Consultant Long-Term Disability Basics You Should Know

By Gregory Dell and Stephen Jessup

If you’re a management or strategic consultant looking to claim long-term disability insurance benefits, there are several key things to keep in mind before you submit your claim. Here at Dell Disability Lawyers, we have extensive knowledge of consultant long-term disability insurance claims and appeals. Having represented hundreds of consultants claiming disability benefits, we have considerable experience in helping them successfully submit disability benefit claims.

In this article, we share some of our insights and advice on consultant long-term disability insurance basics, the best strategies to implement as you prepare your claim, the most common pitfalls to avoid, and what to expect during the process.

Long-term Disability Claims for Consultants: Occupation Definition

As you prepare your long-term disability insurance claim as a consultant, keep in mind that clearly defining your occupation is one of the key factors for success.

Management and strategic consultants working for top-tier consulting companies are high-level, highly skilled professionals working in a very competitive environment. Typically, if you’re a consultant at one of the top firms, you likely work in a stressful, high-paced environment and have a variety of tasks from meeting clients, data analysis, strategy planning, interviewing employees, traveling to job or work sites, and attending countless meetings. The work hours are very long and incredibly time sensitive.

However, most disability insurance companies consistently overlook the nature of a consultant’s work and assume it’s a sedentary job with no or minimal physical demands.

This is one of the biggest pitfalls to watch out for as a consultant looking to claim long-term disability benefits.

Although your job as a consultant may include a wide variety of tasks you need to perform daily and to a high standard, insurance companies simply look up “consultant” in the broadest term and use that instead of looking at the nuances of your actual work duties.

Insurance carriers rarely look into the specifics of your job as a consultant and the industry you specialize in – and this, in turn, often leads to disability insurance denial because the insurance carrier will simply assume you’re sitting in your office all day long and therefore can continue despite your health condition.

This is why it’s crucial to be very specific in defining your occupation and detailing the day-to-day tasks you’re expected to perform. In addition, consultants often have employer-provided insurance policies, and those carriers rely heavily on the National Economy Standard of what a certain occupation is. Based on the National Economy Standard, the disability insurance carrier can say, “A consultant’s job is sedentary, and with your condition, you are able to sit at your desk six hours a day” – and deny your claim.

Much like doctors or lawyers, however, consultants have highly specialized and highly demanding jobs that cannot be defined in such broad and basic terms.

As a consultant, you must be on your A-game consistently, and you do not have the luxury of canceling a client meeting because you need a 15-minute break, missing a deadline, or refusing to travel since it may cost you an important account. Cognitive demands are high; you’re constantly interacting with clients, and your results are time and cost-sensitive, all of which are important factors in your occupation.

Keep in mind that disability insurance carriers will try to minimize this and will not consider how demanding and varied your job is.

Because of this, you need to present your occupation in as much detail as you can and be very specific about your day-to-day tasks and occupational duties. 

Use as many examples as you can detailing exactly what you do – otherwise, the disability insurance company might literally copy and paste a generic consultant job description from the national economy standard and claim that, based on that description, you are able to continue working.

Preparing Your Long-Term Disability Insurance Claim as a Consultant

Most consultants work on a salary (and perhaps yearly bonuses) that tend to remain the same or potentially increase over time, even if you have been suffering a chronic medical condition and working through it.

Because of this, it is difficult to show decreased income as a result of your condition, and the disability insurance carrier might claim that the condition, therefore, has not been a significant factor. They may ask: why are you claiming disability now if your salary hasn’t suffered? Most disability insurance companies will want to see proof in the form of poor work performance evaluations, missing a dramatic amount of work, or losing salary. If you have a chronic condition but your work performance, results, and salary have remained the same, you may want to think about ways to document how your condition has affected your work.

Perhaps you can start using your PTO (paid time off) to see your doctor so they can document the fact you haven’t been feeling well and need time off. Medical records are crucial when you’re preparing your long-term disability insurance claim, so be sure to visit your doctor and have them record any issues you may be having and, importantly, how those issues are impacting on your ability to work.

In other words, if you submit your claim without prior preparation, it may result in denied disability insurance. Instead of working through your condition and then submitting the claim, first document the issues you are having with a medical professional and make sure there are records of how your condition is affecting your work, especially if your salary or work performance has not suffered despite your condition.

This is especially important if you have an employer-provided, ERISA-governed disability insurance policy.

Here at Dell Disability Lawyers, we have represented consultants who work for firms like Price Waterhouse Coopers, EY, Bain, Boston Consulting, KPMG, Accenture and we have first-hand experience that often, even the best consulting firms don’t always have great disability policies, so it’s up to you to protect and prepare yourself.

Disability insurance carriers will always seek ways to deny disability benefit claims for consultants because they are high earners, which means the benefits are high, too.

This is why it’s incredibly important to have a solid plan before you submit your claim. The better you’re prepared, the bigger your chances of getting your long-term disability insurance benefits approved.

When to Get a Disability Insurance Attorney Involved

Navigating the process of claiming disability insurance can be daunting, and mistakes that seem minor are often costly. For example, we are currently working on an appeal for a young lady who worked at one of the top-tier consulting firms and whose claim got denied because of a simple technicality. 

Unfortunately, that’s very common: disability insurance companies will do their best to deny a claim. Because of this, the smart choice is to contact a disability insurance lawyer early on – in fact, even months before you’re thinking of filing a claim. The likelihood of a disability claim denial is very high if you simply stop working cold turkey without having previously carefully documented all the issues you have been having and how those issues have affected your performance and your ability to do your job.

A disability insurance attorney will help you create a roadmap to build your claim. In addition to insurance carriers trying to call you out on your occupational duties’ description or your salary or work performance records, they may also challenge your credibility.

For example, if you continue working through your condition for six months or, say, two years, the disability insurance carrier may claim they’ve looked at your social media profiles and found your story contradictory. They may even dig up a loan document you’d submitted where you’ve failed to mention any sicknesses or injuries. Even though it may have been an honest mistake or a misunderstanding, the insurance carrier will present this one little piece of information as proof of inconsistency in what you’re claiming. 

Moreover, if they get any inconsistent statements from your treating doctor, that could be a big issue. They do call the treating doctor, so it’s very important that your physician is adequately prepared. Your treating doctor must understand your occupational duties as a consultant; often, they do not, and that can result in a major roadblock. A disability insurance attorney will educate you on how to speak to your doctor so they understand what needs to be presented in the medical records and what to tell the insurance company when they inevitably call. In fact, it’s best to have the insurance carrier submit their questions to your doctor in writing so that there is no room for interpretation or misunderstandings.

Your disability insurance lawyer will work with the doctors and assist in the process to make sure there are no inconsistencies and that the doctors have full information and a complete picture at their disposal. 

We all know that doctors are busy people. We’ve seen cases where an in-house insurance company doctor sends a letter to the treating doctor, but they fail to reply. Then, the insurance company doctor may say, “We have reviewed the records, and if we do not get a response, we will find that you agree with our position”. All the while, the claimant has no idea, and the disability insurance claim ends up in denial, although this sort of mistake can be easily avoided.

We have seen this countless times: the big disability insurance carriers like UNUM, Hartford, MetLife, Cigna, New York Life, and the like insure some of the world’s biggest management and consulting firms. Here at Dell Disability Lawyers, we have extensive knowledge and experience of how to prepare solid long-term disability insurance benefits claim for consultants so they aren’t getting denied on a technicality or because they haven’t prepared well. 

We recommend browsing this site for more information on your specific disabling condition, insurance carrier, or occupation and using our resources to educate yourself on how to best prepare your claim. We have summarized hundreds of lawsuits, client reviews, and specific questions you may have to help you arm yourself with the best tools possible.

Alternatively, reach out for an initial free phone consultation. One of our experienced disability insurance attorneys will evaluate your case and let you know what we think of your claim and how we can best help you maximise the benefits under your policy. We serve clients all over the country, and we will do our best to get your benefits paid.