Let me ask you a question or two.
What if you called our office looking for medical and dental benefits for you and your family because you didn’t have any?
And, our office found you a package for say, $150 per month covering medical drugs, semi private hospital, and dental care. Okay.
And you paid your premium for months, but then all of a sudden you got sick.
Still with me? Okay, good….
So now you are sick, and it looks like it is pretty serious, so you get your spouse to talk with the company you work for and they work out how much you will receive income wise when you are off on long term disability.
You have a mortgage and a family, and basically you needed every bit of your income to make it every month.
They give you the news…..your net pay will be about half of what you made net before. Is that okay?
You panic, and then you wonder why you were spending the $150 per month for a “benefit” plan if you could no longer afford to keep it.
You call me up and explain the situation, and I advise you that the plan you were so adamant to buy does not have an income replacement feature, and it therefore cannot make up the 50% loss of wages.
You become even more distraught and you realize that you can no longer even afford to pay for the insurance you bought in case you got sick (which you now are) because you won’t be receiving enough money. What a nightmare.
What went wrong?
What went wrong is that if I didn’t ask you pertinent questions to first ensure your income would be enough if sick or disabled I would have failed you from the start.
When you called in originally for a benefit plan, “my job” would have been to screen out your current circumstances to see where you would be in the event you ended up where you did – disabled and sick, or injured. The bottom line is that you could no longer work to produce an income to live on.
I wouldn’t have done my job because I know that the likelihood of a disability is far greater than dying before age 65, and without income the bills (including health insurance) will not get paid.
I would not have done my job because the chances are you will earn millions of dollars in your lifetime, and it takes money to live. I would have failed you as your benefit advisor if we didn’t take the time to look at what would happen if you got into the situation you got into – not out of fault – but out of circumstance.
So when you come to me looking to spend $150 per month on a benefit program, please excuse me for caring, and ensuring that we know what will happen if you get to a point where you need some serious drug coverage.
It is not my job for you to appreciate my concern, but it is my duty to try to go over these important areas with you.
And I share that responsibility with my business partner, Nanette Gozutok. She is at extension 204, and I am at extension 201.
Pull up a chair, pour yourself a coffee, and give us a call. We want to hear about your situation, and discuss your needs.