Disability Insurance

They can be if set up properly. For instance, if you are a business owner you would take out a DI plan as a Business Overhead Expense policy. The benefits are used to pay the lease or mortgage, utilities, salaries, insurance, etc. You benefit directly as your business stays afloat and profitable and you continue to get the income. You write off the premiums as a business expense so therefor it works out free or nearly free. Add the extra bonus of a Return of Premium rider and you get all your money back at the end of the policy thereby giving your self a huge retirement bonus that in essence cost you nothing!

It may be if it were paid up or if you have continued making payments or you directed the dividends to make the payments for you. You would need to find the company or whoever bought them, call and ask. It's that simple.

a person that cant function right or a person that cant do one that a normal person / healthy person can do

yea dude

Short term disability will pay benefits for a defined period of time, provided you are unable to work due to medical reasons.

Social Security Disability will cover you if you are permanently disabled. You can collect both. Your private coverage may offset the SSD benefit.

Yes

Assess the economic facts: your earnings before the disability, your living expenses such as housing, utilities, taxes, etc (not discretionary i.e., premium cable channels, restaurant dining, etc), and your earnings after the disability. Now do the math. Obviously the cost of your living does not change. The hard reality is only your income changes; and we know this is less due to one's handicapped skills. The gap that has to filled to meet your needs means you need "gainful employment" to eliminate the deficit spending situation. Gainful employment is much easier said than done unless you are a stock market guru, an exceptionally creative talent, a famous artistic, a supreme intellectual, a political power mogul, or want to slave at 2 or 3 jobs over 40 hours a week. When you have income that covers your needed expenses or more you are now "gainfully employed". If your gainful employment generates more income than your expenses you now can enjoy "discretionary income". The discretionary income can be spent on luxuries such as dining out, vacations, memorable gifts, premium cable channels, a new car, etc. Some gainfully employed earners prefer to save their discretionary income.

Five states have mandatory short term disability insurance: CA, HI, NJ, NY, and RI. The other 45 do not have state plans, but you can purchase a private policy through your employer.

California SDI replaces 55% of your income for 52 weeks, up to a maximum of $949 per week in 2009.

only if your school district participates in the state plan.

If you are paying them for your employees as part of their compensation package, yes, it is a business expense. If it is for yourself, no, it is not a business expense, but it is usually tax deductable under medical costs.

yes

Yes, essentially Short Term DI fills in the gap during the elimination period for LTDI

YES

Depends. If you paid the premiums with after-tax dollars, then the payouts are tax-free. However, if your employer paid them and did not dedcut them from your pay, then your payouts are taxable. In addtion to that, if you split the cost of the premiums with your employer, and your half was paid with after-tax dollars, than the same percentage your employer paid is the percentage of payout that becomes taxable.

Cancer is one of the leading causes of disabilities. You may be eligible for benefits under your long term disability policy if your cancer prevents you from performing your work duties.

Florida does not have state disability. Their are only five states that do: CA, HI, NJ, NY, and RI.

You can live anywhere in the US and do well if you have a disability. Depending on the disability, you can get disability insurance. Disability insurance is figured by your work history and if you get approved.

Whether or not private disability insurance BENEFITS are subject to Federal income tax is based primarily on whether the PREMIUMS for that coverage were paid with pre-tax or post-tax dollars, by whom, and for how long.

DISABILITY COVERAGE PURCHASED OUTSIDE OF WORK

If you bought your own (non-group) disability insurance on your own -- that is to say, the plan was not sponsored by your employer/funneled through a business AND you paid the premiums all yourself -- then it's generally pretty simple: the benefits that policy pays out should not be taxable. This is because you were not allowed to deduct the premiums from your taxes (the IRS wouldn't let you), and since the premium was paid with post-tax income you will not be required to pay taxes on the benefits. Which is a pretty good deal.

DISABILITY COVERAGE PURCHASED THROUGH WORK

If the disability policy was purchased through a business (i.e. your employer), then it gets a little more complicated. In a nutshell, if the premiums were paid using after-tax income (AND that's been true for the three years immediately prior to your disability), then your benefits will be tax-free. Conversely, if the premiums were paid using pre-tax income (AND that's been true for the three years immediately prior to your disability), then your benefits will reportable as taxable income. If the way it was paid CHANGED during the three years leading up to the disability, then you need to refer to the "Three Year Rule", a set of IRS Regulations that explain how to pro-rate the percentage of benefit that is taxable in your specific situation.

Thanks to Section 125 Cafeteria/Premium Only "POP" Plans, it is often difficult for an employee to determine on his or her own what portion of the premiums were paid on a pre- vs. post-tax basis, so it is best to ask your employer. They can then go to the insurance carrier, their insurance broker, or their tax adviser to provide you with the information you need. If you are already receiving disability benefits, contacting the insurance carrier who issued your policy is probably your best source, since they would have verified the taxability of the benefit at the time they set up your claim (and if it IS taxable, ask them about withholding options so you are stuck with a huge tax bill come April!). Also, at the end of the year, the income you receive will appear on a W-2 Form either as taxable or non-taxable income. If you have reason to believe this was calculated in error or you wish to understand the rationale used, you should go to whomever issued the W-2 for more information.

On a slight tangent, a trend in the last several years is for the employer to allow each employee to CHOOSE whether their premiums are paid with pre- vs. post-tax monies. Each employee decides for themselves as to whether they should pay a little extra tax now and have a federal income tax-free benefit (should one be payable at a future time) or else chose to NOT pay tax on the premium now, thereby seeing to it that any benefits payable at a future time will be taxable. If given that opportunity, any accountant or insurance broker will tell you to ALWAYS choose to pay the little bit of extra taxes up front. The potential tradeoff is huge. Choosing to save a few dollars a year now in exchange for paying a ton of taxes later is the very definition of "penny wise and pound foolish" and is the rare tax break that you should try to avoid taking.

Many larger companies offer paid maternity leave to employees whereby the employee is granted full pay for a period of time (generally 3 months) while out of work with the newborn. Any complications that cause the employee to miss work before delivery or beyond the maternity leave period after delivery result in a loss of income for days or even months.

It means that the duration of your disability has been extended. The context of this would depend on who was telling you this, for example, your physician, your insurance company, your employer, etc.

Workers compensation protects your income and provides medical care related to workplace related accidents and sicknesses.

Short term disability insurance protects your income for off the job accidents and sicknesses.

The elimination period defines how quickly benefits begin after becoming disabled.

statue of limitations for filing suit against bad faith disability payments