This may NOT apply to many of you that work for larger firms. However, for those at smaller firms, this could be a valuable opportunity.
No matter where you work, you want to make sure there is adequate disability coverage for you and your clients. My experience is most of my students have NO idea how much disability coverage they have. Not good.
As an example, some of our advisors at our firm, Main Street Financial Solutions, have enrolled in the FPA Group Disability Plan. The link is: FPA’s Group Disability plan below is the analysis/recommendation done by Jamal Mahmood, an advisor and insurance expert that recently joined our firm. He writes:
I came to this decision after comparing it against other individual disability products. Though some individual policies are technically “stronger” in certain respects, my primary goal is to have a good basic disability plan, and the FPA policy more than fits the bill. It is also, of course, a good deal less costly since it is a group plan. Typically, group plans are not quite as strong as this contract that the FPA has designed.
The primary caveats are that one has to maintain FPA membership, and self-report their income every year to maintain coverage, and that one would lose their coverage if they ever dropped their FPA membership. But I think that membership is useful enough that I will likely keep it for the long term (and even if you just look at it as part of the cost of insurance, it is still reasonable overall). The other caveat is this: you can only get on the plan without a medical exam within 60 days of joining the FPA. So if you have already had membership for some time, you have to wait till they offer open enrollment (probably end of January). If you are not currently an FPA member, you can join and then sign up.
Please note I don’t get anything from this if you buy. I just thought I would share with you how one of our advisors broke down the above policy.
Also, and most importantly, please remember to pay your premiums with AFTER tax dollars (if you can) so you receive the disability benefits tax free (though I hope you never need them).
Author
John