{"id":148,"date":"2017-10-04T20:37:03","date_gmt":"2017-10-04T20:37:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wyomingtraining.com\/subject-matter-minute-blog\/?p=148"},"modified":"2017-10-12T15:16:36","modified_gmt":"2017-10-12T15:16:36","slug":"episode-8-short-long-term-disability-insurance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/wyomingtraining.com\/subject-matter-minute-blog\/episode-8-short-long-term-disability-insurance\/","title":{"rendered":"Subject Matter Minute, Episode #8 – Short & Long Term Disability Insurance"},"content":{"rendered":"

The below post is taken from the Video Blog, the Subject Matter Minute. If it’s a little hard to read, it’s because it’s taken from the spoken word. You can view the episode on YouTube if you would like. Find it here:\u00a0Episode #8 –\u00a0Short & Long Term Disability Insurance<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

If YouTube is blocked for you or your agency, you can scroll to the bottom of this post to view it from Google Drive.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

You can also listen to an audio version: Episode #8: <\/a>Short & Long Term Disability Insurance<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Subject Matter Minute. If you’re new here, my name is Matt Nagy and I work for A&I… more specifically HRD or\u00a0Human Resources Division. I’m a trainer. Thanks for joining us, and if you\u00a0like what you see in here, please pass
\nthe word to your coworkers!<\/p>\n

Before we get started… like usual, I want to thank our subject matter expert from\u00a0last month who was Employees’ Group Insurance, or EGI. We’re gonna be\u00a0hitting them up a lot… they are going to be my subject matter expert a lot\u00a0because they deal with a ton of our benefits. There’s\u00a0some other stuff but they are the go-to for a lot of them, so thanks again EGI, your a whole crew down there… appreciate what you’ve been doing and appreciate\u00a0your hard work!<\/p>\n

I want to go into my background a little bit again. I am a child of the 80s. I went to high school in the\u00a080s… graduated in 88, so you know what that means? Yes, I loved hair bands… big\u00a0time. I still do to a certain extent. I was in Casper a lot\u00a0because Casper was the cultural hub of the hair band era! They somehow brought\u00a0in all the bands that mattered… we’re
\ntalking Slaughter, Cinderella, Guns and\u00a0Roses, Bon Jovi… they brought them all in. So I was in Casper and I probably rubbed\u00a0shoulders with a bunch of you folks out there! You know it’s true, we all\u00a0loved them.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Bon Jovi – One of many hair bands that rocked the 80s!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At the time, a lot of people had really long hair. I\u00a0was too lazy to grow out long hair so instead, I did with a lot what a lot of\u00a0lazy people did at that time and I went with the mullet. Yeah\u00a0pretty hot…<\/p>\n

And, if you ask my wife or a lot of my\u00a0friends they would attest to the fact
\nthat I kept it all at way past its\u00a0period of usefulness… way past when I
\nshould have. However, I really liked it, I\u00a0enjoyed having some hair, and now since I don’t anymore…<\/p>\n

Eventually I’ll probably be blading it all off\u00a0because this is getting really thin… it’s that natural progression.<\/p>\n

Big shout out\u00a0to the Casper folks and the Casper Event
\nCenter for getting me in trouble in my\u00a0youth and allowing me to sneak off to concerts… it was a lot of fun.<\/p>\n

All right\u00a0we’ve got to get to the subject at hand… this month we’re going to be covering\u00a0short term disability and long term disability insurance.<\/p>\n

First, like\u00a0usual, I need to thank this month’s subject matter expert which, again, is EGI or Employees’ Group Insurance. This is another one of the items in their\u00a0boathouse. Especially Pam… Pam helped me out, got\u00a0all this information to me, and i really appreciate it… thanks Pam.<\/p>\n

Basically short term disability and long term disability insurance will cover\u00a0your income in the case of you getting disabled in one way or another. I think I’d better clarify and say that actually they cover a portion<\/strong> of your income, but\u00a0I’ll get into that later. If something happens, and you’re\u00a0unable to work, what would you do without
\na paycheck? That’s what this\u00a0is for.<\/p>\n

First, let’s go over how it works. Let’s talk about short term disability. Short term disability will cover your income up to 66 2\/3 percent.. don’t ask me why it’s that strange number. \ud83d\ude42 It starts at 14 days after you
\nbecome disabled. It’s short term\u00a0in that it covers the short term. It starts at 14 days and goes\u00a0through a hundred and eighty days, which is six months. There is a cap… I believe it’s $1,500\u00a0a week or six thousand dollars a month. This doesn’t really come into play\u00a0for most of us because if you’re making six thousand dollars a month at 66\u00a0 2\/3 percent you’re making good coin… congratulations! But most of us don’t\u00a0need to worry about the cap.<\/p>\n

Long-term disability is just what\u00a0it says… it’s for the longer term. If you have both short term\u00a0and long term, long term starts when short term ends. Short term ends at six months (180 days)\u00a0and that’s\u00a0when long term disability starts. If you don’t have short term then long term\u00a0starts at six months. It can go up to three and a half years but that depends on your age. If if that comes into play, go ahead and look down in the notes below the show and you’ll see how it breaks down. Basically, as you get\u00a0older, the long term disability lasts a shorter amount of time.<\/p>\n

There’s some differences… long term disability is at sixty percent of\u00a0your income, so you’re making a little bit less. The premiums are less as\u00a0well. You’re only getting sixty percent of your income. The cap on\u00a0long-term disability is sixty-five hundred dollars a month, so a little bit\u00a0more, but again, if you’re reaching that… good for you! Most of us are not.<\/p>\n

As a quick recap short-term disability pays from fourteen days after the\u00a0disability to six months, and it gives you 66 2\/3 of your\u00a0income. Long term disability starts at six months and goes to potentially three\u00a0and a half years at sixty percent of your income.<\/p>\n

I need to back up a\u00a0little bit… if you sign up as a new employee within 31 days of eligible\u00a0eligibility, you’re good to go, but if you don’t and you decide to sign up later, there’s a couple differences. With short-term disability, if you get\u00a0disabled in the first 12 months then you’re going to have a 60-day waiting\u00a0period in that first year… just for signing up after\u00a0the 31 days of eligibility.<\/p>\n

The difference\u00a0with the long term disability is substantial in that if you don’t sign up\u00a0as a new employee in that 31 days – you sign up later – you have to go through the company\u00a0that actually gives us this insurance, and you might get turned down. So it pays, if you\u00a0think you’re gonna need these sorts of things, to do it when you’re a new\u00a0employee within the first 31 days.<\/p>\n

A\u00a0couple more things… first of all\u00a0your premiums (premium calculators: Short Term<\/a> \/ Long Term<\/a>) come out post-tax so these aren’t lowering your taxable\u00a0income… they come out after tax. But when you get paid, if you’re disabled, that money is\u00a0untaxed income. There’s a trade-off there I\u00a0guess.<\/p>\n

There’s one more item that I forgot to mention early. With\u00a0short term disability you have to use up all your sick leave first. So really, short term disability is for somebody who has a low accrual of sick leave or\u00a0uses it often enough that it’s always gonna be a low pile of hours. You are going to have to use that sick leave first and that shortens the\u00a0amount of time that you can do short term disability. If you are unable to keep a nice balance of sick leave then short term disability is a\u00a0good idea; if you have a ton of sick leave, which a lot of longtime employees\u00a0do, long term disability might be a better idea. So once again here is a link (short term<\/a> \/ long term<\/a>) to figure out what your premium would be for both short term and\u00a0long term. It’s not very expensive… especially long term. I think I figured\u00a0out mine was six or seven bucks a month or something like that, and of\u00a0course it’s based on your income and your age.<\/p>\n

I think this episode\u00a0is a little bit shorter than they’ve been in the past (shorter? not even close) I hope I got you all the information that you need. If not, look down on the notes first because we’re gonna post some more stuff down\u00a0there. You can also call EGI with questions<\/p>\n

Feel free to comment below. Feel free to email me. If you have questions, make sure you get them answered.<\/p>\n

I think that’s good for this month. I’ll\u00a0see all you eighties children and the
\nrest of you next time! Please come back\u00a0and see the next episode and thanks for watching the Subject Matter Minute.<\/p>\n

Here is the full episode!<\/strong><\/p>\n