The said study arises from a survey of more than 2,000 workers all over the United States. The survey findings suggest that a great number of American wage earners remain unprepared for the present shift in employment benefits, as more employers provide the workers an option to purchase group benefits like disability, life, vision, and dental insurance.
According to the Voluntary Benefits’ vice president, Robert E. Klein, Jr., Americans should understand the financial risks of long-term disability and learn more to mitigate said risks. Klein explained that among ten couples, three of them are more likely to have partners who will experience a long-term disability lasting a year or even longer during their career lifetime.
In a news resource, the study revealed its major findings which are quoted below:
• Approximately one third of surveyed American wage earners lack long-term disability insurance.
• Over a third of workers whose employers give them an option to purchase group long-term disability insurance refused to avail it, making them uninsured.
• Workers who do not avail group voluntary long-term disability coverage fall into three classifications: the one that doesn’t think the risk justifies the amount paid for insurance, the one that hasn’t considered the matter and still remains blind to solutions, and the one that finds the thought of disability not too good to accept.
• Workers under golden age, minorities, men, and tech workers are more possibly to have availed long-term disability insurance than other respondents of the said study.
• Most workers don’t understand major features of long-term disability insurance and fail to realize how monthly disability benefits may raise living expenses.
Michael E. Shunney, the senior vice president and general manager for Sun Life Financial’s U.S. Employee Benefits Group Division, is quite bothered since most employers are shouldering less and less of the overall group long-term disability insurance. Therefore, workers within the country must take preventive measures in mitigating the financial risk of long-term disability. Shunney said that as the study revealed, wage earner don’t always think logically when they consider their risks.
A Los Angeles long term disability lawyer, as he had previously observed, agrees with the said study that more and more American wage earners nowadays disregard the benefits of long-term disability insurance. Definitely, wage earners have to be aware on how to protect themselves as well as their families against income deficit brought by a long-term disability.
Meanwhile, authors of the said study anticipate that the said survey will be noted by American wage earners to encourage them to plan for their financial security.
