Disability protection for physicians who own a practice
You continually strive to help your patients enjoy good health. But it’s key to also be mindful of your own health, including your financial health. Because a disability can strike anyone at any time, it’s critical to consider having individual income protection in place to help protect you financially should you become disabled. And, just as importantly, as a physician who owns their own practice, you should consider protecting your business in the event you become disabled.
At Guardian®, we recognize the unique challenges that physicians face. That’s why we’ve designed our physicians’ disability insurance coverage to help protect your income and meet your needs as a practice owner.
Personal income protection: Safeguarding your income
If you’re unable to work in your medical specialty due to an illness or injury, individual disability income (DI) protection may help to replace a portion of your paycheck, enabling you to worry less about money, and focus more on your recovery. Your DI policy is designed to help you maintain your lifestyle while you’re disabled.
As a physician, there’s special protection available for you. Our Enhanced True Own-Occupation coverage is available exclusively to physicians and doctors of osteopathy. With this coverage in place, if you become totally disabled, you’ll receive your full disability benefits, even if you’re gainfully employed in another occupation or capacity. Additionally, while total disability keeps you from practicing your own occupation, there may be instances when you can work in your own practice and still collect your full disability benefit.
Our base policy is one of the strongest and most flexible in the marketplace today. It includes a Hospice Care Benefit and a Serious Illness Endorsement. In addition, you can customize your policy to meet your specific needs, by choosing any or all of these valuable options:
- Student loan coverage
- Protection in the event of partial disability
- Lump sum benefit at age 60
- Retirement contribution protection with Retirement Protection Plus*
- Future Increase Option Rider, which gives you the opportunity, each year, to increase your coverage as your income grows — without requiring proof of medical insurability
* Retirement Protection Plus is not a pension plan, qualified retirement plan, or qualified individual retirement account, or a substitute for one.
Business protection: Safeguarding your practice
With an Overhead Expense disability insurance policy, up to 100% of your routine business expenses may be covered should you become disabled — including your office rent, business equipment expenses, utilities, employee salaries, and benefits.
The Overhead Expense policy can safeguard the income of your employees, including your nurses, medical assistants, and other staff.
You can also tailor your Overhead Expense policy to include various options, based on the needs of your practice. A few of these include:
- Professional Replacement Endorsement: Provides an additional benefit for the purpose of hiring a replacement for you while you’re on disability. This helps you fund the care for your patients without interruption.
- Business Loan Protection Rider: If you have elected this rider and become totally disabled, you’ll be reimbursed for covered business-related loan expenses from a financial institution.
Coverage to help you transition your practice in the event of your continued disability
If your practice is structured as a partnership, you may already have a buy-sell agreement in place to specify the terms under which your partners or business entity will buy out your share of the practice should you have to leave due to disability. If you already have such an agreement, or plan to create one, Disability Buy-Out insurance can be used to fund it.
Work with us
As a physician, you know how unpredictable life is, and how an individual’s health can suddenly change due to an injury or illness. That’s why it’s important that you consider taking the right steps today to put comprehensive personal income protection and business protection in place. These coverages can help you protect your personal finances as well as the practice you’ve worked so hard to build.
At Guardian, we’ll help you tailor your coverage to fit your needs.
