Wow, it seems just a few years ago we were saying the opposite: “Physician disability benefit limits to be reduced; buy it now while you still can.” That simply is the not the case anymore as carrier after carrier has decided to increase their issue limits.
I don’t mean to sound the alarm, but if I wanted the higher limit contracts, I would certainly get my contracts locked down now rather than later because the carriers could also decide they have enough physician disability plans in place and limit how many get sold.
Most carriers have recently pushed their limits of issue to $15,000–$17,000 of monthly coverage and will coordinate with other carriers to $30,000 or even $35,000 of monthly coverage. What a change from just 10 years ago when most had issue limits of $10k and MAYBE coordinate with others up to $15,000 or $20,000 – if you were lucky.
Will benefit limits go higher, stay the same, or go back down?
My opinion is they will not go higher any time soon, unless we are talking about a carrier that has yet to increase their limits to match the industries current view. However, I do believe that carriers are going to push down the required income level needed to qualify for those higher limits. With this strategy in play, it will increase the number of “qualified insured’s” thus increasing the number of policy holders for those larger amounts.
I don’t mean to sound the alarm, but if I wanted the higher limit contracts, I would certainly get my contracts locked down now rather than later because the carriers could also decide they have enough physician disability plans in place and limit how many get sold. Examples of this currently in the market place are carriers who only require $340,000 of income to get $15,000 of coverage, while some others require as much as $390,000 for that same benefit. You can see it would be much easier to acquire a contract from certain carriers than others.
If you have questions about the benefit limits in your current policy, or need to inquire about higher limit contracts, contact us. Our 20+ years helping physicians have offered us sound relationships with many carriers, and we can help find you the right policy.
