Hi, I'm Billy Gwaltney and this is the CYA podcast. This show is for the physician who understands the importance of protecting everything you've worked so hard to achieve. Each week I'll bring you tips and advice to help you cut through the clutter and misinformation and show you exactly what you need to preserve your income and way of life. If you're ready to achieve the peace of mind that only financial security can bring. Let's get started.
Welcome episode number seven. The title of today's program is do I pay you Billy and extra fee for your expertise and for working with you? This is an excellent question and I'm happy to answer it. The short answer is no, there's no extra fee for working with me or an insurance broker. A rates for disability insurance and usually it's the case of the term life insurance as well are set and filed with the insurance commissioners for each state.
00:59 They can't be changed and so the rate is the rain. This is unlike say a real estate transaction where if you use a broker, you could pay an extra fee or a percentage of your, your purchase price or sale price would go towards an agent, whereas you could keep it in your pocket if you didn't have an agent or broker. That's not the case with disability coverage. A commission is built into disability insurance premiums and it occurs, it's actually spread out over a 20 plus year time period. And the idea behind that is to incentivize me to take good care of you and keep you happy for the long term. And that's a good thing. That's what you want. If you called the company directly to purchase your disability insurance, they would likely send you to someone like me.
01:45 Someone needs to be the agent of record. Now there are discounts that different insurance companies offer, particularly the handful of top true specialty disability carriers. And these discounts vary depending on training situation and where you're located. It could be based on the state, could be if you're an attending, there are different sets of discounts. And essentially all discounts are at the discretion of the broker. There may be a few exceptions, but none that I can think of off the top of my head. And so that can account for the variation you might see in rates. You could look at one quote from one broker with a and then one with a different broker with the same insurance company in one might be 20 or 30% higher or 10% higher or whatever it is. And oftentimes that can be just based on the discount.
02:34 Some brokers don't have access to discounts for whatever reason. Some don't know they exist. You know, if they're kind of helping you out and they don't really specialize in this marketplace, that could certainly be the case. Others, which might be the worst of all. There could be situations where a broker knows about a discount, but they still choose not to offer it because they're hoping you won't know the difference. I'm often told by physicians that I work, that the race that I show are lower than others that they've seen for the same coverage and perhaps even with the same company. And that's very possible. I have access to the trainee discounts. I pass those along to my clients. The folks that work with me, they pay the lowest rate available, you know, based on their age, their specialty, their gender and their location.
03:21 It's essentially the same rate. I would pay for the same coverage. You definitely have to make sure you have the quality definitions and riders that you would want in coverage and those are not free. So there's certainly costs for that, but the discount is the largest that I have access to and that is attainable. Any particular situation? And that's a, that's important. You want to work with a specialist. I know I mentioned this in multiple podcasts just because it's true. The details of this coverage matter are getting the definitions right really matters. You want to do that while you're healthy, before a claim is ever needed. And the rate that you pay can vary widely. You want to make sure that that rate is fixed. It stays with you, it doesn't increase in the future. It's not a non-guaranteed. There's a certain association that offers disability policies to physicians and it's essentially a group policy and the discount is not guaranteed.
04:16 It can change, the coverage can actually be discontinued. And so you want to make sure that the rate that you're paying is in fact a rate that's yours as long as you pay the premium. So you want what's called a non cancelable guaranteed renewable policy where the insurance company cannot change any terms, cannot walk away at any time and cannot increase the rate as long as you pay the premium. There's also what's called a guaranteed renewable policy where you can save an additional, say 18 or 19% on the premium. They can't be in that scenario. The insurance company cannot change the contract, but they could raise the rate by occupation class. Not saying that's for everybody. That's not what some people want to to add to their coverage or they're not interested in saving a little bit more for that kind of risk. If you do it right, it doesn't have to be a significant risk in it and it can save a real long term, but the bottom line for this particular podcast episode is that there's no extra fee for my expertise and for working with me.
05:19 Ideally, you would want to be with a specialist, whether me or someone else. Please make sure that it's someone there that really knows the lay of the land. You'll be glad you did that. Hope you found this helpful. Please feel free to reach out and text me anytime to arrange a conversation or to to ask questions. My number is (704) 270-2376 again, that's (704) 270-2376 and again, I'd be glad to discuss your situation at a time convenient for you. Until next time, this is Billy Gwaltney. Thank you. As always for carving out the time. I am grateful for that. Take care.
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