Disability Insurance Benefit Tips

Disability insurance provides income protection in the event you become disabled. Disability benefits become payable after you have been continuously disabled for the entire benefit waiting period and remain continuously disabled. The unfortunate thing with long-term disability claims is that at any given time, the long-term disability carrier can make the determination that they no longer believe that you are...

The answer to this question depends on the level in which you win your disability case and the type of disability policy you have. Under most group (ERISA) and individual disability insurance policies you will not receive interest unless you win your case prior to the filing of a lawsuit. However, there are some disability companies that will pay interest if disability benefits have been delayed or wrongfully ...

Disability attorney Gregory Dell discusses why a claimant must be careful when returning the "medical authorization form" to their disability insurance company.You need to be extremely careful in returning these medical authorization forms to the long-term disability carriers. The disability carriers have the right to obtain any of you medical records that t...

A disability insurance company is not required to pay for any attorney fees or cost that are incurred during either the ERISA administrative appeal process or any pre-lawsuit matters. Attorney fees can only be awarded by a Court if a claimant wins their disability case after a lawsuit has been filed.

Disability attorney Gregory Dell discusses your ability to sue your disability insurance carrier for bad faith or punitive damages.Well, the answer to this question depends upon whether or not you have a claim governed by ERISA or you have an individual disability policy. Let's start with the easy one and probably the most unfair one. If you have a policy go...

Disability attorney Stephen Jessup discusses the benefits of hiring a disability attorney to submit your ERISA appeal.After your claim has been denied through an ERISA group policy, the most important part of your claim at that time is the actually filing of your appeal. When you receive your denial letter, the denial letter often says, "If you disagree, you...

Disability attorney Stephen Jessup discusses how difficult it can be for a claimant to determine their date of disability.Determining the date of disability can be a complicated process. Obviously, if you've been in a car accident or if you've had a heart attack, it's a little easier to determine that catastrophic event as to when it started. However, most p...

Disability attorney Stephen Jessup discusses the definition of "self reported condition limitations" in a group long term disability insurance policy.A self-reported symptom condition limitation are unfortunately starting to become more prevalent in group disability policies. This limitation is aimed at directly trying to limit usually to a 24-month period c...

Disability attorney Stephen Jessup discusses if a claimant's disability claim can be denied due to a pre-existing condition.Your long-term disability claim can be denied for a pre-existing condition; however, it's a very fact-specific analysis as to how it's going to happen. For instance, on a private policy you purchased on your own, if you failed to disclo...

Disability attorney Gregory Dell discusses what a residual disability income claim is and what a claimant should be aware of before filing a residual disability income claim.Residual disability is a complicated provision that's contained in many long-term disability policies. Many people will claim residual disability because of the fact that they're disable...

Disability attorney Gregory Dell discusses if a claimant is able to participate in volunteer work while collecting disability benefits from their disability insurance company.Many of our clients will ask us if they can engage in volunteer work while they're collecting long-term disability, and the answer really depends on the scope of how disability is defin...

We regularly hear, I think, whether it's from clients or anyone who is filing for social security disability claims that social security never approves anybody the first time. Is there any choice to that or what is your understanding from your years of experience of whether or not they actually do approve people?That's a very interesting question because there are many meritorious claims that get denied in...

Disability attorney Gregory Dell discusses whether a disability insurance company can require a claimant to undergo surgery in order to collect disability benefits.The disability carrier cannot require you to undergo surgery. There is always the exception of some disability carriers that might cite some random case where a particular claimant didn't undergo ...

On long term disability claims, insurance companies, whether it's on a private claim or on a group claim, they will require the claimant to turn in a form on a monthly basis and the doctor every two or three months just to make sure it's going - because they are going to evaluate the claim on a month to month basis to determine the payment of benefits. When it comes to social security, does social security hav...

Disability attorney Gregory Dell discusses how often a disability insurance company requires a claimant to treat with a doctor.The disability insurance company will have different expectations as to how long you should treat with your doctor based upon what your disabling medical condition is. There are two types of medical conditions that are disabling. It ...

One of the things that happens, that's most common, is that, we see claimants that are approved for social security disability, yet they are denied on their long term disability claim and we wanted to get an understanding of what's the definition of disability in order to be eligible under social security disability claims. So could you tell us a little bit about what's required in order to get approved for so...

Disability attorney Gregory Dell discusses the five most common reasons a long term disability insurance claim is denied.Claimants often ask me what are the most common reasons for a long-term disability claim denial, so I have put together a list of the most five common reasons:Number one is when you're definition of disability could change from any oc...

We see a lot in our claim denials of long term disability insurance claims that the claimants are denied only because they had subjective evidence of their disability and no objective evidence. Take for example somebody who has Fibromyalgia, which is a condition where there is really no objective evidence or tests that can show - hey, this person has fibromyalgia. Is there a similar type of high level denial o...

How long on an average does it take to get approved for a claim from when a claimant files his/her initial applications for social security disability?Social security has a duration of requirement. You have to have disability that lasts or is expected to last at least a month, excuse me, at least a year. If a person is out of work for let's say, only a couple of days, they can file for disability but socia...

Just about everybody who has a long term disability insurance policy that was issued by their employer which would be governed by ERISA is required to apply for social security disability. And if many of these people are denied, what is the appeal process for social security disability that a claimant would expect to go through and talk a little bit about the time frame and how that process works if they are d...