Disability Insurance: A Success Story and a Cautionary Tale
Written by Jill Viggiano
13 years ago, my husband Gordon, a healthy, no risk factor man, survived a massive stroke. It was the result of a spontaneous bilateral carotid artery dissection—one of those random, “struck by lightning” events. The stroke took away the use of the right side of his body, his ability to speak, his ability to organize his thoughts, and his memory.
Before the stroke, he had been an entrepreneur, a business creator, a problem solver, a man with boundless energy and capacity to work hard and succeed. We had built a beautiful life together. We were active in our community, we had lots of friends, we gave to our favorite charities, and we went to church on Sundays.
In a moment, it was all gone. In a moment, I became the caregiver to my severely disabled husband who was completely disconnected from reality while still trying to be mom to our traumatized adolescent children. Clearly Gordon could not work for a long time, if ever. He also couldn’t be left alone. There would be no more income. What was going to happen to us? Everyone looked to me for answers, but I had none.
It turns out that a big part of our story is disability insurance. When it comes to disability insurance, we are both a success story AND a cautionary tale. It is a bittersweet place to be.
30 years ago, Gordon and I met an insurance man named Jack. We invited him to our home and, feeling very responsible, we bought life insurance policies for both of us. That was all well and good but Jack was not satisfied. He insisted that life insurance was only part of the insurance picture. For us to be responsibly insured, we needed disability insurance.
We said what a lot of people say: “We are young and healthy. We take care of ourselves. Nothing is going to happen to us. And just through dumb luck, Gordon already had a small policy from my younger days so wasn’t I already covered??
Jack was undeterred. He went through the numbers with us and showed us that we were financially exposed. By the end of the evening, we had 2 life insurance policies AND another small disability policy.
Over the years, we looked at the premiums for those disability policies and asked ourselves “Why are we paying these? Nothing is going to happen to us!” But they weren’t that expensive and you never know, so we kept paying, just in case.
In March 2008, something stirred Gordon to reach out to our new insurance guy, Brad, and talk about increasing his disability coverage. He even went to Brad’s office and filled out the paperwork for a much higher value disability policy.
With this policy in place, if something happened and Gordon couldn’t work, we would still be financially set. We would be able to pay the mortgage, send the kids to college, and still have plenty of money to live on.
There was just one thing: we were in the process of having our taxes done and we weren’t sure what we were going to owe. We felt that once we had the taxes finished up, we would be ready to make the commitment. April 15th was only a few weeks away so Gordon held off on signing the policy and writing that first check.
A few days later, Gordon suffered a massive stroke and our lives were forever changed.
Our success story is that we had those old disability policies. The cautionary tale is that the policy that would have put us at ease, relieved some of the stress that total disability has brought, was left unsigned.
We are grateful for the policies we have. We were able to stay in our house and meet our financial obligations – with nothing left over. I was able to stay home with my husband, take care of him, and work with him on recovery. I was able to be there for the kids, who suffered just as much as we did. If we didn’t have those policies, our lives, our children’s lives, and Gordon’s recovery would certainly look very different than it does today.
So what does this have to do with you? What are the chances disability will be a factor in your lives? Here are some eye-opening statistics:
- Most people think their chances of becoming disabled is about 2%
- The real chance of becoming disabled is 25%--1 in 4 people will experience disability before they reach retirement age.
- Women are 5 times more likely to have a disability claim because women’s diseases present younger.
- 90% of disabilities are caused by illnesses, not accidents.
- Over half of all personal bankruptcies and foreclosures are a consequence of disability.
- Less than 5% of disability claims are work related so workers compensation does not apply in 95% of claims.
- No matter what your age, you are always more likely to become disabled than die.
Stroke changed our lives and disability insurance is paying for it. We tell anyone who will listen. But we didn’t have that insurance because we were so smart, we had it because we had a top-notch AGENT who refused to take no for an answer. He made all the difference.
Now, 14 years later, our good God has blessed us with far more than I could have ever imagined. We remain happily married. We have all we need. Our bills are paid and there is food on the table. Gordon has recovered far more than anyone thought possible. We have had opportunities to share our story and encourage people all across the country. Total strangers have told us we give them hope when they see us walking together, holding hands.
By taking away the life we knew, we had the opportunity to realign our thinking and our priorities. We are grateful for each day. We pray together every night. We have seen God’s hand in our lives. More importantly, other people have seen God’s hand in our lives. We thank him every day for taking such good care of us.
To learn more about protecting you and your family with disability insurance, call Roxanne at (503) 524-6974.
