Disability insurance glossary
The terms that actually show up in a policy or a conversation with a broker, defined plainly.
Any-occupation
The weakest common disability definition: pays only if you can't work in any job reasonably suited to your education and experience, not just your specialty. Most group LTD plans use this, often after an initial own-occupation period.
Benefit period
How long a policy keeps paying once a claim is approved and ongoing — commonly options like 5 years or to age 65. Longer benefit periods cost more but leave less exposure if a disability outlasts the shorter option.
Catastrophic disability rider
Pays an additional benefit on top of the base policy for the most severe disabilities — typically triggered by an inability to perform several activities of daily living or a severe cognitive impairment.
COLA (cost-of-living adjustment) rider
Increases your monthly benefit over time, usually tied to inflation, while you're actively on claim — so a benefit that starts adequate doesn't lose real value during a long claim.
Comdex score
An industry-standard composite ranking (0-100) of an insurance carrier's financial-strength ratings from the major rating agencies. Higher generally indicates stronger claims-paying ability over the long term.
Conversion privilege
A provision, mainly relevant to group or GSI coverage, allowing you to convert to an individual policy without new medical underwriting if you lose eligibility for the original group plan — terms vary by carrier and program.
Coverage adequacy score
This site's own 0-100 metric: existing coverage (group LTD plus any individual policy) as a percentage of the recommended target benefit, capped at 100. A quick visual for how much of the gap is already closed — not an underwriting score.
Coverage gap
The difference between a recommended target monthly benefit and what you already have in force. This site's calculator computes it as target minus existing group LTD and individual coverage combined.
Elimination period
The waiting period after a disability begins before benefits start being paid — common options are 60, 90, or 180 days. Shorter elimination periods cost more; a longer one lowers premium if you have savings to bridge the gap.
Future Increase Option (FIO) rider
Lets you increase your coverage amount later, as income rises, without new medical underwriting. Especially relevant for residents and fellows buying a policy before their income catches up to attending-level pay.
Group long-term disability (LTD)
Disability coverage provided through an employer, typically replacing around 60% of salary, often capped in dollar terms, and taxable if the employer paid the premiums.
Guaranteed renewable
A policy provision meaning the carrier can't cancel your coverage or change the benefits as long as you pay premiums on time, though the carrier can still raise rates for an entire class of policyholders.
Guaranteed Standard Issue (GSI)
Individual disability coverage offered through specific residency or fellowship training programs with no medical exam or health questions. Available only during training, and the enrollment window closes permanently at graduation. See the full GSI guide.
Individual disability insurance
A policy you own personally rather than one provided through an employer. Premiums are typically paid with after-tax dollars, which is why benefits are received tax-free — unlike most employer-paid group LTD.
Mental/nervous limitation
A common policy provision capping how long benefits are paid (often 24 months) for disabilities primarily caused by a mental health or substance-related condition, rather than paying to the full benefit period.
Modified own-occupation
Pays if you can't perform your specialty's material duties, but only if you also aren't working in any other occupation. Cheaper than true own-occupation, but the benefit stops if you take a different job — even one unrelated to your original specialty.
Multi-life discount
A premium discount available when multiple people at the same institution or practice buy individual policies through the same program — common in GSI and residency-program contexts.
Non-cancelable
A stronger protection than guaranteed renewable: the carrier can't cancel the policy, change the benefits, or raise the premium at all, as long as premiums are paid on time. The premium is locked for the life of the policy.
Occupation class
A carrier's risk classification for a given specialty, based on perceived injury and claims risk. It affects both pricing and, in some cases, which own-occupation definitions are available — surgical and procedural specialties are often classified differently than primarily cognitive specialties.
Own-occupation (true own-occupation)
Pays a benefit if you can't perform the material duties of your specific specialty, even if you go on to work and earn income in a different field. The strongest common disability definition, generally available only on individual policies.
Portability
The ability to keep a policy in force, unchanged, when you change employers or practice settings — a defining feature of individual (including GSI) policies that group LTD doesn't have.
Presumptive disability
A provision that treats certain severe losses — such as sight, hearing, speech, or the use of two limbs — as an automatic total disability, without requiring proof you can't work, often with an accelerated start to benefits.
Recurrent disability provision
Lets a new disability from the same or a related cause, within a specified period after returning to work, be treated as a continuation of the original claim rather than a brand-new elimination period.
Residual / partial disability rider
Pays a partial benefit if you can still work but at reduced capacity or income, typically once a disability causes roughly a 15-20% or greater income loss (threshold varies by carrier). Without it, many policies pay nothing short of total disability.
Student loan rider
An add-on offered by a small number of carriers that pays an additional benefit specifically earmarked toward student loan payments during a claim, on top of the base disability benefit.
The 24-month trap
A common group LTD structure where the policy pays under an own-occupation definition for the first 24 months of a claim, then automatically switches to the stricter any-occupation standard — sometimes ending benefits even though the medical condition hasn't changed.
Transitional own-occupation benefit
A provision, notably offered by Principal, that bridges pre- and post-disability income if a claimant has to change careers entirely — paying based on the income difference rather than cutting off once any new work begins.
Want the fuller explanation behind a few of these? See own-occupation vs. any-occupation, riders explained, and how GSI works.