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May 25, 2007
NUMEROUS ENHANCEMENTS ADDED TO GUARDIAN'S POPULAR SPECIAL DI LIMITS FOR YOUNG PROFESSIONALS
NEW YORK, N.Y., May 25, 2007 — An innovative program that enables advanced degree students, medical residents and those working in the first year of their profession to obtain top-level individual disability income (DI) insurance coverage based on their future earnings potential is now even more attractive to young professionals, thanks to a number of enhancements—including hard-to-find retirement income protection.
The Special Limits for Young Professionals program—offered by The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America (Guardian) through its wholly owned stock subsidiary, Berkshire Life Insurance Company of America (Berkshire)—allows the following individuals to obtain protection for their future income without the historical earnings information that is typically required to obtain adequate levels of DI coverage:
| First-Year Architects
| Dental Residents
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| First-Year Attorneys
| Final-Year MBA Students
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| First-Year Certified Nurse Practitioners
| Medical Residents/Fellows
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| First-Year Certified Physician Assistants
| Senior Dental Students
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| First-Year CPAs
| Senior Medical Students
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| First-Year DDSs
| Senior Veterinary Students
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| First-Year Degreed Engineers
| Third-Year Law School Students
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| First-Year Optometrists
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| First-Year Pharmacists
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| First-Year Physicians
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| First-Year Veterinarians
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"Regardless of how much young people are earning right out of graduate school—which may not be much—they can now safeguard not only the substantial investment made in their education but also their future ability to be paid if they are too sick or injured to work in their chosen profession," said Matthew Gottfried, ASA, Berkshire's Director of Individual Disability Income.
Due to the more thorough underwriting required by a morbidity-based product like DI (as opposed to a more straightforward mortality-based product like life insurance), the typical, more established professional applying for coverage has to qualify financially, as well as medically, to obtain a DI policy.
However, brand-new professionals applying for DI coverage through Guardian's Special Limits program are only subject to medical underwriting—usually not a problem when one is young and in good health. Depending on the profession, their monthly income protection benefit can range from up to $1,000 to up to $5,000.
New for 2007
This year, Berkshire has implemented a number of enhancements to Guardian's Special Limits program to make it even more appealing to young professionals, including:
 | Increased monthly income protection benefitand increased catastrophic benefit for first-year physicians, optometrists and pharmacists; |
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| Availability of Retirement Protection Plus (RPP)—one of the few programs that covers retirement contributions in the event they are suspended or stopped permanently by a career-threatening disability—to specified first-year professionals; |
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| Graded premium structure to help keep the cost of income protection affordable while young professionals develop their careers; and |
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| Differentiation of (and favorable limits for) medical fellows and declared medical residents in their third year from newer/undeclared residents. |
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Once insured through the Special Limits program, young professionals may increase their monthly benefit level as their incomes grow if a Future Increase Option (FIO) rider is attached. No additional medical underwriting is required at that point, just evidence of financial insurability.
And, even if they have as little as one year of earnings history in their new professions, under the Special Limits program newly insured individuals may apply for additional DI coverage based on that history.
Berkshire's Gottfried is convinced that the new enhancements to an already competitive Special Limits for Young Professionals offering will give Guardian producers a clear advantage in this desirable market.
"Under our program, if a first-year physician elects to supplement his or her base income protection benefit with our Future Increase Option rider, Catastrophic Disability Benefit rider, Retirement Protection Plus and RPP FIO, he or she is eligible for a potential combined monthly benefit of nearly $20,000," Gottfried noted.
"That's an extraordinary opportunity for a young person, especially one who may be facing significant student loan debt," he added. "Newly minted professionals may feel impoverished at that point in their lives; this Guardian program reminds them that, actually, they own an extremely valuable asset—their ability to earn substantial income in future years—and that it is never too early to protect that asset."
For additional information about the Special Limits for Young Professionals program, producers may go to www.GuardianLife.com/service_center/find_a_local_office.html to locate the Guardian agency nearest to them. Each agency is staffed with at least one Disability Income Specialist, who provides local sales consultative support and service for disability income insurance cases.
About Guardian
Founded in 1860, The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America, New York, NY (Guardian) is one of the largest mutual life insurance companies in the United States. As of December 31, 2006, Guardian and its subsidiaries had $39.5 billion in assets (on a consolidated statutory basis). With more than 5,000 employees and 3,000 financial representatives, as well as more than 80 agencies nationwide, Guardian and its subsidiaries protect individuals, businesses, and their employees with life, disability, health, long-term care, and dental insurance products, and offer 401(k), annuities and other financial products and trust services. More information about Guardian can be obtained at: www.guardianlife.com.
About Berkshire
Berkshire Life Insurance Company of America, Pittsfield, Mass. (Berkshire), is a wholly owned stock subsidiary of The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America, New York, N.Y. Its key missions are to grow Guardian's disability income and long-term care lines of business and to research and develop new insurance products. More information about Berkshire can be obtained at www.BerkshireLife.com.
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