Should I wait until I am done with my training residency/fellowship as I will then have the necessary money to pay for a policy?

That's an excellent question. You can certainly wait until you are done with training to begin a policy. However, if you have any changes in your health the individual disability insurance carrier can decide to reduce the type of policy (i.e. shorten benefit period such as 5 or 10 years instead of age 65) or they can put an exclusion or exclusions for certain body parts or injuries or illnesses. As an example, you decide to play basketball with friends and hurt your knee prior to having disability insurance. The carrier could then put exclusion on that knee meaning if you cannot work in the future in your specialty because you need surgery or issues with your knee they will not pay your claim. Imagine you are know out of training, you own your home, putting money away for retirement and living the life you have dreamed for so long. If no exclusion the carrier would have paid $17,000/month income-tax free from your current age 40-65 or a total of $5,100,000. Was it worth the money you saved during training?

While I am not earning much now in training does it even make sense to begin a disability program now while in training?

Again this is an excellent question and one we hear daily. During training is a challenging time financially which is why individual disability carriers create programs with discounts to help allow someone the ability to get coverage while in training. Additionally and more importantly, carriers allow medical and dental residents and fellows to add a feature in their policy called "Guarantee of Insurability or Future Increase Option" which allows them to increase the amount of benefit they have or amount of income they can protect without additional medical questions or exams. So as a resident or fellow you have the ability of protecting your current income of $40K-$70K but more importantly all your future income potential as well. Meaning, you could protect your future income up to $400,000 to $600,000/year without any additional medical underwriting.

Additionally, your Hospital and or department may be offering a discount of 10%-30% or more and may offer unisex rates for woman which can make the premiums much lower and portable when you leave the Hospital.

In the future, I will work at a hospital or private practice wont they provide group long term disability insurance that will be good enough coverage?

It is very common to be provided group long term disability insurance as attending at a hospital or a physician at a private practice. However, most group contracts:

• Provide taxable monthly benefits rather than income tax free.

• End if you end employment with your practice or the hospital.

• Are not as liberal as individual disability insurance contracts meaning the contact may not pay in all situations if disabled.

Typically, many human resource directors at a hospital or private practice will encourage a new hire to get individual disability insurance as well as encourage them not to cancel any they have before beginning out of training. This again is because of the quality of individual contracts compared to group contracts.

I already have disability insurance in my residency/fellowship at my hospital do I need an individual policy?

Yes, all residents and fellows have a limited amount of group long term disability coverage provided by their employer. Often you are provided $5,000/month (taxable) if disabled while in training until age 65 and will cover a resident or fellow in their occupation or specialty for a limited number of years. Additionally, since the coverage provided is not NON CANCELLABLE GUARANTEED RENEWABLE. This means that the policy is not guaranteed and ends once resident or fellow graduates. Again, as mentioned in a few answers prior by not getting an individual contract you are risky potential exclusions or denial of getting any coverage.