Long-Term Disability Insurance 101

By Matt Lalande in Long-Term Disability on February 09, 2018

What do I need to understand about long-term disability insurance?

Were you denied long-term disability and are now trying to understand things a bit better? Let’s break down the various types of insurance and why we buy it first.

Insurance is intended to both manage risk and protect against the loss of property through theft, damage, and destruction.  This is generally called property risk.

Insurance also manages risk and protects against lawsuits for negligence, malpractice, or failure in fiduciary duty. This is often called liability risk.

Insurance that manages risk and protects against loss of income or support through disability or death is called personal risk.  An example of personal risk insurance is insurance that relates to premature death and poor health and disability.

A personal risk is normally subdivided into three different categories, namely premature death, poor health and disability, and living resources.

Poor health and disability risk is the risk of having to pay someone’s medical expenses or loss of income because of an accident-related injury or psychiatric illness. Our Hamilton lawyers often deal with injured or sick people who desperately need financial reimbursement for health-related expenses and the replacement of lost wages. 

What exactly is the role of long-term disability insurance?  

For a lot of working-age people, the chance of getting sick, getting hurt, or being unable to work or having to reduce work hours or work duties is substantially greater than the chance of dying.

The role of disability income replacement insurance, or long-term disability benefits, is simply to provide a stream of income payments to you as a disability-insured person to replace income lost due to being unable to work because of an injury or illness.

What types of disability insurance coverage are there? 

Disability income insurance provides periodic payment benefits for disability resulting from both accidents or sickness. Basically, there are three types of disability insurance coverage in Ontario:

• Government Plans – Government plans include the disability provisions of CPP, QPP, EI, and WSIB.  These types of plans offer very limited protection as part of Canada’s social security benefits.
• Disability Group Insurance Coverage – Disability insurance coverage is also offered through group plans, which are available through an employer or association. They generally offer more limited protection but at a lower cost to the insured or workplace.
• Disability Coverage Through Individual Policies – Individual insurance policies are available directly from an insurance company or broker on client-to-client basis. These types of long-term disability benefits offer the most extensive protection but at a higher cost to the insured.

Have you been denied long-term disability or have your benefits been terminated?

If your disability income insurance or long-term disability coverage has been denied, our long-term disability lawyers can help. We are committed to helping injured or disabled persons receive the coverage they have both paid for and deserve.

If you have been denied your long-term disability benefits, you deserve to understand your full rights and options under your policy. Oftentimes, insurance companies will deny long-term disability benefits because of the following factors:

• Misrepresentation of your health
• Insufficient medical evidence
• Failure to meet your policy’s definition of a disability
• Insurer claims it has evidence contrary to your disability claim
• Insured missed deadlines or failed to attend appointments

Connect with out Long Term Disability Lawyers Today

If you have been denied long-term disability benefits, please talk to us. Lalande Personal Injury Lawyers has extensive experience with denied long-term disability carriers, and we can help you get your benefits back on track.

Our disability insurance lawyers assist claimants during all stages of a claim for disability insurance benefits—whether at claim denial or termination. We never charge upfront legal fees. Please arrange a free consultation with one of our lawyers by filling in a contact form below or by calling 905-333-8888 today.