Monday, February 13, 2012

Don't Let a Disability Ruin Your Retirement Plan

Hopefully you have addressed the need for income protection with your clients. Disability insurance is the only way to ensure that your client's financial obligations are met if a disability were to occur during their working life.
Have you thought about the consequences a disability will have on their retirement plan?

A disability could disrupt their retirment savings plan in many ways:


  • Contributions to Social Security would stop.

  • Contributions to an employer-sponsored plan, such as a 401(k) would stop.

  • Employer Matching would stop.

  • Would their DI coverage be enough to allow them to continue to contribute to IRAs, etc.?

Fortunately, there is a way to ensure the ability to save for retirement in the event of a disability. Several insurance carriers offer a disability income insurance program that helps clients continue saving for retirement.


Upon a qualifying disability, this type of program would pay monthly benefits directly to a trust to help your client to continue to save for retirement. This trust then invests the benefits on your behalf. At a set age, you would start receiving income payments from the trust.


If your client is serious about saving for retirement and has maxed out their personal disability income insurance benefits, this type of program is ideal.