Disability Insurance Benefit Tips

In this episode we invited social security disability attorney Scott Bugay to discuss social security disability income claims. On a weekly basis we receive numerous phone calls from disability insurance claimants around the country that have questions related to social security disability income benefits (SSDI). Most group long term disability policies governed...

I recently came across some language in a Prudential Long Term Disability Policy which can be troublesome for disability claimants that are completely unable to work in their regular occupation. The Prudential Group Disability Policy I reviewed defines Disability as:You are unable to perform the material and substantial duties of your regular occupation due to your sickness or injury, and you have a 20% o...

The answer to this question depends on multiple factors. If your disability policy is governed by ERISA then the court will conduct an analysis to determine if an attorney's fee award should be granted. To learn more about this analysis please see our discussion on attorney fees for ERISA governed claims.If your claim is not governed by ERISA then an attorney fee award will usually depend on the attorney f...

The Standard Insurance Company sells multiple different long-term disability policies to dentist and other medical professionals. The difference in each policy is usually the definition of disability. In my opinion, the following definition of Own Occupation Disability sold by Standard is called an Own Occupation definition, but it is not a true Own Occupation policy. The following definition of Own Occupation...

We regularly receive this question from disability claimants. The answer is YES, attorney fees are recoverable in ERISA long-term disability claims, but they are not guaranteed and the award is discretionary with the judge. The statute that gives courts the discretion to award attorney fees is 29 USC 1132 (g)(1) and it states in pertinent part, "In any action under this subchapter (other than an action de...

Dell Disability Lawyers often battle with disability insurance carriers in determining whether bipolar disorder is a mental nervous condition or an organic brain disorder.In a long-term disability policy a mental nervous condition is usually limited to a maximum of 24 months of benefits; whereas a physical condition such as bipolar would usually not be limited to 24 months if it is proven to be an organic ...

The disability insurance companies are permitted to video tape you at anytime if you are in the public domain. This means that you have no right to privacy if you are out in public.If your claim has been denied because of disability video surveillance you need to hire an attorney that is skilled in demonstrating that the video surveillance has no relevancy to the requirements of working any job for 8 hours...

On April 7, 2010, the ABC Good Morning America ("GMA") show once again presented a story exposing the desperate actions of the Hartford Insurance Company. GMA's recent news story can be viewed at the right. Disability insurance companies are notorious for using video surveillance. Hartford is one of the country's largest long-term disability carriers.Hartford regularly relies on disability video surveillan...

In order to help avoid denial by a disability insurance company here are a few actions a claimant can take:See your treating physicians at least once every 3 months;Make sure your treating physician is documenting all of your restrictions and limitation in detail. It is not enough for your doctor say that you cannot work. Your medical records should be reviewed regularly.;Complete any diagnostic t...

Most group long-term disability policies contain a deductible source of income provision. It is very rare to see an individual long-term disability policy with a social security offset. A deductible source of income is also known as an offset.Social Security Disability Income benefits (SSDI) are almost always considered a deductible source of income. SSDI is only one type of deductible source of income com...

Everyone knows that generally speaking all insurance companies have their own attorneys. But with disability insurance policies in particular, it is even more important for a claimant to have a lawyer. The reason being, is that your disability policy is a contract. It is a contract that either you bought many years ago with hopes that you would never need it, or, it is a contract that you got from your employe...

When we are representing a client, I always tell the clients with the application process, that it's our job to:make sure everything gets to them in the appropriate manner;make sure we are preparing and presenting your claim so that we are able to help get them approved for benefits andhold the disability insurance carrier's feet to the fire so that they pay you during the time period that they are require...

I regularly get asked by claimants: well, does it raise some kind of a red flag, the fact that I have an attorney? And my response to all of these potential clients is that the disability insurance company has attorneys advising them and so you're able to as well.The other thing is that, you may not look at your policy like this; you're seeking hundreds of thousands of dollars through your insurance policy...

An own occupation provision, is the most favorable to an insured to have in a policy. With own occupation, the insurance company is going to constantly look at what job you were performing at the time you became disabled.What one needs to understand is, you may have bought the policy 20 years ago and you were practicing medicine at that time. However you had a change of careers, you decided you wanted to p...

With any occupation, the insurance company is going to look at, if you can perform a job based upon your education, training or experience with reasonable continuity. For instance, if you were a doctor, you no longer can be a doctor but you might be able to teach, any transferable skill in to another job.One thing that needs to be noted though, is just because you might be able to do it, the insurance comp...

Many people want to know how long it's going to take in filing an appeal on a claim that's governed by ERISA.Once you've received the denial letter, usually read through it, the shock and the first thought that comes to mind is, I can't believe they did this. Well, they provide you 180 days to answer, to follow your appeal. And 180 days seems like a lot of time, 6 months without pay can hurt anyone.How...

Almost all of the disability insurance companies write private disability policies and write group disability policies. The biggest private disability insurers in the country are probably Unum Corporation, MetLife, as well as Mass Mutual, and Northwestern Mutual. These four are probably the biggest companies in the country.The biggest group disability insurers in the country are Prudential Insurance Compan...

If your disability policy was offered to you by your employer as an employee benefit, then it is likely that the claim will be governed by ERISA. However, there are exceptions which again get into another complicated area. All disability policies issued to state and government employees are not governed by ERISA.One of the first things we do with every single disability claim is we try to figure out a way ...

ERISA is probably one of the most complicated Federal laws out there. It's comparable to the IRS Tax code that a lot of people don't understand. There are very few lawyers throughout the country that actually focus their practice on ERISA disability claims.There are penalties within the ERISA code against plan administrators or insurance companies if they don't provide documents within a certain number of ...

ERISA claims were designed so that companies could offer benefits more affordable to employees. The idea was that, by making it more difficult to get into court in the event of a dispute, it would cut down on the cost for an insurance company to defend claim denials.Essentially, the Government created a system that said you have to go back and appeal to the company at least once, if not twice, before you b...