next year, they might say, okay, well now this is trending so we'll go again with the higher number. But if it's up and down, they could always do an averaging and it's gonna be a case-by-case basis to determine what makes sense for that individual. Nice. But that is nice that you can include those bonuses or distributions, the variable part that business owners rely on a lot of times. Oh, absolutely. So as a business owner, can I deduct the premium payments? No, we talked about this a little bit before, but it's always good to touch on this because it's a very common question that people have, is that if you own a business and it's not a C-Corp, you cannot take a tax deduction on the premium for yourself, but you can for your employees. Got it, okay. So that's still a benefit there. So are they tipping? However, I do recommend if it's an individual policy that you're doing to supplement group insurance, I always recommend to convert it to tax-free. And the way you would do that is you would bonus it at the end of the year. So if you had an employee who is making $100,000 flat salary and the cost of doing a supplemental plan for that person was 1,000, the end of the year, their W-2 would show 101. Yeah, kind of like, yeah, I gotcha. Similar to an executive bonus plan in life insurance. It works exactly the same way. Yeah, got it. Okay, so if I'm gonna take policies for my employees, is it typically set up or do I have the option to fully fund for it if I wanna pay the entire premium for all employees or can I split it with them? Yeah, you can do whatever you'd like for the most part. Sweet. So sometimes for discounts, the discount is established if the employer pays some of the premium. And in some situations, if the employer pays a base amount of premium or benefits per a class of employees, they might give the option of the employee to buy up at the discount. Now, that may not be guarantee issued. It may be medically underwritten in those scenarios, but there's always that option to do that. When is it guaranteed issue? Is there a threshold for that? Well, that could be its own podcast. So that could get into a lot of details there. But yeah, there are actually situations where we can guarantee issue a non-cancelable, true or knock, individual policy covering all preexisting conditions starting at three lives, employer paid. Okay, look at that. Okay. Very nice. No, non-medical. So it'd have to be like an attorney or something along those lines. But there are scenarios where that can happen. It gets a little complicated. That could be a whole different podcast. So if there's interest, just let Steve know and I'd be glad to do one on that. Comment below, no problem. So what if, again, I get policies for all of my employees and someone leaves or they get terminated? They're with the company, they get disability, they're no longer with the company. Is that policy terminated because the business owner probably doesn't wanna pay for it anymore? How would that work for the employee specifically? Well, when it comes to a group insurance policy, ones that are not individually owned and they're issued by the company, those are not typically portable. The underlying coverage typically is gone. However, an individual policy, that is fully portable. Whether the employer is paying for it or not, it's owned by the insured. So even though the insured may not be paying for that policy while they work for that employer, they still own that policy and they can take it with them when they change jobs. Okay, yeah. So if I got policies for, call it all of our managers, our top 10 employees to start, I could pay the premium for them and the company could. Technically, they own the policy. That's correct. But then if they leave or they're terminated, whatever, they can elect to take that policy with them, but they would just have to pay the premium now. Exactly. Okay. Yeah, these policies are designed for people typically to buy them and then keep them their entire working career. Look at that. Does the premium go up once you start it? Once the policies are issued, depends on what policy and design you're getting, but in most situations with a level premium, once the policy is issued, that rate cannot change until retirement age. Many companies out there will give you the option to keep the policy going for life as long as you're working still full-time beyond a certain age. So for example, if the policy is non-cancellable, guaranteed renewable to age 65, which is one of the options you can choose, then on the policy anniversary date after the 65th birthday, if the person is still working at least 30 hours a week for a certain number of months a year, I don't remember the exact number, they can keep the policy going another year and every year they'll be asked the same question and as long as they're working full-time and they wanna pay for a policy, they can keep it. It's a two-year benefit period after 65 and then if they're still working at 75, it's a one-year benefit period. Cool, check that out. Thanks for dropping that knowledge. So here's a fun question. If I don't wanna have to have a premium forever, can I just pay a lump sum? Is there a way I can pay for it all in advance? Unfortunately not. Now I know you could do that on the life insurance side, pre-pay in advance and things like that. On disability policies, you can't. The most you can pre-pay is the annual premium. So every year you have to pay the annual premium, that's the most that you could pre-pay essentially versus doing monthly. But it doesn't really mean you don't have options. So for example, even though the policies are structured in a way that the insurance company can't change things and force you to do whatever, it doesn't mean that you don't have control of that policy. So for example, even though the policy is non-cancelable, guarantee renewable to say 65 in the example I gave before, that doesn't mean that the client has to keep the policy to 65 if they don't want it. So for example, if they retire at 55 or they win the lottery, there's no requirement for them to keep that policy. They could drop it because they truly would no longer need it. But other options too is the client can choose to lower their benefit, to take riders off. You can reduce it. The premium then. Yeah, you could reduce it. You have the option to have control of that policy as long as you've increased risk to the insurance company. Like for example, you can't say, oh, just change, just double my benefit now. That would trigger underwriting. But as long as you're lowering risk, you have the option to do that. Extend the benefit period, lower the, extend the waiting period, lower the benefit period, take riders away. Similar to life insurance. Easy to reduce, not easy to increase with an existing policy. Yes. So is it like health insurance? So again, this is a question for a business owner. If I offer it to one employee, is it something where it has to be offered to everyone then? No, it doesn't. You're allowed to discriminate by class. Okay. What does that mean by class? Well, class would be like, for example, if you wanted to offer coverage to all your executives at your company, you can do that. If you wanted to offer it to those that have been at your company for more than a certain number of years, above a certain income, you can do that too. Nice. You just can't say, you know, Steve, I don't like you, but I like her. Right. Okay, so I'm gonna give it to her because I don't like you. As long as it's reasonable. Reasonable and fair. And fair, you can do that. And besides, people discriminate all the time at work because otherwise you'd have to pay all your employees the same wage. Correct. Yeah. But, so what you can do there is create a vesting period or something like that. After three to four years, whatever I want to do, that's when you then become eligible for this benefit. Like I would with anything else. Exactly. Okay. Yeah. Cool, I like that, thank you. So, if I'm an employee, what do I need to do in order to get quotes? So, yeah. Typically, what I recommend is you wanna provide your name, your date of birth, your gender, your job title. Yep. Sometimes you might need some follow-up questions depending on if it's not so clear what you do. Yeah. Your salary and then if you have commissions or bonus. And then lastly, if you have any medical issues, you really wanna tell whoever you're dealing with those details because it may steer which carrier and what options you may or may not have. So, you wanna be up front with those. So, if you take certain medications, you wanna tell the person you're dealing with that. If you have any health history, you wanna be up front and tell them that because there's many different companies out there and options and you may wanna choose the right option for you. And the more information that you have up front, the easier it is to get to help you the best way possible. Got it, okay. So, let's talk about carriers a little bit. How many carriers, a carrier is a life insurance company. How many offer disability insurance? Well, there's actually quite a few if you talk about the group insurance side. Individual. Right, but when it comes to individual, there's really only a handful. Well, there's really not that many out there. And part of it has to do is because like I mentioned earlier it's a very risky business to be in because if the carrier made a mistake, they can't say we wanna change our rates to cover our losses. These are policies fixed in stone. Essentially, they can't fix mistakes they made. So, it's a very risky business to be in. So, most carriers out there choose not to be in this business. I get it. Look at that. Is it common for companies to try and get out of paying claims? Have you seen that a lot over the years being? Not really. No? I mean, at least with a financially strong, reputable carrier, you really don't see that. And I can't speak for all of them, but most of my experience has been with guardian claims. And I've personally seen them bend over backwards to help people out in claim scenarios. Yeah, that's important. And even pay claims when they probably didn't even have to. Look at that. We've had positive experiences on the claim side of the life insurance side of things where they are proactive, trying to get all the information so they can pay it quickly, which is nice. Because that's hard when someone- It is. It's very stressful. It's hard to imagine how stressful that would be because if you are someone that has a change in health and you're lifeline to your financial future, is your disability policies benefit? Having fear of if that policy is gonna do what you intended it to do can be very stressful. Yeah, and from the company standpoint, like if I'm the company or even the agent that has the relationship with the person, I want that to go quick. Otherwise, like that is a prime opportunity for reputation damage. Yes. You know what I mean? When someone's in that state, like if things don't happen like they're supposed to, people rely on it. Yeah. So you gotta be quick. So what companies do you usually recommend for individual disability policy? Well, it depends on what the person does. I mean, if the person's a professional, my go-to is usually Guardian. But of course, obviously, it can't be a fit for everybody. And there are some certain situations where Guardian's not gonna issue certain medical conditions. So I mean, you might have to go to a number of different carriers, depending on the situation. When it comes to blue collar, most of the primary individual carriers don't deal in blue collar. So you have to go to more of the secondary market there. And there's like a surety and Illinois Mutual and sometimes Peterson where you go to for those. Got it, okay. But so if I'm a white collar, if I am a professional, which could be an attorney, physician, CTA. Then a small business owner. Yeah. Basically, as long as someone, if they're white collar or professional, in most situations, at least occupationally, you should be okay with Guardian. Not in all situations, but most. Is that their bread and butter? If you were to ask Guardian, the head of disability, if I said, who's your ideal client or prospect, what would he say? Off the record. Well, I think I'm being recorded, so it is kind of on the record. But I'd say it'd probably be anyone who's a professional that has a stable income and has invested a lot of their energy into becoming a professional in whatever they do. Okay, got it. So we hit on contract language a bit as far as when I get a disability policy, like what am I looking for in there? Obviously, like the premium, that's where everybody's eyes are gonna go first. Right. And then how much am I getting? If I do get disabled, how much will that actually pay? But like if I'm your friend and I say, hey, I'm getting a disability policy, what should I look for? Like what are the top one to three things that you would say make sure it has this or make sure that this language is in there? Well, if there's enough comments and there's interest, I can actually do another podcast on what makes a good policy. That would be something that a lot of people might find interesting. So I'm gonna kind of answer that really, really quickly. Okay. But in general, you wanna make sure it's issued by a strong and reputable carrier. You wanna make sure the policy has a non-cancelable guaranteed renewable structure so that you have control of that policy. You wanna make sure it's what's called true on occupation. You're covered in your own occupation, even if you choose to do something else. That's important. It should have a quality partial feature with an unlimited recovery. So while you're rebuilding your career, it can still pay you benefits even after you recover. Inflation protection, like cost of living adjustments, an additional catastrophic feature that gives you extra benefits if something really bad happens to you. And also that supplemental component like we talked about before, for when you're younger, you get extra benefits and even retirement contribution protection. That's income people don't think about. Yeah, I like that feature. When they become disabled, your employer can no longer contribute to your 401k plan and neither can you, because you no longer work there. Yeah, look at that. We can definitely have another podcast on that. So let's say I get a disability policy. I'm approved, but at the time of getting it, I had a health issue. Maybe I was a smoker and my premium was higher. And let's say I've cleaned up my lifestyle a bit. Can I upgrade that current policy to lower the premium without removing any benefits, but assuming I'm just healthier now than I was five years ago? Yeah, absolutely. You can always apply for that. While the insurance company can't make anything worse if you had a change in health, if your health gets better, you can apply to have a rating taken off to do something better with the policy than what you currently have. So you always have that option. Look at that. Well, this has been fantastic. I guess wrapping up, who's not a candidate for disability? Like when would you tell me, hey, this is probably not a fit for you? Basically someone who has significant medical problems. Already disabled. Yeah, already disabled or even not already disabled, just uninsurable from the point of they have too many medical conditions that an insurance company just would not take the risk. Yeah, got it. And if I'm uncertain if I can get it or not, there's things you can do just to screen it. You talked about just before we spoke, that questionnaire, which is not applying for a policy. It's just like a preliminary health screen where the insurance company will look at it, see how you answer those questions and say, okay, you'll probably be able to get this or you might not be able to, it's not formal, but it gives you a good idea, right? There's the eMed that we can send out even without an application that can review. And you have to be thorough and complete because that's what's being used to look at things. And you can use that as a way to see if there's any major red flags that are there and to make some recommendations based on that before you actually do an application. Nice. Why submit an application if you know the person's gonna be declined because they just had a heart attack? Nice. So if I'm healthy and I said, okay, can you give me an idea of what my premium would be? You could show me what it looks like with a basic disability policy, then all the bells and whistles with all the riders you mentioned, and then the most popular option. But if I had some health issues and I said to you, hey, I'm thinking about getting it, I'm concerned, but I don't think I'll be able to get approved. You can always ask. Right, right. So you say, yeah, you might be able to. A lot of people feel like that. Complete this medical form, the eMed, and then you can tell me, yeah, it's likely, or you probably won't be before I go through the full underwriting process. Yeah. Nice. Cool. Well, this has been fantastic. Anything you'd like to wrap up with today, my friend? No, just list in the comments section if you had any subjects you want me to expand on. Definitely, will do. Well, if you have questions or like more information, let us know in the comments below. You can always email us direct as well. And thanks so much for watching. Vince, appreciate your time. Anytime. All right. Thanks, Steve. See you soon. Cool.