What is disability insurance?
Disability insurance is a form of health insurance. It is income paid to you by your insurance company when you can’t work due to sickness or accidental injury. Disability insurance income replaces either a portion of your regular income or is a set dollar amount. Benefit periods and amounts may depend on whether the disability was caused by an accident or illness and whether the disability is “short term” or “long term.” Disability insurance should provide peace of mind in the event that you are disabled and require replacement income. Unfortunately, this does not...
read moreWhat is critical illness insurance?
Critical illness insurance is an insurance product where the insurer is contracted to pay money (lump sum or structured) if the policyholder is diagnosed with one of the critical illnesses listed in the insurance policy. These are ‘peace of mind’ contracts. The contract or policy will set out several definitions and terms. Contractual definitions and terms are almost always open to interpretation. Most of these denials involve disputes over definitions of when a diagnosis of a critical illness is considered valid, allegations of misrepresentation, non-payment of premiums, and exclusion...
read moreMental illness and LTD benefits.
According to Health Canada, mental illness is the second leading cause of disability in Canada. In a 2008 article, the Institute of Health Economics reported that on any given week at least 500,000 employed Canadians are unable to work due to mental illness. Disability insurance claims involving mental illness make up nearly 40% of my practice. There are a number of unique challenges of applying for disability benefits involving mental illness. 1. The insurance industry sees your claim as a “problem”. Due to volume of disability benefits claims involving mental illness, the...
read moreCan an LTD claim be resolved without trial?
Although many disputed Long Term Disability claims lead to lawsuits, most claims settle before trial. There are a number of approaches a disability lawyer can pursue to resolve a long term disability claim without a trial: 1. Reinstatement – this is the simplest way to resolve a long term disability claim. The insurer will pay a lump sum to bring the disability benefit up to date (i.e. payment of arrears), and then restart payments under the disability policy. This type of resolution will often occur when the insured is young and the prognosis for a return to work is uncertain. In this...
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