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.
(00:28): Welcome to today's episode of the cover, your assets podcast. This is Billy, Gwaltney your host, and I'm excited to be with you today. Today, we're going to cover a question of why our disability insurance rates for female physicians so much higher than for males and how, if I'm a female, should I go about handling that? I get that question a lot. And this ultimately comes down to a scenario of some bad news, some good news, and it comes out in the wash in the longterm.
(01:00): First, the bad news for disability insurance, for female physicians, female physicians can pay 20% to 40% or even greater more from a cost standpoint than their male colleagues of the same age, same specialty, same location. And these rates vary depending on the company. In some instances, there are what's called unisex discount, which is where a company will in select markets or situations offer rates where females pay the same rate as a male. And it usually results in a, in a pretty good savings for females and those rates come and go. Currently the top companies are not generally offering these, this could possibly change in the future. Although as of the timing of this podcast, there's no loud conversations about that. And it could be years before, you know, the top companies offer discounts. Now certain association policies can offer a unisex discount, but in, in virtually I won't, I hesitate to say all, but in virtually all of the, the association policies I've seen, they're barely worth the paper that they're printed on.
(02:09): And so you are getting a discount, but it's a discount on a really bad policy. So I'm not sure how valuable that ultimately is. So those discounts can come and go. But as we sit here today, females in general are going to cost more than males. And so the question that comes up is why is that? Why is disability coverage for a female physician so much more expensive? And the answer ultimately is that statistically speaking females get disabled more often from an illness or injury and tend to stay disabled longer. And so the statistics surrounding this is the council for disability awareness has compiled statistics. And from a recent survey, they did her study. They did a 35 year old female average height, average weight. Non-Smoker who is a professional works in an office, mostly has close to a 25% chance of becoming disabled for three months or longer during her working career.
(03:07): And there's close to a 40% chance that that disability would last five years or longer. That's significant. That's nothing to sneeze at. The, the most common types of disabilities injuries account for less than 10% of all disability. So close to 91% of disabilities are illnesses, musculoskeletal disorders, cancer, pregnancy complications, and situations arriving arising from that psychiatric disabilities can factor into that as well. And so there are a number of things that can cause disability. And again, females tend to get disabled more often and stay disabled longer. Now here's the good news. And this is what I tell a female clients. When I'm talking with them, if you're a female physician listening to this podcast, there's a really good chance that you're going to outlive your male colleagues by a long shot. It's not even close. Okay. And so at the point, you're thinking about life insurance.
(04:04): You're going to find out that your life insurance, whether it's term insurance or some type of permanent insurance is going to be a good bit less expensive than males. Okay. So disability coverage costs more for females and life insurance costs more for males. The catch is that most trainees, if you're a training physician, listening to this most trainees deal with disability insurance before they deal with life insurance and that's as it should be your, your greatest exposure as a late twenties, early thirties, mid thirties, physician male or female is disability way much greater than from a risk standpoint than death. Now, obviously the unforeseen can happen to anyone, but it's definitely wise or advisable for a trainee on a limited budget to be focused on their disability insurance as soon as possible. And then at some point down the road, they'll address their life insurance.
(04:58): And that's the point where our female clients realize that, okay, there's a lower cost that they're going to experience on the life insurance side. And I mentioned this to, to offer hope to female physicians that are looking at the cost of their disability and going, Hey, it costs more than, than I think it should in the long run. Again, we're going by statistics. And so there's a reason why it's more expensive in that reason should cause you to actually be more serious about securing private specialty coverage than less. Because if it costs more, that means the likelihood of you needing it or that much greater. But there's hope in that in the long run, it'll come out in the wash, so to speak. And so you'll pay more for your disability. You'll pay less for your life. And it's important to not miss the forest for the trees.
(05:49): You may have heard that saying the higher costs for disability coverage likely won't impact your ability to purchase a house. It likely won't impact your retirement. It likely won't impact where your children go to school. And so instead of a $120 a month for coverage, it might be one 60 a month, or, you know, it is more and I, and it's not my money. I understand that it's your money. And that's definitely something that you ought to review and analyze for your own situation. But in the grand scheme of things, if you work with a specialist, you can secure the maximum discounts possible with the top companies, and you're going to get the cost as low as possible for the best coverage on the market. And so I would urge you not to avoid insuring your most important asset, which is your ability to get up every day and go do your specialty.
(06:38): Earn a really good income. Don't miss insuring that asset or avoid that just to avoid a higher premium that will likely be offset in the future after you factor in life insurance as well out, this is helpful. I would be happy to discuss your particular situation in more detail. Please feel free to text me anytime to arrange a conversation or to ask questions. My number is (704) 270-2376. Again, that's (700) 427-0237 six. And again, I'd be happy to have a conversation about your circumstances any time until next time. This is Billy Gwaltney. Thank you as always for carving out a few.
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