Disability (Long-term)

Long-term disability insurance is a type of insurance that provides income replacement for a person who becomes disabled and is unable to work for an extended period. Here are some key features of long-term disability insurance:

• Long-term disability insurance is designed to provide income replacement for an extended period of time, typically until retirement age.

• To be eligible for long-term disability benefits, an individual must be unable to perform the duties of their occupation due to injury or illness.

• Disability benefits typically replace a percentage of the individual's pre-disability income, usually ranging from 50-80%.

• The waiting period for long-term disability benefits can range from 30 days to 180 days, during which time the individual must be unable to work due to their disability.

• The benefit period for long-term disability insurance is usually 2, 5, or 10 years or until the individual reaches retirement age.

• The definition of disability varies among insurance policies, but typically requires the individual to be unable to perform the duties of their occupation for a certain period of time.

For example, let's say that John is a surgeon who has a long-term disability insurance policy. He injures his hand in a car accident and is unable to perform surgeries for an extended period. Because he is unable to perform the duties of his occupation, he qualifies for long-term disability benefits. His policy has a waiting period of 90 days and a benefit period until age 65. The policy provides a benefit of 60% of his pre-disability income.

Next Up

The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, known as ERISA, was enacted to protect employees from the mismanagement of benefits promised to them. It does that by imposing fiduciary duties on anyone who exercises discretionary authority over a benefit plan or its assets, from benefits committee members and HR leaders to the brokers and consultants who advise them.
The Supreme Court closed its October 2025 Term on June 30, 2026, and for once the biggest story for employee benefits is what the justices didn’t take up.
July brings one of our most substantial releases yet, with major updates across Insights+, Catalyst, and Vista. Insights+ is now faster and more efficient, with reports generated automatically the moment a request is submitted, along with real-time edits. Catalyst also gets significantly more powerful, with new AI-powered exports tailored to each employer, deeper visibility into commercial lines, and expanded AI assistant coverage into retirement and peer benchmarking. Vista makes report generation simpler and more flexible, building a broker-branded financial report from whatever benefits and carrier documents you have. Read on for the full details.