Going to a veterinary school is an investment that needs to be protected. Purchasing disability insurance for recently graduated veterinarians protects your income when you’re unable to work due to injury or illness. The insurance replaces your lost income, allowing you to focus on recovery and rehabilitation. Here’s how you and your family will benefit from disability insurance for veterinarians:
Protects Income
As a veterinarian, you may travel to farms, homes, and other places to treat, calm, and comfort sick, injured, or anxious animals. Such visits expose you to various risks, including road accidents and needle-related injuries. Animals can also bite, scratch, or knock you down. Other risks include bacterial and viral infections from bodily fluids. Lifting animals and certain other movements are strenuous. Your income depends on your ability to practice, and illness or injury that keeps you from working will quickly cause financial issues.
Investing in disability insurance for recently graduated veterinarians protects you from income loss. The insurance pays a portion of your income as you recover from the injury, illness, or medical condition. Insurance providers offer short-term and long-term coverage. Short-term disability insurance covers temporary conditions, such as surgeries, fractures, and mental health issues. Long-term disability coverage is designed for individuals with extended, chronic, or permanent disabilities. The benefits offer funds to cover mortgage, rent, food, utility, and other expenses. Some policies cover your student loan, while others increase your benefits over time.
Preserves Savings
Disability insurance offers a safety net for short-term and long-term conditions that prevent you from working. If you’re the primary earner, injury or illness can put the whole family in a financial crisis. Disability insurance provides a portion of your income to help you cover family expenses. The insurance reduces withdrawals from other safety nets, such as emergency funds, retirement contributions, and investment portfolios. Without disability insurance, you may quickly exhaust savings, especially if the situation lasts for years.
Disability insurance offers enough income to cover student loans, mortgages, childcare, and other costly expenses that can deplete household finances. Taking care of these expenses allows you to maintain a home and potentially pay for your children’s education despite not being able to work. You can choose an own occupation policy, which allows you to transition into other fields without losing your disability benefits. With such a policy, you’ll be able to diversify income streams and even manage to continue with your savings plan.
Increases Benefits
Choosing disability insurance with the future increase option allows you to grow your benefits over time. Your salary naturally increases with years of experience, advanced organizational roles, and an expanding professional network. Disability insurance policies reflect such changes in your income by increasing your benefits. Choose coverage with guaranteed renewal to prevent the insurance company from canceling your plan or changing your premium. You can also find coverage for profession-specific disabilities.
Such policies allow you to make money in other ways while receiving disability benefits related to your specified profession. If you’re a surgeon with a hand injury that keeps you from performing surgeries, you can still teach veterinary medicine in colleges. The disability insurance will continue to pay and increase benefits based on the income you would’ve earned as a surgeon. Disability benefits are also inflation-adjusted to reflect current prices and economic conditions. Raises for disability benefits protect your ability to provide for your family.
Maintains Business
If you own your practice or have a few assistants under you, get disability insurance with business overhead expense coverage. Running a private practice exposes you to additional risks because you have to pay staff salaries, office rent, equipment leases, and utilities. The business probably contributes to your family’s income and savings, and losing it can be unfortunate. Disability insurance allows you to continue paying for business expenses, which keeps the practice afloat. You can focus on recovery and return to a functional, profitable business.
Even if you can’t return to work, the business will continue running, allowing you to sell under favorable conditions. Selling a running practice may potentially provide you with enough funds to invest in other income streams or facilitate your transition into new fields. Protecting the business and its employees helps mitigate the mental and emotional stress that may arise from uncertainty.
Find Disability Insurance for Recently Graduated Veterinarians
Disability can occur at any time, including immediately after graduating from veterinary school. The ideal time to obtain insurance is before or immediately after graduation, or when you begin your apprenticeship. Consult an experienced provider today to find out more about disability insurance for newly graduated veterinarians.