Disability Insurance Awareness Month resources available to producers

The 16th annual Disability Insurance Awareness Month outreach campaign is running throughout the month of May. Led by Life Happens, the Council for Disability Awareness, and the International DI Society, this initiative is intended to remind consumers and the industry that “just about all positive financial decisions depend on a worker’s ability to earn a paycheck.”

As part of the campaign, Life Happens is offering financial professionals free access to educational support materials.

Disability insurance is arguably the most misunderstood of all major insurances, which is the impetus behind the awareness month campaign.

May is when the industry comes together to do something about the enormous gap that exists between Americans’ need for disability insurance and the actual coverage they have.

This year’s theme for the campaign is: “Rethink disabilities. Rethink disability insurance.”

You may not have disability insurance because you think a disability will never happen to you. But defining disabilities might encompass more than you think. Simply put—you can’t tell if someone has a disability by looking at them. Invisible disabilities or chronic illnesses can take away your ability to earn a living just as easily as a visible impairment. Chances are, if you live long enough, you will most likely experience a disability in your lifetime. That’s why disability insurance is so important. It provides a portion of your income if you’re unable to work. In fact, you can also call it income insurance.

In a blog post on its website, Petersen International Underwriters said, “DI Awareness Month is special because we recognize its fundamental importance to the working American. Too many of us have seen the financial struggles of uninsured families when an income earner loses his/her physical ability to make a decent living, and we have heard the stories and witnessed firsthand our clients having been saved by the benefits of a disability policy. We have seen them keep their homes, pay their bills, send their children to college even though an accident or an illness has taken their ability to work.”

In the grand scheme of things, the DI industry is a minute fraction of health insurance sales in this country, but disability insurance is imperative and has a significant financial impact, the blog post continues.

“During one’s working years, disablement is as much a reality as dying. You would therefore think this type of insurance would be prescribed as readily as life insurance, but that isn’t the case. DI is relatively neglected, and that is why this month is so important to the greater insurance industry and to the American workforce.

“We need to show the people of this country that they are at extreme financial risk without adequate amounts of personal disability insurance. Their businesses are at extreme financial risk without adequate amounts of business disability insurance. And we need to remind the insurance agents, brokers and advisors of this country how to promote and sell DI.”

Organizations like the International DI Society, the Council for Disability Awareness and Life Happens put enormous effort and fiscal backing each year into the promotion of disability insurance in the United States, and May is their month to shine, the Petersen blog concludes.

Life Happens offers a vast array of DI resources, including Real Life Stories videos and flyers, that show people why it’s so important to protect their income with DI.

This year’s resources include:

• Refreshed Disability Insurance 101 video
• A suite of social-media graphics with suggested captions
• A new flyer focused on disability insurance for high-income earners
• Real Life Stories videos, flyers and graphics focused on invisible disabilities
• A Marketing Guide with tips for putting it all together