More than half of full-time employees have not done any specific planning for their financial security and protection in the event of a disability. For those employees that have disability insurance coverage, only 52% overall believe that their coverage provides adequate protection.
This percentage is even lower for women. Although women account for almost two-thirds of group short-term disability insurance claim volume, only 43% of women feel that their disability coverage provides adequate protection. More than one-third of women admit they simply don´t know how to determine adequate coverage amounts. These findings are among the results of a recent national study by MetLife.
Disability insurance replaces a portion of an employee´s income if he or she is unable to work because of injury or illness. Maternity is a common claim covered under group disability plans. However, the survey also revealed that most women, even those of prime childbearing age, do not realize that disability plans cover maternity. According to the survey, 27% of women between the ages of 21 and 39 who are full-time employees do not think that maternity is covered while 45% are not sure.
"The findings of this survey are a strong wake-up call for the need to increase disability benefits education for employees," said Maria Morris, vice president of the group disability operations at MetLife, a leading disability carrier. "Because seven out of ten people between the ages of 35 and 65 will find themselves disabled during some point in their careers for at least three months, it is important that employees have a greater awareness of the role disability insurance can play in their financial and protection planning."
Employees should consider these main factors when evaluating their disability coverage:
More information about disability insurance can be found in "About Disability Insurance," a pamphlet that is part of MetLife''s award-winning Life Advice series. The pamphlet can be accessed on the Internet at www.lifeadvice.com. MetLife Disability also provides employers with communications support to help them educate their employees on the need for and importance of disability coverage.
MetLife´s 2002 Financial Freedom Study, a national employee survey, consisted of 1,038 online surveys for actively employed full-time employees, age 21 or older, who work at a companies that have a minimum of 50 employees. The survey was conducted in August 2002.
MetLife is the second largest group disability carrier in the industry with over $1.4 billion of premium and equivalents in force according to the 2001 U.S. Group Disability Sales and Inforce Survey by LIMRA International. MetLife has nearly 9,000 long-term disability customers and nearly 10,000 short-term disability customers, with over 4 million lives and over 200,000 claims managed in 2001. MetLife offers a complete portfolio of disability-related products, including short-term and long-term disability insurance, disability claim administrative services for self-insured customers, LTD reserve buy-outs, Integrated Disability Management, and FMLA Administration. MetLife continues to build on its expertise in this market and remains at the forefront of providing innovative disability, return-to-work, and productivity solutions.
MetLife also offers a broad portfolio of individual disability products, and is a top five individual disability carrier according to new business sales and inforce premium information from the 2001 LIMRA Individual Disability Income Issues and In Force Survey.
MetLife, a subsidiary of MetLife, Inc. (NYSE: MET), is a leading provider of insurance and other financial services to individual and institutional customers. The MetLife companies serve approximately 10 million individual households in the U.S. and companies and institutions with 33 million employees and members. MetLife also has international insurance operations in 13 countries. For more information about MetLife, please visit the company''s Web site at www.metlife.com