Group short-term disability insurance
With Guardian Short Term Disability (STD) insurance, your employees have support for today and protection for tomorrow. So, they can have more confidence that temporary health-related absences won't derail their financial wellness and overall well-being.
Help ensure current and prospective employees not only have the support to care for themselves, but can better support their families and loved ones. Discover the difference with Guardian.
Caregiving support services
Did you know that employees who are also caregivers in their family are two times more likely to experience their own disability-related leave of absence.¹ That's why Guardian is the first benefits carrier to embed caregiving support services into our STD and LTD offerings — so your people have the support they need to handle any task, while also maintaining their own well-being.
Here's what the services can help them with:
managing the complex health needs for themself or a loved one
understanding and appealing medical bills
raising and supporting a family
and more!
Paid leave benefit rider
The most widely available rider of its kind, this can help you provide employees with paid family leave to bond with a child after birth or adoption, care for a sick family member, and more. With simplified access through our streamlined STD claims administration process, you can bring paid family leave to employees across 75% of the country.²
Maternity elimination period waiver rider
With this rider, you can choose to remove the “benefit waiting period” (also known as the elimination period) on maternity claims, providing new mothers with access to their STD benefits from the first day after childbirth.³ Helping provide families with added financial confidence as they navigate this milestone.
Return-to-work support
Helping support employee recovery and return-to-work is part of a comprehensive absence management solution. Your employees can count on a powerful team focused on helping them return to work, when they're ready. With registered nurse case managers and a full vocational rehabilitation team, well-being is top of mind during this transition.
Together, we can better support employees and their families with group STD insurance. Contact your broker or Guardian representative to learn more.
See how we can help you support employees during life's events — big and small
1 Standing Up and Stepping In, Guardian 12th Annual Workplace Benefits Study, 2023
2 Guardian internal data, 2025
3 This optional rider is not available in all states. Certain exclusions apply, contact your broker or Guardian consultant for additional details.
Guardian’s Group Short Term Disability Insurance is underwritten and issued by The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America, New York, NY. Products are not available in all states. Policy limitations and exclusions apply. Optional riders and/or features may incur additional costs. Generic Policy Form #s GP-1-LTD-15 and GP-1-STD-15. The state approved form is the governing document.
Wellthy, Inc. (“Wellthy”) is a vendor to The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America (“Guardian”). Wellthy and Guardian are not affiliated entities. Wellthy provides a care coordinator to integrate separately retained caregiver resources (e.g., senior care, childcare, etc.) for the benefit of a member or their permitted dependents (“services”). Guardian does not control or provide any part of the services and does not bear any liability for their provision. This informational resource is not a contract and is for illustrative purposes only. Only the policy contains applicable terms. Guardian and Wellthy reserve the right to discontinue services at any time without notice. Services may not be available in all states.