Whether you work for an employer or are self-employed. Your ability to earn your livelihood depends on your ability to work. If you happen to fall ill or meet with an accident that disables you and prevents you from working. How are you going to pay your bills and meet all your fixed expenses? That is why you need disability insurance to cover against this kind of an eventuality. However, you will need the advice and guidance of a reliable broker advisor who specializes in handling disability insurance.
Before that, you must choose the right broker from a few options. That you get from your research as well as references. Here you need to realize that you must understand your priorities. When you need the benefits of this kind of insurance.
Choosing between a broker and an independent agent
As long as the broker agent advisor is a professional. He believes that his/her gains are directly linked to your satisfaction with his/her services. It won’t matter much because s/he will try and get the best possible deal for you. However, you must remember that there is a difference between a broker and an independent agent.
Either one of them will appreciate your disability concerns in his/her own way. The broker is the officially appointed representative of the insurance company while an agent operates independently. It is not committed to any particular insurance company. Hence, s/he will be impartial in suggesting a provider to you.
Will your advisor help customize the policy for you?
The main reason for you to hire the services of an advisor is that you do not have enough time to read and understand the policy fine print. There are riders in a policy that optimizes the cover to suit your specific needs with additional cost that can vary as per the rider you choose.
Your advisor would know all about it and which of these riders are going to be beneficial for you. Even if you regularly read disability news stories, you won’t know as much about disability insurance unless you are committed to it like your advisor. Let him/her know that you expect good advice on such matters.
Will the advisor be easily accessible?
It is absolutely important that the advisor is easily accessible to you. Even if s/he isn’t able to speak to you right when you call up, s/he must communicate to you that s/he will call back soon. There are many disability stories where customers suffered because advisors were inaccessible.
The other important point that you need to clear up is client references. Tell him/her that you would like to hear from at least a couple of his/her clients about their experiences and how satisfied they are with his/her services. This is a critical area of the selection process but any professional agent/advisor would willingly share his/her clients’ details for you to check his/her credentials.
